The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-02-10
Our 0lio.
Dangerous Nightmares.

dreamed that he had been attacked Dy
highwaymen, who held his hands behind
his back while one of them was about to
plunge knife into his heart. He strug-
gled fercely in his dream against his sup
posed assailants, tore himself from their
grasp, and laid about him right and left
till he was awakened by the screams OF his
wife at his side, who had, unconsciously
to him been the victim of his assault, and
who had been flung to the floor, terrified
to distraction and severely injured. He
was Mortified to find what he had done
and the results of it. A surgeon was in,
stantly summoned, and it was found that
his services were very much needed. The
lady was in great distress through the day,
but she has since then been in fair way
of recovery
1t need not be said that the dreaming
gentleman of the nightmare was entirely
sober on retiring for the night, or that he
has been plunged into grief over an event
which might have been fatal to the COM
panion of his bosom.
DIR. w. II. Hammond said ''This case
belongs to the well-understood and defined
arrangement of sleep known as son'notentia,
or sleep drunkenness. The first to discuss
it was the eminent German, DR.. Hotfb fbaur.
1t is a condition in which some of the
mental faculties and senses are fully awak-
ened others but partially so, while still 9th
ers remain as they are in profound sleep.
One of the most noted cases on record is
that Of a sentry who, ON being suddenly
awakened from sleep by an officer, made
violent attack upon him with a sword, and
would have killed him but for the inter
ference of Others There was no doubt
that the man in the moment Of awakening
fancied himself attacked by enemies and
fighting for life, and that he was perfectly
unconscious of what he was doing. In Ger
many day laborer killed his wife by blow
with wagon tire. He had been sound
asleep. She awakened him. He sprang
up and dealt her the fatal blow. In this
case there was collateral evidence that he
fancied woman in white had seized his
wife and was carrying her off from his side.
His mental agony at the imaginary separa-
ton was so great that his whole body was
bathed in perspiration. Another case In
Germany: On Sept. 1, 1881, gentleman,
his wife, and their son were living in re-
tired place, where they were much afraid
of robbers and were accustomed to keep
firearms in their bedrooms for protection.
On the night in question they had been
talking before retiring to bed about their
supposed danger. In the middle Of tie
night the lady awoke her husband, imag-
lining that she heard noise at the window.
He sprang up and sleepily blundered
against his sons door, The young man
leaped from his bed, seized. his gun, and,
throwing open the door, with the exclama-
ton, "Dog! What do you want here p
fired and killed his father Then, in an
instant, fully awakened by the report OF
the frearm, realized what he had done and
threw himself upon the body of his father
with the cry, "Oh! Jesus! l have killed
my father" In the examination into the
case it was developed that the whole fami-
ly were much afflicted by restlessness in
sleep, and were addicted to somnambulism.
"Hof baur relates striking case, that of
Bernard Schidmaizig, who, awakened sud-
denly from sleep at midnight, in the same
moment thought that he saw phantom
standing near him. 1t seemed to him a
phantom, and fear prevented his recogniz-
ing it. Stammeringly he called out twice,
who goes there Receiving no answer,
or conscious of none, he seized his hatchet,
which was in its accustomed place near his
bed, and dealt blow at the supposed phan-
tom, which sank to the earth. Awakened
by this time, he saw that it was his wife
whom he had struck down. She died the
next day of the blow. Wharton and Still
tey recount an interesting case that occur
red in London in 1859 A woman named
Esther Griggs was arraigned in the Maryle-
bone Police Court, charged with throwing
her infant out of the window. The police
officers testified that their attention was
called by woman's screams of oh, my
children! save my children = issuing from
an upper room of the house. They forced
their way into the house, and after much
delay, during which the screams continued,
the prisoner opened the door of her room
to them. There they found all in darkness.
When light was brought the apartment
was seen to be in great confusion. Two
children were still there, but the youngest,
an infant, was missing and the woman, in
great agony of mind exclaimed that she
must have thrown it out of the window.
That was just what she had done. The
baby was found on the sidewalk, very Sc
riously injured, but, fortunately, not killed.
She said that she had dreamed that her
little boy told her that the house was on
fire, and in the impulse of the moment,
thinking only to save her children, she
must have thrown the little one from the
window. The officers said that her screams
had continued for five minutes, and they
believed that if they had not gained ad-
mittance when they did, she would have
thrown out the other two children, and pos
sibly herself The woman was sent to Jail
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