Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-08-03
Curious Sleepers.

SLEEP is nearly rs great puzzle as ever
it was. Much has been discovered con.
corning the bodily peculiarities manifested
during this portion of our existence; but
all whose opinions are best worth listen
ing to admit that they are only on the
threshold Of the subject yet. Why, for
instance, can some men maintain their
bodily and mental vigor with so small an
amount Of sleeps as falls to their shares
Lord Brougham. and many other great
statesmen and lawyers, are known to
have been content with a marvelously
small quantity of sleep Frederick the
Great is said to have allowed himself only
five hours; John Hunter, five hours
General Elliot, the hero of Gibraltar, four
hours while Wellington, during the Pen
insular War, had still less.
How, on the other hand, to account for the
cormorant sleeperss De Moivre, the mathe
matician, could Though it is to be hoped
he did mott sleep twenty hours out of the
twenty-four. Quin, the actor, sometimes
slept for twenty -four hours at stretch. DR.
Reid, the metaphysician, could so manage
that one potent meal, followed by one long
and sound sleep, would last him for two
days. Old Parr slept away his latter days
almost entirely In the middle of the last
century young French woman, at Tou-
louise, had, for half year, fits of
heightened sleep, carrying from three to
thirteen days EACH About the same time,
a girl, at Newcastle on-Tyne, slept four
teen weeks without waking; and the
waking process occupied three days to
complete. Doctor Bianchet, of Paris,
mentions the case of lady who slept for
twenty days together when she was about
eighteen years of age, fifty when she was
about twenty, and had nearly whole
years sleep from Easter Sunday, 1862, till
March, 1863 ;during this long sleep (Which
physicians call hysteric COMA she was fed
with milk and soup. one of her front teeth
being extracted to obtain an opening into
her mouth. Stow, in his Chronicle" tells
US that "The 9th of April, 1916, being
Tuesdaie in Easter veeke, w. FOxley,
potmaker for the Mint in the Tower Of
London, fell asleep, and SO continued
sleeping, and could not be walked with
pricking, cramping, or otherwise, till the
first day of the next term, which was full
fourteen dayes and fifteen nights. The
causes Of his thus sleeping could not be
knowne, tho the same were diligentlie
searched for by the kings physicians and
other learned men yea, the king himselfe
examined ye said w. Foxley, who was in
all points found at his waking to be as If
he had slept but one night"
Another very notable instance was that
of Samuel Chiffon, Of Timsbury, recorded
in one of the volumes of the "PhilOsoph-
ical Transactions of the Royal Society"
In the year 1894 he slept for month, and
no one could wake him. Later in the
same year he had four months sleep,
from April the 9th to August the 9TH; he
woke, dressed, went out into the fields
(where he worked as 1aborer), and found
his companions reaping the corn which
he had helped to SOW the day before his
long nap; it was not till that moment that
he knew of his sleep having exceeded the
usual duration of few hours. He went
to sleep again on the 18th Of August, and
did not wake till the 10Th Of November,
Notwithstanding the pungent applications
Of hellebore and sal ammOniac to his nos
trils, and bleeding to the extent OF four.
teen ounces. He woke, asked for bread
and cheese, but went off to sleep again be-
fore it could be brought to him, taking
another spell of sleep, which lasted till
the end of January. After this 1t is not
recorded that he had any more OF these
strange relapses.
There are instances Of sleep so intensely
deep as to deprive the sleeper Of all sense
Of pain. The records Of the Bristol In
Urinary present an extraordinary illustra-
ton of this. One cold night tramp lay
down near the warmth of limekiln, and
went to sleep. One foot must have been
close to the fire. hole of the kiln; for dur
np the night the foot and ankle was 80
co1, pletelv hurned aWay A To leave moth
ing but black cinder and calcined ash; "a. ne
did not wake till the kiln man reused nun
next morning. nor did he know what had
occurred until he looked down at his char.
red stump. He died In the inirmary
fortnight afterwards.-Scintife american.