The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-03-07
SENSE AND NONSENSE ABOUT
 NIGHTMARES


 Incubus, Dr Webster informs us an evil spirit that lay persons in their sleep. A good enough description of nightmare. The first delusion we must dispel IS that nightmare is due to indigestion" Briefly, assert it is more dependent on disturbance of digestion than it is on shallow breathing or sluggish circulation, and there is undoubtedv more scientific evidence on my side of the ar gument than there is on the other. In most in stances of nightmare there is precious little reason to suspect anything abnormal about the | digestion. On the other hand, the great major | ity of persons who suffer from one or another ailment of the digestive organs never have nightmare. Indigestion" which, after all is q meaningless term, appears to be an alibi for people who dislike to confess less conventional sins.
 Incubus, sleep talking and sleep walking all of the general nature, and there Is only arbitrary borderline between these dis | turbances of sleep and petit mai epileptic | spells. Epilepsy may be characterized by perl | odic fits convulsions followed by uncon- | scousness or stuporous daZed state these | seizures being called grand nal. Or the subject may have mere lapses of consciousness lasting | from few moments to hour or days without any convulsions, but just odd and inexplicabe | conduct or in some instances sudden freezing | in the position the subject happens to be In | when the seizure comes, and on regaining con-
 sciousness the victim has recollection what | soever of what has occurred during the seizure. l This type of epilepsy is called petit mai. l Readers will please believe mention cpl lepsy not because I know anything about it or | it's treatment that is not better understood by l any real doctor, but because I hope to dispel | some of the popular prejudice about epilepsy. | You know, it smooths down some of the snob- bery and meanness in us all when we find that these much misunderstood troubles epilepsy, insanity, cancer, congenital defects may occur | in any family. even our own in fact are bound | to occur in every family now and then. Who shall say where to draw the line be- l tween nightmare and frank petit nal? sleep-walking is ordinarily mild disturb | cnce and it spontaneously after while. But in some cases of psychic epilepsy or petit
 nal the victims have travelled far, even cross | ing the ocean and visiting foreign country. during the lapse. After the spell is over they can recall nothing of the events that occurred while the spell was on. know of no particular case, but I believe the victim of such a petit nal attack might assault kill some person without any conceivable reason, and have no | recollection of it after recovery. For that mat ter, I think an ordinary person with incubus might unconscously infct injury upon an in- | locent person. and have no recollection of the deed on waking.
 | Quite stack of letters from readers assure me have the gratitude of sufferers from mi | graine for the suggestion to take the calcium | lactate treatment. I hope this gratitude will | withstand what must say now. In my opinion migraine is a sensory equivalent of epilepsy, | just as sleep walking, nghSQare, sleep talking and the fugue state above& described is the psychic equivalent, and any sSch manifestation | may appear in the offspring of parent who | contributes alcoholism or some other conven- | tional strain of degeneracy to the hereditary QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | Give the Child Benefit of Medicine
 
 | has been passing blood. (Mrs E. M.) Answer-That is surely a serious condition | and the child should have medical attention without further delay.
 Five Doctors Muffed It | have been to five different doctors. They all call my trouble 'intestinal tOxemia," and l put me on diets, bowel washes and the like, | but without benefit. My symptoms are back al- l ways tired. lacking pep. e. A. H.) Answer-Here here, there's fine and a jail l sentence for suggesting symptoms in health column-or there should be. Any doctor who offers such a diagnosis as intestinal toxemia" l is a phony one, should say. It is probably not | possible, but if you could manage to forget | your colon or your intestine or your in'nards, | and pretend you're really quite ignorant of the | physiology and pathology concerned, when you | consult a physician the doctor might get a clue | to what ails you, that is, if you consult a real | physician, who will give you ready made diag- | nosis no consideration. dare say the majority
 of the doctors" you have tried have no legal | claim to the title.
 1 Easier to Keep Than It Is to Grow My nair is quite oily, has much dandruh and l falls out when I comb 1t or brush 1t. It Is | bObbed. I wear a cap when at work in fac | tory. Is this bad for the hair? U. WI Answer-Unless the cap is necessary to pro- | feet your hair from dust to protect your | work from hair or dandruff it is better not to | wear it. Send dime and . stamped envelope | bearing your address and ask for monograph | on Care of Hair and Control of Dandruf. The l less combing and the more brushing the better ] for the scalp and hair.