Year: 1877




Land and Water" says: We read of Bis
marck that "his old foe, insomnia, still tena-
ciously clings to him. He passes whole nights
waking. At morning dawn, slumber, if not
sleep, comes at last, but day finds him weary
and unfit for business, yet with mountains Of
work to get through" Having paid consid:
erable attention. tothis important question Of
being able to procure sleep, I venture to re-
cord what know about it.


The human frame cannot do without sleep.
I believe the reason is that the mysterious
property-for want of better name we call
it "vital energy gradually leaks out during
the day. During sleep the machinery of the
body, especially the brain, becomes recharged
with it. The cause of not being able to sleep
l write now of people in good health and
hard workers with their brains-is that the
brain cannot, so to speak, "go down." but con.
tinues to act; more or less. My father, when
writing the bridgeport Treatise" had his
own way of working. He was an excessively
busy man during the day, and had only the
night hours in which he could write. He
generally dined at O'Clock. and Immediately
after dinner went to sleep for two or three
hours. He then got up and worked on until
two or three o'clock in the morning. Just
before retiring he took some light pudding or
q sandwich, with cocoa or milk. Thus he al.
ways slept we'll, as the blood was diverted
from the brain to the stomach.


I have no hesitation in saying that the pro-
per thing to do is to 60 to sleep Immediately
[or at least very soon) after the meal of the
day. All animals always 60 to sleep, if they
are not disturbed, after eating. This is espe-
cially noticeable in dogs: and the great John
Hunter showed by an experiment that diges-
tion went on during sleep more than when
the animal was awake and going about.
This is his experiment He took two dogs
and gave them both the same quantity of food.
One of them was then allowed to 60 to sleep,
the other was taken out hunting At the end
of three or four hours he killed both these
dogs. The food in the stomach of the dog
which had been asleep was quite dgested in
that of the one which had been hunting, the
food was not digested at all.


This fact, 1 think, shows the advisability of
going to sleep Immediately after eating. This
ignored fact always occurs to my memory
when see old gentlemen nodding over their
wine Nature says to them "go to bed"
They will not 90 to bad, but still nature will
not allow her law to be broken, so she sends
them to sleep sitting in the chairs. People,
therefore, who feel sleepy after dinner, ought
to dine late and 60 straight to bed when
sleepy feeling comes over them.


Most good folks, however, do the worst pos
sibe thing Imaginable; they retire altogether
into the drawing-room, and then, to make mat
ters worse, they drink tea and coffee. Now, |
regard tea and coffee, when taken at night, to
be poison to certain constitutions. It is very
well in the morning, but is very bad at night.
The reason why tea and coffee should not be
taken at night, is that the one contains an al
kaloid called theme, and the other contains
an alkaloid called caffeine These two aka
loids taken into the system stimulate the brain,
and do not allow it to 60 to rest. speak of
this from experience. If take, thoughtlessly,
a cup of tea or coffee after 5 o'clock in the
evening, going to bed at II, I cannot 60 to
sleep and if the brain does fall asleep, the
alkaloid will wake it up in about an hour or
two. Sleeplessness, therefore, is usually caus-
ed by tea or coffee, though, strange to say,
tea and coffee actually send some people into
sound slumber.


I we'll recollect the late DR.. Wilberforce,
then Bishop of Oxford, telling my father, then
most actively engaged as Dean of Westmins-
ter, of his patent way of going to sleep. It's
better than the old-fashioned prescription of
watching sheep jumping through hedge ono
after another, ships sailing out to sea, &c.
The bishops prescription was to repeat very
slowly the vowels A E O. In doing this
they we're to be family pronounced with each
inspiration and expiration. 1t will be found
easy to do this without moving the lips, for to
do this the muscular action Of the lips neoes,
sarily takes place, and sleep comes not. /
advise my readers to try this plan. I once
heard of a midshipman who complained that
he could not sleep at night, because there
were no waves dashing against the side Of the
ship. To this noise he had so many months
been accustomed, that he could not sleep with.
out the familiar sound. He asked his mother