The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1871-08-24
CURIOUS sbEErEGS.

sleep rs nearly AS great puzZie as ever
II was. Much has been discOSered con-
ceining the bodily peculiari!ies manifested
Guring this portion of our existence; but
nj! whose opinions are best worth listening
to. admit that they are only on the Ihrcs-
l,oId of he subject y eft. Why, for instance.
can some men maintain their bodily and
mnrial yieor with SO small an amount OF
sleep as falls 10 their share Lord
BIough ham. and many other great states
men and lawyers, are known 10 have
been content with marveluusiy small!
q1an!ity Of sleep Frederick the Great
is said to have allowed himself only five
hours John Hunter, five hours Gener-
al Elliot, the hero of Gibraltar, -four
hours Willie Wellington, during the Pen
insuIaI War, had still less,
How, on the other hand, to account
for the cormorant sleepers De MUlvre,
tie mathematician, could Uhough it is t"
hoped he did nuD sleep twenty hours out
Of tie twenty four. Quin, the actor,
sometimes slept for twenty four hours al
"a stretch. DR.. Reid, the metathJ slcIan,
could 50 manage, that one potent neal,
lGtlONeu DS OiiG ltI' siiii SUM &c T.
would last him for two days. O'I ParI
slept away his latter days almost enli. ely.
In the middle Of the last century Il young
Erenchwoman, at Toulouse, had, for halt
IL year, fits of heightened sleep, varying
from three to thirteen days each About
the same time, girl at Newcastle on
Tyne, slept fourteen weeks without wax
ing, and the waking, process occupied
three days TO complete. Df. Biarchet,
of Paris, NJ, ntions Ihc case Of Il lady who
slept for twenty days together when she
was about eighteen years of age, fifty
when she was about twenty and hao
rearly a whole year sleep from Easter
Sunday, 1862, till March, 1868; during
this long s!,ep which hysicians call hys>
telic coma she was fed with milk ard
soup, one Of her front teeth being extract
ed to obtain an opening in her mouth -
Stow, in his 'Chroricle," tells US that
The 27rh of April, 1916, being Tues
daie III Easter weeke, w. Foxl"y, potmak
er for the Mint in the Tower OF London.
fell asleep, and 50 continued sleeIing, and
could not be walked with pricking, cramp-
lir, vi OlllSi " lSC, lili ltiG 80 NSaJ VI
next term, which was full fourteen dayes
and fifteen nights. The causes of his
thus sleeping could not he knowne, tho
the same were diligently searched for by
the kings physicians and other learned
men yea. the i's himselfe examined J e
said w. Fuxley, who was in all points
found at his waking to be as if hc had
pit tu' ono night"
Another very notable instance was that
of Samuel Chiffon, OF Tim-bu,y, recorded
in one of the "philosopbical Transactions
of the ROYAL Society" In the year G94,
he slept Tor month, and no one could
wake him, Later i'll the same year he
had a four months s'eep, from April the
OH to August the 9Th lie woke, dressed.
went out into the fields where he worked
;ls ii aborer aud found his companions
reapin. the corn 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 a
few hours. lie went 10 sleep again on
the 18th of August, and did not wake till
The l9:h of Noyemb,r, r, notwithstanding
tile pungcnt applications Of hellrbo:e and
salamoEiac 10 lis nostrils, and bleeding to
the extent of fourteen ounces. lie woke,
asked for bread and cheese, but went ofi
to sleep again before it could be brought
to him, taking another spell Of sleep,
which lasted till the END Of January-
After tins it is not recorGe that he had
any more of these strange relaI ses,
There are instances of sleep SO intense
ly deep ms to deprive The sleeper If all
sense of pain The records of the Bristol
lniirmary present an extraordinary illus
traiion of this. One cold night a tramp
lay down near the warmth of !imelil lin
and went to sleep. One foot must have
been close to the fire hole Of the kiln for
during the night The foot and ankle were
so completely burned away as TO leave
nothing but black cinder and calcined ash.
lie did not wake till the kiln man reused
him next morning, nor did lie know hat
mad occurred until he looked down at his
Charred stump. lie died in the iniirmary
fortnight afterwards.