Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/398

384 having taken the pains to relax the muscular contraction, it will persist for a long time, and it will be almost impossible to put an end to it until a new paroxysm of somnambulism has been brought on.

The symptoms of this curious malady do not appear only among women and persons afflicted with hysteria; they are also observed, though more rarely, among young persons and with aged men. Not only do they arise when they are provoked; they frequently appear spontaneously, without any effort to induce them. Natural somnambulism, which in former times greatly excited the curiosity of medical men, is now a well-described affection. New examples of it are of daily occurrence. Persons subject to it will get up in the middle of the night, dress themselves, start to go out and attend to their business. Their eyes are sometimes shut, sometimes wide open, but they have no real sight. Their vision is all interior, but serves them so good a purpose that they are able to find their way through the furniture scattered around the room without a light. Memory is the unerring guide of their movements. They can read mentally the book which they open, and perform similar actions to those they would be engaged in if they were awake—as, for example, those of swimming, running, writing, and handling arms. If they are suddenly wakened, they will be stupefied at finding themselves up and dressed when they had supposed that were reposing quietly in their beds. Instead of seeking for something marvelous in these phenomena, would it not be better to satisfy ourselves that they resemble those that we may observe in ordinary sleep? The mother, bending over the pillow of her sick child, is able by means of her caresses and soft words to calm the spirit which is distressed by the terrific visions of the nightmare, and make the child sleep more sweetly without waking it. Sometimes, when we are half awake, half-asleep, as in the evening, for instance, when sleep weighs upon us, or in the morning, when it has not quite left us, we act and speak without being quite aware of what we are doing or saying. This is a light degree of somnambulism; and, if we will study ourselves with a little care, we will recognize that, at the beginning or at the end of sleep, the complete, exact consciousness of our actions and our thoughts escapes us. There is, then, a series of insensible transitions between the common general sleep of the world and the singular sleep, more wonderful in appearance than in reality, of the somnambulists and hysterical persons.

Notwithstanding a whole class of positive facts exist, proved and easy to verify, there are still some medical men who do not admit the reality of them, and are ready to smile at the mention of somnambulism as if a colossal deception were spoken of. In their view, all the cases of this condition of sleep are nothing but comedies skillfully played before too simple spectators by nervous women who have been made fanatical by delirium. They believe this because they have been satisfied with witnessing the acrobatic scenes which the magnetizers