Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-08-17
Peculiarities OF Sleep.

w III NdAA oOA1O hiOh AheAh
tain their bodily and mental vigor with
so small an amount of sleep as falls to
their sharcs Lord Brougham and many
other great statesmen and lawyers are
known to have been content with mar
velously small quantity of sleep. Fred
erick the Great is said to have allowed
himself ony five hours; John Hunter,
five hours; General Elliott, the hero of
Gibraltar, four hours; while Wellington,
during the Peninsular war, had still less.
Now, on the other hand, to account for
the cormorant sleepers? De Moivre, the
mathematician, could Though it is to be
hoped he did noD sleep twenty hours out
of the twenty four. Quin, the actor some
times slept for twenty-four hours at a
stretch. DIR. Reed, the meta physician,
could so manage that one sound potent
meal, followed by one long sound sleep
would last him for two days. Old Parr
slept away his latter days entirely. In
the middle of the last century young
French woman, at Toulouse, had for half
a year fits of heightened sleep, varying
from three to thirteen days each. About
the saline time girl in Newcastle-on-Tyne,
slept fourteen weeks without waking
and the waking process occupied three
days to complete. Doctor Blanchet of
Paris. mentions the case of lady who
slept for twenty days together, when she
was about eighteen years of age, fifty
days when she was about twenty, and
had nearly whole years sleep from
Easter Sunday, 1862, till March, 1868;
during this long sleep (which physicians
call hysteric conia) She was fed with milk
and soup, one of her front teeth being ex-
tracted To obtain an opening into her
mouth Stow, in his Chronicle, tells us
that the 2ith of April, 1916, being Tues
daie IN Easter week, w Foxley, potma-
ker for the mint in the Tower OF London,
fell asleep. and so continued sleeping, and
could not be wakened with pricking.
cramping. or otherwise. till the first day of
next term, which was fourteen days and
fifteen nights" rhe causes of his thus
sleeping. could not be known, though the
same were diligently searched for by the
kings ply sicians, and other learned men ;
yea, the king himself examined We said
w. Foxley, who was in all points found
al ms waking 10 be "a if he had slept but
one night Another very notable instance
was that of Samuel Chiffon, of Tinbury
recorded in one of the early volumes OF
the Philosophical Transactions Of the
Royal Society. In the wear 1894 he slept
for IA month, and no one could wake him
Later in the same year he had four
months sleep, from April 9th to August
18th he woke, dressed, went out into the
fields. where lie worked as Il laborer, and
found his companions reaping the corn
which lie had helped To SOW the day be-
fore his long nap: it was not ill that
moment thafhe knew ofbi sleep having
exceeded the usual duration of few
hours. He went to sleep again on the
lith of August, and did not wake till the
18th of November, notwithstanding the
punSont application OF hellebore and sal
aInmoniac TO his nostrils, and bleeding to
the extent of fourteen ounces. He woke,
asked for bread and cheese, bu. went off
to sleep again before it could be brought
To him, taking smother spell of sleep
which lasted until the end Of January
Aftcr this it is not recorded that he had
any more of these strange rclapses.--W
tie le,ir RJaRd