Year: 1875

1


KEEPING so.


We read Of Bismarck that "his old foe,
insomnia, still tenaciously cings 20 him.
He passes whole nights waking. At
morning dawn, slumber, if not sleep,
comes at last, but day finds him weary
and unfit for work, yet with mountains Of
work to get through" Having paid con.
siderable attention to this important ques.
tion Of being able to procure sleep, l
venture to record what l know about it.


The human frame cannot do without
sleep. | believe tho reason is that the
mysterious property-for want Of a better
name we call it "vital snergy"-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-I write
now of people in good health and hard
workers with their brains-is that the
brain cannot, so to speak, Ego down." but
it continues to act, more or less. My
father, when writing the bridgeport
Treatise" bad his own way of working.
lie was an excessively busy man during
the day, and had only the night hours in
which he could write. He generally
dined at seven 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 a sandwich, with cocoa or
milk: Thus he always slept well, as the
blood was diverted from the brain to the
stomach.


have no hesitation in saying that the
proper thing to do is to go to sleep i'm.
medlately Tor 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 especially noticeable
in dogs and the great John Hunter
showed by an experiment that digestion
went on during sleep moro 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; tho other was taken out
hunting. AT the end of three or four
hours he killed both of these dogs. The
food in the stomach of the dog which had
been hunting was not digested at all.


This fact. l think, shows the advisable.
lty OF going to sleep Immediately after
eating. This ignored fact always occurs
to my memory when l see old gentlemen
nodding over their wine. Nature says
to them $50 to bed." They will not go
to bed, but still nature will not allow her
law to be broken, so she sends them to
sleep sitting in their chairs. People,
therefore, who feel sleepy after dinner
ought to dine late, and go straight to bed
when sleepy feeling comes over them.


Most good felix's, however, do the worst
possible thing imaginable they retire al.
together into the drawing.room. and then,
10 make matters worse, they drink tea and
coffee. Now I regard tea and coffee,
wnen taken at night, to be poison to Ger.
tain constitutions 1t is very well in the
morning n, but it is very bad at night.
Inc reason why tea and coffee should not
be- taken at hight is that one contains an
alkaloid called theiDe, and the other con.
talns an alkaloid called caffein. These
TWO alkaloids taken into the system stim'
ulate the brain, and do not allow it to 60
to rest. speak of this matter from ex.
perience. If take thoughtessly a cup
OF tea or coffee after FIVE o'clock in the
evening, going to bed about eleven, l can.
not 60 to sleep; and if the brain does fall
asleep, the alkaloid will wake it up in
about an hour or two. Seeplessness,
therefore, is usually caused by tea or
coaee' though, strange to say, tea and
coffee actually send some people into
sound slumber.


L well recolleot the late DR.. WILDER.
force, then bishop of Oxford, telling my
iather, then most actively engaged as
Dean of Westminster. of his patient way
Of going to sleep. 1t is better than the
old-fashioned prescription of watching
sheep Jumping through hedge one after
another, ships sailing out to sea, &c. The
bishops prescription was to repeat very
slowly the vowels A f o. In doing
this they were to be family pronounced
with each inspiration. 1t will be found
easy to do this without moving the lips,
but the vowel U must not be pronounced,
for to do this the muscular action of the
lips necessarily takes place, and sleep
comes not. | advise my readers to try
this plan.


once heard midshipman who COM
planned that he could not sleep at night
because there were no waves dashing
against the sides of the ship. To this
noise he had so many months been accus
toned that he could not sleep without
the familiar sound. He asked his mother
to dash pals of water against his bedroom
door till he went to sleep. was once
told, when on salmon inspection, that
certain miller could sleep so long as the
continued whirr of the mill wheel was 90.
ing on, but directly after the noisc stop
ped he awoke.


The deepest sleep is always just before
dawn. 1t is, | believe. probable that
some change takes place at this time in
the atmospheric condition. as the hour
just before dawn is selected by savages to
make their attack, and it is at this also,
believe, that q great proportion of child
rem are born. When staying at country
house. unfortunately, the visitor not &C.
customed TO country sounds gets often
woke up. The abominable cocks begin
their horrible growing, called in Here.
fordshire "cock shoot | recollect on
one occasion, after the wretched cocks had
gone from the fowl house to feed, fell
asleep. and then came a most awful cry
of agony; in fact. the farmer killed pig
under my window-cnough to wake any
body. This pig was most vociferous, but
as he was inundated in honor of my arri
val, could not say much.


My monkeys always get sleepy wher