Nebraska advertiser., 1881-02-10
Unconscious Movements.

buCOuSS1OuS IuONtDlc0ISs
H. C. Wood. NJ. D. in LippiAcotts Magazine.
The balancing of the body, which oc-
ours even in standing, much more that
of walking, running or flying, is the re-
suit OF a very complicated series of
movements, numerous muscles antago-
nizing one another by regulated con-
traction, so that just the right position
may be secured. To preserve the equi-
librium. .innumerable unfelt impulses are
continually passing from the eyes, from
semicircular canals, from the various
muscles employed, up to the nerve CEN
tres in the lower brain, where they are,
as it were, assorted and reflected back
as co-ordinated or arranged impulses to
all parts of the muscular system, and
produce just such contractions as are
required for the purposes of equilibri-
um and lOcomotiOn. When a child is
learning to walk it is simply educating
its intricate machinery and developing
its latent powers. Very much as the
will of man aids a setter in developing
the natural instinct to hunt, so does the
child's will direct, check and in every
way assist the delicate and complicated
machinery that presides over locomO-
ton. Perhaps better comparison is
to be found in the drill-sergeant train
ing and educating his squad of men,
who at first are utterly unable to obey
his will, but who by his reiterated eff
forts, are finally so trained that they
move as one piece in strict obedience to
his word, or go through complicated
man9uvreS without command. NOwOn-
der the child requires so many days of
effort to get all its delicate machinery
OF walking, running, ETC., so trained
that it works smoothly, and without
conscious effort of the will. But as the
training becomes more and more COM
plete, the lower brain becomes more
and more independent of the conscious
will which resides in the upper brain or
cerebrum, until at last the automatic
action is so perfect that walking without
consciousness is possible. Very many
of my readers have no doubt in their
younger days, when hard pressed with
a lesson, walked to school studying as
they went, their attention riveted on the
book, their feet carrying them along the
well known pathway. Under such cir
cumstances consciousness does not di-
rect progression. Walking in the sleep
is Onl y one step beyond this. In the
days OF Antietam a friend of the wri-
ter Sworn out with the forced marching.
whilst on guard as a sentinel, erect and
soldier-like in posture, slept until the
dark lantern of the relief officer appal-
led him with its sudden flash. Once af-
ter long tramp myself, laden with a
heavy pack, nearing home trudged
in the Inconsistencies of sleep along
the Oft-trodden road. In the cavalry
raids around Richmond during our late
war it was not very unusual for men
and beasts to become so exhausted that
both would go to sleep on the home
ward night-march, when they were
all their powers to escape.
The whole regiment asleep, horses stag
gering along in loose order, men sway
ing to and fro in their saddles, when
there was sharp turn in the road it was
to post sentinels to waken the |
passing ranks, which otherwise in the |
of sleep, would have |
right on into bush or brake. |
Indeed, in one instance which came to /
my notice, horse with an officer on his /
back did in this way walk over a preci- |
pice some twenty feet high.
With the knowledge which we have /
acquired the feats of somnambulists
are stripped of all mystery. The vari-
ous accounts of these sleep-walkers va
y in regard to the eyes being open or
shut, and no doubt the fact also varies.
he wanderer sometimes going about
With open, sometimes with shut ewes.
IN either case the sleeper passes fro m
place to place because the automatic
apparatus of locOmOtiOn is set in mo-
ion by dream, and is perfectly able
o perform its function unaided by con-
ciOusness. | think it will be f. ind that
lifficult sOmnambulistic feats are per-
ormed with the eyes open, or in other
words, with every unconscious sense in
ullest activity. Most of US have read
#, if not witnessed, the perilous walk
ngS OF sOmnambulists over hOuse-tops
md in difficult places, and wondered
hat man in his sleep should be able
o pass such narrow lodges with safety.
The fact is, that often in these cases the
walker escapes because he is asleep.
The delicate automatic mechanism pre-
ided over by the lower brain when well
rained performs its function with mar
,elOus accuracy, while often in times of
LANCER it is baff1ed by consciousness:
ear seizes on its centres and paralyzes
heir efforts; giddiness whirls it into a
atal slip; conscious will hesitates in its
elections and is lost. In the somnam-
ulist, all attempt at direction by the
7ill is laid aside, and the clockwork
moves along undisturbed, carrying its
assessor through deadly peril that sick
ms him the next day. as he looks upon
he place over which he has passed and
ears the story of his nocturnal wan
erings.
How COnprpSS Passes q Rill