Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/94

84 29th.—After three days of Honradez regimen, slight tendency to tremor and sleeplessness, with exceeding dryness of the membrane lining the nose.

January 1st.—Accelerated tendency to tremor and sleeplessness. Went to bed at eleven o'clock, but did not finally lose myself until after the clock struck one; then wandered off into dream-land instead of dropping to sleep in the normal way. Dreams of a queer, trance-like cast, with occasional starts. (I should interpolate here that I usually fall asleep very quickly after going to bed, and sleep very soundly.)

4th.—Augmented tendency to tremor and sleeplessness, with occasional secousses of the limbs. Arms still as benumbed as ever, but with an uncomfortable tendency to jerk. Went to bed at eleven o'clock, but lay awake till after the clock struck three; then fell into a fitful but trance-like slumber.

5th.—Came out of my drowse by slow degrees, and breakfasted about ten o'clock. Irritable and peevish. Tried to write after breakfast, but my hand was too shaky. Smoked a pipe of Honradez, which seemed to subdue the tremor.

7th.—Increased tremor and sleeplessness. Went to bed as usual at eleven, but could not sleep. Took an anodyne (bromide of potash) at half-past three o'clock, and slept soundly until eleven the next morning.

I now increased the ration of Honradez to three-fourths of an ounce per day, with an intensification of the symptoms so rapid and determinate as to leave no doubt of their origin. I was wild with nervousness, yet could not sleep soundly, and invariably woke up in the morning with a more or less pronounced pain in the region of the corpora striata (across the forehead) shooting downward and backward to the base of the brain; but the symptoms were still limited to the motor tract (the corpora striata and its connections), and there were no perturbations of the sensory.

Weighed 121 lbs. 3 oz. when I commenced the experiment, and 120 lbs. 2½ oz. when it was concluded. It should be unnecessary to add that a carefully-regulated dietetic regimen accompanied the experiments from beginning to end, securing at once fullness and variety of nutrition.

11th.—Refrained altogether from the use of tobacco. Fell asleep several times during the day. Went to bed at a quarter before eleven, and was asleep before the clock struck. Slept, with occasional whiffs of dream, until half-past eight in the morning. Continued to abstain for ten days, the nervous system gradually recovering its tone, and the hours of sleep slowly retracting until they fell to a trifle less than eight. An increased craving for food, and relish for it, followed the first day's abstinence, and on the morning of January 12th I ate