The National tribune., 1889-11-14

| plainly feels his survival to depend on the re-
suit of his struggle for iife-air that the impress
sion is not likely to be effaced by the reveills
| of the first cock-crow. Tossing restlessly from
side to side indicates the presence of irritating
| humors, and is frequent after-effect Of the
stimulant-f fever provoked by hot-spiced ragouts,
and such stomach torturing dainties as mus
| tard pickles or rank cheese. Long before the
| development Of a catarrh announces itself by
the congestion of tho respiratory organs the in
| huence of the contagious principle Is betrayed
| by the suggishness Of our dream transactions.
| We meet dream-land acquaintance and try in
| vain TO answer his inquiries; our words, our
very thoughts seem to stagnate and struggle
with persistent obstacle. We try to cross q
railway track ahead OF an approaching train.
but our team refuses to move. our horses balk
with ultra mulish obstiDacy, and We would be
ground to powder IL the locomotive itself did
not seem to have struck steep upgrade and
puff away without visible progress.
INSOMNIA.
Insomnia, or persistent sleeplessness ia al
ways q symptom of sanitary peril, though for
the first few days its facilitating influence
should announce itself only In general feeling
of langnor. Persons subject 10 nervous disor-
ders have periods of restlessness that have TO
run their course, like measles or smallpox, and
nearly always announce their approach at
| night, when . sleeper, unconscious of any
or Eve hours before the usual time, and tries in
| vain to get another short nap before morning.
Asthmatic patients, too get thus the first init
| nation of being doomed to another weeks mar
tyrdom of sudocating fits. After dull slumber
| of perhaps hardly three hours they are awaken
| cd by feeling OF pulmonary distress, as IL for
some time the lungs had been Obliged TO shift
with sadly curtailed allowance Of lifeair.
Sitting up in bed, and painting with hands
| tightly clutched overcomes the difficulty for
| the time being, but the moment the patient
| contrives to doze of he is awakened by another
| choking ft, worse than the first, and so on ell
| sleep is wholly out of the question. Sieepless-
ness may also constitute an incidental symptom
of febrlo affections or result from severe bodily
| pain. as In toothache, headache or neuralgia
| and Is not rarely direct effect of mental ex-
/ element. There are persons of an emotional
| temper whose night-rcst Is at once broken by
any train Of disquieting thoughts-often, in
deed. by mere unusual activity OF the Intel
1 lectuai faculties Lawyers, authors and preach
ers often lie awake for hours, revolving the
/ pros and cons OF puzzling problem which they
/ try In vain TO dismiss, till in the small hours Of
| the night sheer exhaustion brings on q spell OF
| fltful slumber.
| In all such cases removal Of the proxmate
| cause Is the only radical remedy, and often, as
| In asthma, the favorable turn of the crisis il
indicated by the return II capacity for sound
| sleep.
But insomnia may become \ chronic afilo-
| ton, yielding only slowly to q resolute change
| of habits. The habitual use Of narcotic stimu-
lants tincluding strong black teal may disorder
| the nervous system to degree when normal
| sleep becomes almost impossible, and n similar
misery may be caused by the martyrdom of
our Summer.life in crowded tenements, whore
| some fellow lodger Is almost sure to protest
/ against the opening of bedroom window, and
thus compel q whole family of victims TO pass
| the night in an atmosphere resembling the
| elIluvium of the Calcutta Black Hole Feeble
persons exposed to such influences night after
night at last seem to lose the very ability Of
| recovering u sufficient amount of vital strength,
and 90 10 bed without the hope of getting little
| rest in any form but that of dull stupor. re-
| sembling protracted fainting fit. OveryOrk,
| too, may become cause of that atiiiction in its
| most obstinate chronic distressfulness. Habit
| ual gluttons may come TO suffer from innutri-
ton, in other words to starue, as a consequence
| of overeating, and 10 is an equally unquestion-
| able fact that man may got too tired 10 Sleep
| Soldiers on q forced march otter sustain their
| tagging energies by pleasing anticipation of
| o good long sleep at the end of their fatigues
but on reaching their camp-lOng after mid
night, perhaps, and staggering with absolute
exhaustion, And to their dismay that outraged
/ Nature refuses to BIO reconciled, and that in
/ stead of sleeping, they can only toss about In
sort Of nervous brain-feVer, haunted by be-
Il wildering visions and the hammer-like throbs
OF a feverish pulse.
Observation would, however, establish the
! suggestive fact that the above-described sleep
lessness of exhaustion is apt to be seriously
i aggravated by the attempt to go to sleep sup
i PEERLESS. The dread of late suppers is, indeed,
| one of the most gratutous decisions of popular
hearsay hygiene. The most convincing refu-
| tation of that fallacy can be found in the hab-
| its of an instinct-guided child which frets and
tal
q more than usually long time, but can very
| easily be induced TO suck itself 10 sleep. Slum-
Dor, in that case, follows repletion as naturally
| as sleeplessness follows an unwonted depriva-
ton of food. Animals, after full meal, become
| plainly Rverse TO active exercise and do2e away
| las dogs in their KENNEDY as soon as they can
find "a secure resting place. The nuisance of
night-howling cat can be abated by treating
| pussy just before dark TO n more than usually
| liberal supper; wolves and hyenas in a menRg-
erie cage rush TO and fro restlessly If their meal
is u little late, but directly after dinner take
| stretch on their lair of straw. After fatigu-
| ing march or tour de force of severe mental
| labor good meal of nutritious, -stimulat-
| ing food seems to operate like an anodyne in
| quieting the shaky nerves, and the disturbing
after-eifects OF over exertion appear to DO elm
mated in the process of digestion.
The use of sleep-eompelling drugs, on the
other hand, Is apt TO produce eventually q re-
suit rather al variance with the purpose OF the
prescription. For dozen of nights or so the
| organism yields to the influence Of the opiate,
| but before long the system seems to become de-
pendant on the aid of artificial anodynes and
/ even to crave larger and larger dose of the
| wonted nepenthe, till chronic insomnia refuses
to accept any compromise but that of stupe-
| flying and life-endangering quantum of narcotic
| drugs. Thus, at least, has been the invariable
/ experience of opium eaters. De Quincy, in
| his graphic autobiography, describes periods of
seeplessness that drove him to the verge of
| suicide, aud which undoubtedly have driven
| scores of his felow-suiferers beyond the verge
| of madness. Chronic insomnia Is, indeed,
| premonitory symptom of insanity and of that
| kindred disorder (often following the attempt
| to relieve the effects of overwork by tho use OF
| strong drink known as softening of tho brain.
Persons subject to sleeplessnesa should re-
nounce the use of all narcotic stimulants what
ever and rather seek relief in Natures specific