The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-09-24
SOMNAMBULISM.
An Ineurnble Diseases Curious Nantes.
tations OF tho Abnormal State--The
Causes Which Produce It.

An Ineurnble Diseases Curious Nantes
tations OF tho Abnormal Stnte..The
Causes Which Produce It.
, This propensity to sleep-walking is o
curious phenomenon, and has attracted
good deal of attention from men o1
J science; but. unfortunately, no cure has
as yet been discovered for the disease.
, Happily, fatal results are quite rare
somnambulists, as a rule, preferrlng to
indulge in amusing and instructive eccen'
tricities. They have prepared speeches
and delivered them for the benefit and
edihcation of imaginary audiences, and
have written essays of surprising bril-
liancy and profundity. The eminent
French mathematician and philosopher,
Condorcet, completed, in somnolent
state, calculations which had proved too
difficult for him during the day, and
which he had accordingly delayed for
reconsideration until the morrow. The
beautiful "Kublai Khan" of Coleridge,
was q work Of imagination during a
day dream, none the less somnambulis-
tic because no muscular movement was
involved. Tartini's Senate du Dia-
BILE" was composed by the famous
musician with his mind awake, but
while the body was asleep.
Muscular action and Involuntary
movement often accompany the SOM
nambulistic state. On one occasion, an
Irishman accustomed to walk in his
sleep rose from his bed, went two miles
along very dangerous road, plunged
into stream, swan mile and a half,
and was then found fast asleep on the
bank, wholly unconscious of what he
had been uolng. More curious is the
account of the English officer who was
attached to an expedition dispatched to
Louisburg in 1853. He was addicted to
somnambulism and sleep-talking, and
his brother officers frequently took ad-
vantage of his inirmity to procure an
hours amusement at his expense. On
one occasion they, by whispering in his
ear, caused him though tast asleep, to
get up from his bed, induce him, still in
Il somnolent condition, to quarrel with
in imaginary individual, placed a piS.
tol in his hand, arranged a duel, and
made the dreamer fire off the weapon 1T
his non-eXistent adversary. The report
of the pistol aroused him to conscious.
ness. AS an illustration, however, Of
what somnambulist can do, and how
fur his mental powers seem to be awake
to all that concerns or affects the domi-
nant idea under which the phenomenon
invariably occurs, we may cite the re-
markable case of servant girl living
at Chelmsford, England. Her mistress
had given her some sewing to do, but
she had the misfortune to tear it in two
places. Much troubled in consequence,
the girl went to bed as usual with a
fellow-servant. About four o'clock IN
the morning she arose, went down stairs:
knocked at her masters room and asked
for some cotton, telling him at the same
time her pitiful story. Her fellow-ser.-
want, who had watched and followed
her, threaded reedle with som" black
thread and offered it to hel. The SOM
nambulist petulantly refused it, saying
she required white, not black cotton.
Another person came into the room
where this took place and spoke to her,
when she Immediately observed, while
seemingly looking at her, "That's not
my mistress; it's another voice." thus
clearly proving that she could not see,
though her eyes were apparently open,
and that she judged wholly by the ear,
which was intent upon the matter that
| induced the sleep-Walklng.
five may believe all the legends re-
specting the somnambulist, he is pos
scssed Of surprising bodily and mental
accomplishments which his waking
hours certainly do not know. With
house-tops, precipices, and innumerable
dangerous places he is invariably famil-
lar, and the most hazardous feat has for
him no terrors. To tlfe novelist and
dramatist he is invaluable. If there is
missing will, he finds it with unerring
l instinct; and if, on the other hand, it is
necessary to hide, and not to find, he is
stillequal to the occasion. He appears
Just Mt the right moment to prevent a
murder, witlisthe great advantage that,
Us he does not see, he can tell no tales,
and, therefore, the plot, instead OF being
permaturely wound up, can 60 on to the
next act.
Without going into the physiological,
or psychological details of the subject
we may note that it is acknowledged by
all authorities that somnambulist is
perfectly unconscious of all he does while
in that state, and can, therefore, not be
held responsible for the occurrence of
such accidents as may result from his
unfortunate propensity. Two remark
able instances occurred in England last
year. A man named Simon Frazer, liv-
ing in Glasgow, murdered his infant son
while under the influence of dream.
lie dreamed he was attacked by avid
beast, and got out of bed to struggle
with it. He took the child for the ami
nal he was fighting with. ana dashed it.
as he supposed, against the wall OF floor.
The prisoners propensity to somnambul- !
ism was fully shown, and in the result
he was acquitted. A few months later a
girl named Matilda Hayes was charged
ut Bow street police court with the crime
of arson. 1t was found that she was
asleep at the time she set the bedclothes
OH fire, and the justice, declining to see
in her acts any suggestion of evil-doing,
discharged her. Dornbluth, the German
psychologist, tells of u young woman
who, in consequence of u fright, Occa-
stoned by an attack of robbers, was
seized with epilepsy, and became subject
to somnambulism. While in that con-
dition she was in the habit Of stealing
articles, and was charged with theft,
but on Dornbluth's advice was released
and cured. The story is told of an Italian
monk who entered the chamber Of the
prior; his eyes were open, but fixed; the
light of two lamps made no impression
upon him; his features were contracted,
and he carried in his hand large knife.
Going straight to the bed. he had first
the appearance of examining if the prior
was there. He then struck three blows,
which pierced the coverings, and even q
mat which served the purpose of a mat
tress. In returning, his countenance was
unbcnt, and was marked by an air of sat
isfaction. The next day the prior asked
the mork what he had dreamed of the
preceding night, and the latter answered
that he had dreamed that his mother
had been killed by the prior, and that
her ghost had appeared to him demand
ing Vengeance; that at this sight he was
50 transported by rage that he had i'm
mediately run to stab the assassin of his
mother. At the Old Bailey, in London,
in the year 1886, q brother of Lord Cul-
pepper, noted somnambullst,, was
charged with murder, having shot a
guard, as we'll rs his horse. The pris-
0ner's propensity for sleep-walking was
clearly established, and he was
acquitted.
As regards the causes tending to pro-
duce somnambulism, we have little to
enlighten us. One f:ivorite theory with
some observers is sixth sense, usually
located in the pit of the stomach. and
supposed to be active in somnambulists
, and the clairvoyants of mcsmerism. This
sixth sense, which, by many of the ac'
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