The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-09-12
sOAINAMBULIsM.

A good many of the phenomena Of
s0mnambulim are explained by memory,
There is an authenticated case of a dis
tinguished musician who once dreamed
he was listening to a remarkable piece of
music performed by singers, He re-
membered the melody on awakening,
and was so delighted with it that he at
once wrote it down. Several years after
wards, as he was turning over some old
sheets of music that he had never seen
before-as he thought-he came upon
the very melody he had dreamed. He
could not remember that he had ever
seen or heard this melody except in his
dream, and yet it is beyond doubt that
he had heard it that he had forgotten
1t and that it had been reproduced in
his dream in the manner recorded, Cole
ridge tells Of maidservant who, in the
delirIum of fever, repeated long passages
in Latin, Greek and Hebrew-lanRuaee
which she neither understood nor could
pronounce when in health, but which
she had heard a former master often
reading aloud. And even a more re-
markable case is mentioned by DIR. Mayo.
This was of girl who, knowing abso-
lutely nothing of astronomy and mathe-
matics, once in a somnambulic state
wrote down the pIges of an astronomi-
cal treatise, with calculations and delin-
cations. 1t was found that this was
taken from the Encyclopedias Britanni-
ca" which she said She had read in the
library. But when awake she could not
recall a word of it. These are some Of
many illustrations which might be given
of some cases where what appeared at
first to be remarkable original produc.
tions were only reproductions of mem.
ory long dormant. They show that
sleep and delirium often reverse the for
mer process of forgetting, and that. as
Du Prel says, we possess a latent men,
ory, the contents of which partially re-
turn in dreams sometimes with, but
often without, recollection. The exalta-
tion of memory, which takes place in
sleep, explains many remarkable dream
and somnambulistic notions to which
superstitions or mystic significance is
supposed to attach. Du Prel mentions
the case of girl, employed as a neat
herd, who occupied a room divided only
by thin partition from that of violin
player, who used to play often during
half the night. This girl, after some
months, got another place, and after she
had been there for some two years,
sounds began to be heard coming from
her room exactly like those of a violin.
This went on for hours, and, with irreg-
ular intervals, lasted for two years.
Then the girl began to reproduce the
tones of piano which was played in the
family, and afterwards began to dis
course in her sleep, in learned and sar-
castle manner, on religious and political
subjects. In every case she was repro
ducing in sleep what she had heard said
or played by members of the family or
visitors. There is another case men
toned by another writer-Dr. Boismont.
widow was sued for debt of her de-
ceased husband, which she knew was
paid, but she could not find the receipt.
Greatly disturbed, she went to bed and
dreamed that her husband came to her
and said that the receipt was in red
velvet bag in hidden drawer of his
desk. This she found on waking to be
the case. OF course, she had known of
the hiding-place before, but had forgot
ten. A basket-maker, named Monk, OBJ
served by Varnhagen, once heard a ser.
mon which greatly impressed him. The
following night he got up and walked in
his sleep, repeating word for word the
discourse he had heard. He continued
to do this at intervals for forty years, al
though on waking he knew nothing of
what he had done.-A'l the Year Round.