Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-09
Some Curious Phenomena of Somnam-
bulism Explained.
What a Learned Writer Saws on the
Subject An Ignorant Maid
Servant Who, When Delir-
ious, Repeated Passages
in Latin and Greek.

- WIZ AAAOSA lOIAkCk lOl hldGIVCl-
lzlng any one. As a rule sleeping persons
can be magnetized with more ease and
success than if they were awake; but it is
not necessary to believe all the extrava-
CANT miracles which are claimed as the
result of the exercise of animal magnet
ism.
A good many of the phenomena of SOM
nambulism are ~explainable by memory.
There is an authenticated case of a distin-
gulShed musician who once dreamed he
was listening to a remarkable piece of
music performed by some singers. He re-
membered the melody on awakening. and
was so delighted with it that he at once
wrote 1t down. Several years afterward
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 mel
ody except In his dream. and vet it is be-
yond doubt that he had heard it. and that
he had forgotten it, and that it had been
reproduced In his dream in the manner re-
corded.
"Coleridge tells of a maid-servant, who,
IN the delirium of fever, repeated long pas
sages OF Latin, Greek and Hebrew-langu-
ages which she could neither understand
nor pronounce when In health. but which
she had heard a former master reading
aloud. An even more remarkable case is
mentioned by DIR. Mayo. This was of IA
girl who, knowing absolutely nothing of
astronomy and mathematics, once In a
sumnambulistic state wrote down the pages
of an astronomical treatise, with ~calcula-
lions and delineations. 1t was found that
this was taken from the Encyclopedia
Britannica, which she said she had read
In the library, but when awake she could
not recall a word of it.
These are but some of
MANY ILLUSTRATIONS
which might be given of cases where what
appeared first to be remarkable original
productions were only reproductions of
memory 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 memory, the
intent of which partially returns in dreams;
sometimes with, but often without, recol-
lection. The exaltation of memory which
takes place in sleep explains many re-
markable dreams and somnambulistic no.
tlons, to which superistitions of mystic sig
nifcance is supposed to attach.
"Du Prel mentions the case of a girl
employed as a neatherd, who occupied a
room divided only by a thin partition from
that of a 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
irregular intervals, lasted for two years.
Then the girl began to reproduce the tones
of a piano which was played in the family,
and afterward began to discourse in her
sleep, in a learned and sarcastic manner,
on religious and political subjects. In
every case she was reproducing in sleep
what she had heard said Or played by
members of the family or visitors.
There Is another case mentioned by an
other writer-De Boismont. A widow
was sued for a debt of her deceased hus-
band, which she knew was paid. But she
could not find the receipt. Greatly dis
turbed she went to bed, and dreamed that
her husband came to her and said that the
receipt was In a red-velvet bag In a 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
IOrgOCUen. we snail now give
NUMBER OF CURIOUS INSTANCES
of the action and reaction of memory in
somnambulism, cuiled from a number of
German and other scientific writers and
cited by Du Prel:
GA basket maker named Monk, observed
by V~arnhagen, once heard a sermon
which greatly impressed him. The follow
ing night he got up and walked in his
sleep, repeating word for word the dis
course he had heard. He continued to do
that at intervals for forty years, although
on waking he knew nothing of what he
had heard.
"a celebrated female somnambulist,
named Selma, is known to have repeated,
when asleep, a poem which she had heard
repeated a year before, and once she re-
cited a poem, by her brother, which he
himself no longer knew, having lost it for
thirteen years.
1.-The French scientist. Richard, knew a
young male somnambulist who, when In
the magnetic sleep. could recite almost
word for word a book he had read the day
before or a sermon which he heard. An
other French subject could give. when
asleep, the names, composition, and guam
titles of the numerous medicines which
had been prescribed for her by different
physicians during her illness, yet when
awake she knew nothing about them.
.'Dr. Wienholt had a patient with a
bad memoryin waking, but who, during
somuambulism could recite long passages
from a book she had been reading.
".Dr. SCHNEIDER had a patient who, in
the magnetic sleep could give the whole
history of her disease, many incidents of
which the physician himself had forgot
ten.
1.-THE French doctor Puysegur testifes to
a patient he had who, when four years old.
had suffered injury to the head with a con-
sequent surgical operation, which so de-
stroyed the memory that he could not
recollect anything which happened an hour
before. Yet In somnambulism this patient
recollected everything exactly, could de
scribe the operation which he had under
gone, and predicted that he should never
recover from his waking memory, as in
deed. proved to be the case.
~"Lafontaine, a once famous mesmerizer,
has recorded an experiment which he says
he once made himself at Rennes. A young
actress there had ased him to put her TO
sleep. but requested to be awakened in
good time for rehearsal, as she had only
read once a part which she was to perform
that night. Instead of waking her, how
ever. Lafontaine induced her to go on the
-, bar coDoDay br1listio condition and