The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-11-28

That persons walk in their sleep and
are unconscious of ordinary Impressions
but yet retain sensations, there is. we
admit, no doubt. One curious instance
occurred in a schoolgirl who was obser-
we'd to rise every night about midnight,
and walk about her bedroom and the
lobby outside her sleeping apartment.
After some time on returning to her bed
she was in the habit of examining it and
all about it. and finally selecting for
some hours rest a clOthes-basket which
the hOuse-maid kept on the fiat roof of
the cradle-bed III which she lay. After
carefully examining the clothes-basket,
she climbed MP on the head of the era
dle-bed and circling her body as a eat
would above the clothes in the basket
she composed herself to sleep, in which
she remained for an hour or more. then
rose, and returned to her bed. In the
morning she aWO<e at her usual time,
having no consciousness of what had oc-
cured during the night. Her sister
watched her proceedings, but never in
terrupted or awakened her, and after
some time the nocturnal climbings' ceas-
ed,
The second case that came under my
observation was more varied and more
embarrassing. n young lady from school
became a somnambulist. She rose from
bed and walked in her sleep. The la
dies who conducted the school became
alarmed, partly on the girls account,
and partly for the character of the school,
as it might injure their establishment
were it known that the young ladies
practiced the habit of walking about
the lawn in their night dresses in the
moonlight. They had an impression
that if the girl were suddenly awakened
death or immediate deprivation of sense
might be the result and this led to the
attendance of two maid-servants. who
were strictly enjoined to follow the foot
steps of the sOmnambulist, to watch that
no mishap should occur to her, and to
have all the doors opened, and the way
kept clear for the return of the sleeping
pedestrian. This continued for some
time. But at length the somnambuliSt's
fancy took a more adventurous turn.
Skaters had come to work on the roof of
the house, and the sleeping precipatetic
evinced a desire to Star-gaZe. Accord
ingly, on the next night, she turned to
the slater's ladder, and to the horror of
her attendants, aScended it, mounted to
the roof, and walked along the gutter,
with a slOping roof on one side and a
low parapet wall on the other The at
ed out of their wits, and knew not what
to do or think. The feared to call for
return to consciousness in such place
would almost inevitably lead to her
stumbling on the roof or falling over
the parapet. TheiTteTrOr was, however,
not yet at its height. The sOmnabulist
came to a slight obstruction in the gut
ter she paused for moment, and then,
without hesitation, stepped upon the
parapet, and continued her walk upon
the narrow stone coping. A single slip,
a false step, would have pTecipated her
from a height of thirty OF forty feet yet
TO awaken her would almost certainly
have led to the same catastrophe. The
sleeper continued her walk to the end of
the coping, and then turning round, re-
Sumed her walk to the dOrmer window,
decended the ladder, reached her bed
room in safety, and lay down in her bed
awaking in the morning quite uncOn-
sciOus of her midnight danger and of
her narrow escape.
| was then a very young practitioner
in medicine, was up to this period, al
though the medical attendant of the eS-
tabliShment for ordinary cases Of illness,
not consulted on this perplexiDg case, as
it was naturally desired to keep it con-
cealed but after the stroll on the par
it was thought that, with the object of
preventing a recurrence of a night walk
that might end in some terrible accident,
the young lady should be consigned to
some temporary asylum, where there
would always be night and day watch.
| was taken into consultation next
morning, and earnestly discussed the
gravity of taking such a step. Itwculd
be impossible to keep it secret, and even
were it possible, in her waking hours,
she would look with horror on the COM
ing night, when she should be sent to
bed in strait-waistcoat. In after
years, too, when perhaps she might have
young family around her the thought
might arise that she had once been an
inmate of such an institution, and the
Renaissance would make her miserable.
L duly considered all this. and sugges-
tedvarious eXpedients, such as sedatives,
sleeping draughts, and network to be
put round the bed at night. All, how
ever, had been tried in this instance,
and all in vain.
l then thought for a little and hit