Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/429

Rh sleep. And so, to the extent that the acts of the brain and cord and their nerves are mental, and the acts or motions of the voluntary muscles are bodily acts, to that extent, in sleep, the intercourse between the mind and the body is suspended.

In sleep the condition of the involuntary muscles and of the voluntary nervous system is, we must assume, in some manner modified, since these organs are transformed from the active into the passive state. Respecting the condition of the muscles in sleep, no study of a systematic sort has been carried out, but in relation to the brain there has been much thoughtful study, upon which many theories have been founded.

The older physiologists regarded sleep as due to the exhaustion of the nervous fluid; during sleep, they held, this fluid accumulates in the brain; and, when the brain and the other centres and nerves of the cerebro-spinal system are, to employ a common expression, recharged, the muscles are stimulated and the body awakes; the brain prepared to receive external impressions and to animate the muscles, and the muscles renovated and ready to be recalled into activity. This theory held its ground for many years, and, perhaps, still there are more believers in it than in any other. It fails to convince the skeptical because of its incompleteness, for it tells nothing about the nature of the presumed nervous fluid, and we know nothing as yet about this fluid. The primary step of the speculation is consequently itself purely hypothetical.

Another theory, that has been promulgated, is that sleep depends on the sinking or collapse of the laminæ of the cerebellum or little brain. This theory is based on the experiment that compression of the cerebellum induces sleep; but the argument is fallacious, because pressure on the larger brain, or cerebrum, is followed by the same result. The theory of pressure has been proposed again in a different way; it has been affirmed that the phenomenon of sleep is caused by the accumulation of fluids in the cavity of the cranium, and by pressure, resulting from this accumulation, on the brain as a whole. We know well that pressure upon the brain does lead to an insensible condition resembling sleep, and in some instances, in which the skull has been injured and an artificial opening through it to the brain has been formed, pressure upon the exposed surface has led to a comatose condition. I once myself saw a case of this nature. But the evidence against this explanation is strong, because the sleeping brain has been observed to be pale and too free of blood to convey any idea of pressure.

In opposition to the pressure theory, Blumenbach contended that sleep is due to a diminished flow and impulse of blood upon the brain, for he argued the phenomenon of sleep is induced by exhaustion, and particularly by exhaustion following upon direct loss of blood. Recently Mr. Arthur Durham, in a very able communication, has adduced a