The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-03-19
Odd DOings while Asleep.

The marvellous manifestations of
somnambulism are still among the
more surprising phenomena with
which science has to deal That
person deeply immersed in thought
should walk and talk while appar-
emily unconscious excites no sur
orise, but that anyone should,
when fast asleep, perform a series
Of complicated actions which un-
loubtedly demand the assistance
Of the senses is marvellous indeed.
Often the somnambulist will per-
form problems which battle his
skill while awake. Often he will
rise in the night, walk from room
to room, go out on porticoes and
in some cases on steep roofs, where
he would not dare to venture whilo
awake. Frequently he will wander
for hours through streets and
fields, returning home to bed with
out knowledge of anything having
TRANSFERRED, says the New York
World.
One Of the most singular and at
the same time sad cases of SON.
nambulism occurred a few years
ago near Bakersville, n. G. A
young man there named Garland
had been in the habit of walking
in his sleep from childhood. Like
most other sleep-walkers when un-
molested, his ramblings had always
resulted without harm to himself
or others. Consequently his wife
usually paid little attention to
them. But finally he began to
stay away from the house longer
than usual and always returned
soaking wet. His wife followed
him one night. Leaving his home,
he followed the highway until he
came to rough, narrow pig trail
leading to the Tow river. His wife
followed with difficulty, as he
picked his way through the tan
gled forest, over stones and fallen
trees and along the SUBMITS of
PERCEPTIONS cliffs. For more than
a mile the sleeper trudged on un-
til he came to large poplar tree,
which had fallen with its topmost
branches far out into the river.
Walking on the log until he came
to large limb extending over the
water, he got down on his hands
and knees and began crawling out on
it. The frightened wife screamed,
calling to him to wake up and come
back. He was awakened by the
cries, fell into the river and was
drowned. Each night for weeks he
had been taking that perilous trip,
crawling out on the limb, leaping
from it into the river, swimming
to the shore and returning home
unconscious of anything having
happened.
The archbishop Of Bordeaux at
tests the case Of a young ecclesi-
astic who was in the habit Of get
ting up during the night in a state
of somnambulism, taking pen, ink
and paper and composing and writ
ing sermons. When he had finished
d page he would read aloud what
he had written and correct it. In
order to ascertain whether the
somnambulist made any use of
his eyes the archbishop held
piece Of cardboard under his chin
to prevent his seeing the paper
upon which he was writing. He
continued to write without being
in the slightest degree inconAmod-
ed. In this state he also copied
out pieces Of music, and when it
happened that the words were
written in too large characters and
did not stand over the correspond
ing notes he perceived his error,
blotted them out and wrote them
over again with great exactness.
Negretti, a sleep-walker, some
times carried a candle about with
him, as if to furnish him light in
his employment, but when a bottle
was substituted he carried it, fan
cying that he had the candle. An
other somnambulist, Castelli, was
found by DR.. Sloane translating
Italian and French and looking
out words in his dictionary. His
candlewas purposely extinguished,
whereupon he Immediately began
cropping about, as if in the dark,
and, although other lighted can
dies were in the room, he did not
resume his occupation until he had
r6lighted his candle at the fire.
He was insensible to the light of