The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-05-31
SLEEP.
Its Nature, Necessity and Peculiar Char
acteristics.
from the New York world.l

from the New York World
DIR. William A. Hammond lectured at
Chickering Hall last evening for the
benefit of the Metropolitan Throat Hos
pital upon the subject of /" Sleep" DR..
Hammond began his lecture by COM
pairing the periods of rest enjoyed by the
different vital organs of the human body,
saying that the heart, aggregating the
moments between its beats, rested six
hours out of the twenty-four, and that
the liver, the stomach, ETC., enjoyed each
its period of inactivity and reeuperation,
but that the brain had no rest save in
the moments of sleep-sometimes not
then. The lecturer then sketched brief
ly the principles of the wear and tear of
the human organisms and of its build
ing up. The waste of the vital tissues
was repaired almost as soon as it was
made, but the change was constant.
The hair of yesterday was not the hair
of to-day, and the muscle for extending
the arm was not identically the same
muscle after the arm had been extended.
The refreshment' and restorative of the
brain was sleep.
dotes illustrating the necessity of sleep,
and of the inability to resist it after long
wakefulness, even when the subject is
laboring under severe physical discom-
fort or pain. Soldiers frequently, the
Doctor said, had been known to sleep
soundly when in the saddle, and he had
often slept himself in this manner He
also told of a soldier who walked dis
lance of 200 yards while in II sound
sleep, and he would have doubtless
walked further if he had not been awak-
ened by striking his foot sharply against
Il stone. There was a recorded instance
of Chinaman, convicted of the murder
of his wife, having been condemned to.
die through the deprivation of sleep.
Guards were posted with him constantly
whose duty it was to keep him always
awake. On the eighth day the wretch
fell upon his knees and begged for the
blessed privilege of being strangled or
performing harikari The amount of
sleep necessary to health varies, the
Doctor said, with age. In infancy the
constructive processes are exceptionally
lively and the child needs, accordingly,
great deal'of sleep; and again, in old
people decay predominates over con-
struction, and more sleep is needed
DIR. Hammond did not think that the
necessary amount of sleep which man
required depended absolutely upon the
size of the brain. He instanced the case
of accelerated French surgeon who was
said under the excitement of certain
research in which he was engaged to
have gone without sleep for period of
six weeks, and of General whom re-
port made to have gone whole wear,
sleeping but one hour out of every TWEEN
ty-four. DIR. Hammond thought, how
ever, that these figures are to be taken
cam gra,ao sails. Men whose work was
mental required more sleep than men
whose work was physical. More than
this, perhaps, there was no positive law
to be set down. The necessity varied
with the individual. One human ma
chine seemed pretty well oiled and ran
so as not to need much repair; another
grated and needed mending constantly.
There was difference of opinion
among medical men, DIR. Hammond
said, as to the physical motive of sleep,
but he did not see why there should be.
The condition of the brain during sleep,
he thought, was only Il greater measure
of the condition provoking sleep. Sleep
was produced by diminution of blood
in the brain. The Doctor cited several
cases to show that there was less blood in
the brain during sleep than during wake
fulness. One, reported by French sur
geon, was of a young man who fell and
cut fissure in his skull. The bone new
er grew together, but the scalp grew
over the wound, and lay directly upon
the brain, and when the young man
slept the scalp over the fissHre sunk
down to a considerable extent, but when
he was awake the scalp remained even
and at times bulged out DR.. Hammond
also explained Il series of experiments
which he had himself made with dogs,
and i'll which he had determined the
amount of blood in the brain more ac-
curately by II graduated instrument,
which he had inserted through the skull
upon the surface of the brain. As the
brain enlarged or diminished the fluctu-
ations were registered, and there was
found to be great difference in the size
OF the brain during sleep and wakeful
ness. ''And nothing could have altered
the size of the brain but the blood there
was in it, the Doctor said, $50 we have
it irrefutably established that during
sleep there is less blood in the brain than
during wakefulness.
DIR. Hammond also considered heat
and cold as an influence to sleep, and
discussed how to make people sleep who
through nervousness or some other ex-
traneous cause were not so disposed.
He advised them TO think of some dis
agreeable thing, and had known of
man who was invariably able to get to
sleep by the simple device of allowing
water to fall drop by dron into a tin nan