Erasmus Darwin

“ Dreams constitute the most complete kind of delirium. As in these no external irritations are attended to, and the power of volition is entirely suspended; so that the sensations of pleasure and pain, with their associations, alone excite the endless trains of our sleeping ideas ”

“ The perpetual flow of ideas in delirium is owing to the same circumstance, as of those in our dreams; namely, to the defect or paralysis of the voluntary power; as in hemiplagia, when one side of the body is paralytic, and thus expends less of the sensorial power, the limbs on the other side are in constant motion from the exuberance of it. Whence less sensorial power is exhausted in delirium, than at other times, as well as in sleep ”

“ The drunken delirium is in nothing different from the delirium attending fevers except in its cause, as from alcohol, or other poisons. When it is attended with an apoplectic stupor, the pulse is generally low; and venesection I believe sometimes destroys those, who would otherwise have recovered in a few hours. ”