The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-11-30
4 PHYsIoIAN's, PROBLEMS.
sonnaubulism-The Phenomenon Of
Double Life.

somnanbulism-The Phenomenon Of q
> Double Life.
A Londen physician, in the intervals OF &C
tive professional life, has employed himself
with writing series Of essays upon matters
that relate to the Brain, Nerve and Mind. The
opening paper treats of those qualities In cmi-
dren which are derived as Natural Heri-
tsxer from their progenitors, which is followed
BY an inquiry into 'Degenerations In Man,"
From the chapter on Somnambullsm we take
the following curious examples:
Two very instructive cases are quoted by
Or, Pritchard from Muratori. The first relates
to q young Italian noble, Signor Augustin,
who was accustomed to walk and perform a
variety Of acts In his sleep. The attacks were
usually announced by peculiar manner Oh
unmoved eyes. .vigne,.l Marville, an eye wit
ness, gives the following account Of one occa-
sion: "About midnight Sgnor Augustin drew
aside the bedclothes with Violence, arose and
put on his clothes. went up to him ana put
the light under his eyes; he took no notice OF
After performing variety of movements about
the house, and seeking for many things, ap.
nearing occasionally to hear noises that
were made, and to be frightened by them,
she went into the stable, LED 0ut MS morse,
mounted 1t, and galloped 10 the house door, at
which he knocked several tunes. haxing
taken back his horse he heard noise which
the servants made in the kitchen and went to
the door, holding his ear to the key-hole, ard
appeared to listen attentively." He after.
WorGs went to the billiard room, and enacted
the motions Of q player. He then went 70 the
harpsichord and played few Irregular airs.
"After having moved about for TWO hours ne
went 10 his room, and threw himself upon the
bed, clothed as he was, and the next morning
we found him ip the same state; for, as often
as his attack came on, he slept afterwards
from eight to ten hours. The servants deelar-
ed that they could only put an end to ms par d.
oxysms either by tickling the soles of his feet
The case Of Ncgretn Is related by the same
author, and is valuable as having been sepac
ratoly watched by two physicians, Righellinl
and Pagatti. He was servant, and mad walk
ed In his sleep from his eleventh year. he
would often repeat In his sleep the accustomed
duties of the day, and would carry trays and
glasses about and spread the table for dinner
with great accuracy, though his eyes were al
ways firmly closed Indeed, 1t was apparent
that he could not see, as be frequently struck
against doors and objects placed In unaccus-
toned positions. He sometimes carried can
die; but bottle substituted for 1t seemed TO
do as we'll. His sense Of taste appeared to be
imperfect as he would eat cabbage for salad,
drink water for wine, and take coffee for snuff
without appearing in any case to detect the
substitution.
In other cases the senses are moro awake,
and the intelligence more active. Castelli,
whose case Is related by Francisco Soave, was
Sfound one night asleep in the act OF transla-
ting from Italian into French, and looking out
the words from dictionary. When his candle
was extinguished he arose and went TO seek
another light. When any one conyersed with
him on any subject on which his mind was
bent at the time he gave rational answers; but
he seemed to hear nothing that was said to
him or near him on other subjects. HIS eyes
also seemed to be only sensible 10 those OBJ
jects about which he was Immediately en-
gagged, and were quite fixed; so mach so tnat
n reading he turned the whole head from side
to side instead ofthe eyes.
One Of the most remarkable cases on RECORD
is related by the Archbishop Of Bordeaux IN
the ssEncyclopedie Aethodique." IL was con-
cerning young priest at the Catholic Semi
nary, who used TO rise In his sleep and write
sermons. Having written page ne would
read 1t aloud and make corrections. II nave
one or his sermons which he had written when
asleep; Ii was well composed, but one correc-
tion surprised me. Having written at first the
words s'ce divin entdnt," he had afterwards
efiacsd the word diuin, and written over 1t
adorable. Then .perceiving that oe could not
stand before the last W0rQ, ne nau ue1terously
inserted q {, so as to make the word Get. He
continued to write, although card was held
between his eyes and the paper. Did the his
tory stop here we should have well-authentl-
Gated case OF vision without the aid OF the
eyes. But the collateral circumstances
show that this writing was accomplished
not by sight, but by most accurate men
tai representation Of the object to be attained,
as viii be further Illustrated in our next case.
For amer he had written page requiring cor
rection, piece Of blank paper OF the exact
Size was substituted for his own manuscript,
ana op that he made the corrections In the
preclse situation which thoy would have occu-
pied on the original page. A very astonishing
hart Of this report Is that which relates to his
writing music in his sleeping state, which, 1t Is
said, he did with perfect precision. Heaskcd
for certain things, and saw and heard such
things, but only such things as bore directly
upon the subject OF bis thoughts, He detected
the deceit when water was given to him In
: stesd OF brandy, which be had asked for.
Finally, he knew nothing of all that had trans
pired when he swokei but In his next parox-
ysm he remembered all accurately, and so
lived q sort Of double lie, phenomenon which
we believe to be universal In ali the cases OF
exalted somnambullsm."