Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1833-05-29

"dteh was HIdue OH tne iolloWlnS nlSnI. AT
suitable hour, the somnambulisl was seen to
quit his bed, to pass through sky light win
dow to the roof of the house, & enter by another
window, garnet that was locked, and to return
shlrtless to his lair. The garnet was examined,
and the thousand and-one shirts were found
carefully wrapped up, and deposited in pyra-
mid. The actions of the somnambuist were
not, in this case, the subject of a dream; other
wise it is not probable that it would have been
forgot in the morning.
The case of the nobleman mentioned BY
Hortius, who lived in the city of Breslau, and
robbed in his sleep magpie's nest, possesses a
different kind of interest. In the morning he
mentioned this event to his brother, as having
occurred in his dream, and he could not be per
suudcd that his brother saw him escape by
window, walk along the roof of the house, tear
The magpie's nest in pieces, and wrap the young
birds in his cloak till his cloak was actually
brought 20 him, containing the young maggie,
One of the most interesting cases we have
met with has been described by Dr.. Aber>
cromble as having come under his own obser-
vatIoD. The patient was young lady, and
the paroxysms occurred repeatedly during the
day, and generally continued from ten minutes
to an hour at a time. Without any previous
indications, her body became motionless, her
eyes fixed and insensible, though open, and
she was totally unconscious of external im-
pressldns. These paroxysms have often come
on when she was playing on the piano forte
and when this happened, she went on playing
over and over again part of tune with per-
tect correctness, but without advancing beyond
q rfoI,, Al.
assailed her when she had just commenced to
play from the book piece of mnsic entirely
new to her. She continued the part which she
had played, and with the greatest accuracy she
repeated it five or six times; but when the pa
roxysm was at an end, she could not play it
without the book.
There are many authentic cases Of persons
being able to perform pieces of vocal music
during their sleep, which they are unable to d.,
when awake, and of exhibiting feats of me
mory and judgment of an unusual kind. The
lady who is mentioned in the Edinburgh Jour
nal of Science, as subject to the spectral lllu-
sions, is described as being subject to talk in
her sleep with great Auency, to repeat poetry
much at length, particularly when unwell, and
even to cap verses for half an hour together,
never failing to quote lines beginning with the
final letter of the preceding, till her memory is
exhausted.
Martinez, as quoted by Dr. Abercrombie, has
described the case of a watchmaker's appren,
tice, who fell into one of these paroxysms once
ia fortnight; but who, though insensibIe to all
external Impressions, performed his work with
his usual skill, and was always astonished at
the advancement made in his work when he
recovered. The paroxysm began with sense
of heat, extending from the epigastrium to the
head. This was followed by confusion of
thought and complete insensbility, the ewes
remaining open with fixed and vacant stare
The case terminated in epilepsy
Mr.. Crombe, as cited by Dr. Abercrombie,
has referred to remarkable case described by
Major Elliot, professor Of mathematics in the
Academy of West Point, in America, A young
lady, of a cultivated mind, recovered from an
attack Of somnolency nth the loss of all her
acquired knouledge.-She Immediately began
the first elements of education, and had made
considerable progress, when a fit of somnoencv
restored to her the knowledge of which the
first had deprived her, but obIterated all reco-
lection of what had taken place during the in
terval. third attack left her again in state
of ignorance; and these alternate intellectual
conditions occurred during period of four
years, with the extraordinary circumstance,
that when in the one state she retained all her
original knowledge, but, when in the other, she
retained only what she had acquired since the
first attack. In the interval of health, for ex~
ample, her penmanship was beautiful but du-
ring the paroxysm, she wrote ga poor awkward
hand."-Persons introduced to her during the
healthy interval she recognized only during a
subsequent healthy interval, and not during
the paroxysnl, and pice rersa
DR.. Prchard mentions lady subject to
frequent attacks OF delrium, who, at the close
of the attack, Instantly resumed the conversa-
ton in the middle of which she was attacked
and sometimes completed sentence which had
been left unfinished, and Mr.. Combe mentions
a porter, who, IN a state of intoxication left
parcel at the wrong house, and could not recol-
lect what he had done with it till the next time
he got drunk.
The phenomena of somnambuism, and of
other states Of the mind closely related to it,
are beyond the province of human reason.
NULLIFIC ATION.-ln some parts of South
Carolina the ladies have formed themselves
into companies of invincibles, with uni
form of frock coats and pantaloons; an east
ern editor says that the union men can new