Year: 1876

sued and overtaken after two blocks


chase, being sound asleep when reached
The following case, mentioned by Mr.


Macnish, is scarcely less wonderful. i


occurred near one of the towns on the


Irish coast. About 2 o'clock in the


morning, the watchmen on the revenue


quay were much surprised at deserving


man disporting himself in the water


about hundred yards from the shore


Intimation having been given to the


revenue boats crew, they pushed of


and succeeded in picking him up but


strange to say, he had no idea whatever


of his perilous situation, and it was


with the utmost difficulty they could


persuade him he was not still in bed,


But the most singular part OF this novel


adventure was, that the man had left


his house at II o'clock that night, and


walked through difficult and to him


dangerous road, distance of nearly two


miles, and had actually swum one mile


and half when he was fortunately dis


covered and picked up.


The state of madness gives us, by


analogy. the best explanation of the con-


dition of these climbers and swimmers.


With one or more organs or portions of


his brain diseased, and the rest sound,


the insane person has the perfect use of


his external senses, yet may form per-
feet conclusions regarding many things
around him. The solnnambulist, with
his senses i'll activity, but with some
of his cerebral organs in torpid state,
is III much the same position as regards
his power of forming right judgments on
all that he hears and sees.


borne out by q statement from an indis-
putable authority, DIR. Benjamin Frank
lin. The Doctor relates that on one oc-
casion, while bathing in hot saltwater
bath, he fell asleep, and foated on his
back in that state for nearly an hour, as
his watch testified to him.


Sometimes, in the case of q person
liable to somnambulism, it is possible to
direct the thoughts of the dreamer to
any given subject, by acting on the ex-
ternal senses. Smellie, the writer al
ready quoted, gives the subjoined in
stance Mr.. Thomas Parkinson, then
a student of medicine in the University
of Edinburgh, was accustomed to talk
and answer question sin his sleep. This
fact was known to his companions. To
amuse ourselves, two of us went gently
into his chamber while he was asleep.
We knew that he was in love with
young lady in Yorkshire, the place of his
We whispered her name re-
peatedly in his ear. He soon began to
toss about his hands and to speak inco-
herently. He gradually became more
calm and recollected his imagination
took the direction we intended. He
thought he was stationed under the lady's
window, and repeatedly upbraided her
for not appearing and speaking to him,
as she had so often done on former occa-
sions. At last he became impatient,
started up, laid hold of books. shoes and
everything he could easily grasp. Think
ing his mistress was asleep, he threw
these articles against the opposite wall
of his chamber. BY what he said, we
learned that his imaginary scene lay in
street, and that he was darting the books
and shoes at the lady's window in order
to awake her. She, however, did not
appear, and, after tiring himself with
exertions, he went quietly into
bed without wakening. His eyes were
nearly shut, and although he freely con-
versed with us, be did not seem to per-
ceive that any person was present with
him. Next day we told him what had
but he said that he had only a
faint recollection of dreaming about his
mistress.


It is consistent with our own knowl-
edge that many country surgeons, who
ride much by night, and pursue most
well on horseback. This, however, al
though position in which the bodily
motion is not entirely passive, is not
somnambulism.


Perhaps the most perfect sleep-walkers
we're Sir John Moore's soldiers, many of
whom, in the disastrous and fatiguing
retreat to Corunna, were observed to fall
asleep on the march, and yet to go on,
step by step, with their waking COM
panions. Many tradesmen have been
known to get up by night and work for
a time at their usual employments, with
out being at all aware in the morning of
what they had done. Gall mentions
miller who did this.


One of the most extraordinary cases of
this order, however, is that of. student
of divinity at Bordeaux, who was accus-
toned to rise in the nighttime, and to
read and write aOitho1H the use of his
eyes. This case is stated in the French
4" Encyclopedias" under the word Noe
tdnabuLe, and is attested by the Arch
bishop of Bordeaux. This prelate, in
order to test the young man, interposed
an obstacle between his eyes and the
paper on which he was reading vr writ
ing but he read and wrote with equal
facility and equal accuracy as before.
Macnish, who repeats this story, does
not mention the fact # the eyes not
being used, though this is the most
marvellous feature in the case. The
reading may not have been aloud, and
may only have been apparent (; but, as
for the writing accurately without the
use of the eyes, this was certainly feat
which few waking persons could
have accomplished. In addition to
these cases, many others might
be gathered, and particularly from Mr..
Macnish's Anatomy of Sleep !" but
that book is so accessible that it is
enough to refer to it for further infor-
nation. We shall only mention one
other case which is there given. 1t is