Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-07-27
Miscellany.
Curious Sleepers.

SLEEP is nearly as great puzzle as ever
it was. Much has been discovered con-
cerning 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 share j.?
Lord Brougham, and many other great
statesmen and lawyers, are known to
have been content with 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 sleepers? De Moivre, the mathe
matician, could (though it is to be hoped
he did not) sleep twenty hours out of the
twenty four. Quin, the actor, sometimes
slept for twenty -four hours st stretch. DIR.
Reid, the metaphysician, could 80 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, varying from three to
thirteen days each. About the same time,
girl, at Newcastle, on-Tyne, slept four
teen weeks without waking; and the
waking process occupied three days to
complete. Doctor Blanchet, of Paris,
mentions the case of a 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, 1868 ;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,S tells
US that "The 9th of April, 1916, being
Tuesdaie in Easter 1eeke, 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 il
all points found at his waking to be as i
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. u
In the year 1894 he slept for a month, and
no one could wake him. Later in the
same year he had four months sleep
from April the 9th to August the 7th; be
woke, dressed, went out into the fields
(where he worked as a iaborer), 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 thai
he knew of his sleep having exceeded the
usual duration of few hours. He wen1
to sleep again on the 17th of August, anG
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 brea6
and cheese, but went off to sleep again be
fore it could be brought to him, takin,
another spell of sleep, which lasted til
the end of January. After this it is no
recorded that he had any more of thes
strange relapses.
There are instances of sleep so iHtensel,
deep as to deprive the sleeper of all sens
of pain. The records of the Bristol In
firmary present an extraordinary illustra
ton of this One cold night tramp la,
down near the warmth of limekiln, ant
went to sleep. One foot must have beel
close to the ire-hoie of the kiln; for du1
ing the night the foot and ankle was s.
completely burned away as to leave moth
ing but black cinder and calcined ash. FL
did not wake till the kiln man reused hir
next morning, nor did he know what ha
occurred until he looked down at his cha]
red stump. He died in the infrmary
fortnight afterwards. Semitic Anerico,
"A $4,000 DIAMOND has been found in
Florida fish.