postman had to go between Halle and a town eight miles distant. This distance the postman was in the habit of traversing daily. A considerable part of his way lay across a district of unenclosed champagne meadow land, and in walking over this smooth surface the postman was generally asleep; but at the termination of this part of his road there was a narrow foot-bridge over a stream, and to reach this bridge it was necessary to ascend some broken steps. Now it was ascertained as completely as any fact of the kind could be-the observers were shrewd, and the object of observation was a man of undoubted probity-I say it was completely ascertained: 1st, that the postman was asleep in passing over this level course; 2d, that he held on his way in this state without deflection towards the bridge; and 3d, that just before arriving at the bridge he awoke."1

2327. Somnambulism.-The above case is an illustration of somnambulism properly so called. But just as we found that sleep obscured certain faculties more than others, that men slept with different parts of their brain and different faculties at different times, so do we find activity during sleep manifested in various actions, some of which are of a most complex character. Sir William Hamilton thus writes of this curious phenomenon: "In this remarkable state, the various mental faculties are usually in a higher degree of power than in the natural. The patient has recollections of what he has wholly forgotten. He speaks languages of which when awake he remembers not a word. If he use a vulgar dialect when out of this state, in it he employs only a correct and elegant phraseology. The imagination, the sense of propriety, and the faculty of reasoning, are all in general exalted. The bodily powers are in high activity, and under the complete control of the will; and it is well known persons in this state have frequently performed feats of which when out of it they would not even have imagined the possibility. And what is even more remarkable, the difference of the faculties in the two states seems not confined merely to a difference in degree; for it happens, for example, that the

See Sir William Hamilton's Lectures, vol. i., p. 335, quoted from Professor Junker of Halle. See also M. Jouffroy's Mélanges, p. 318, 2d ed., p. 290.

person who has no ear for music when awake shall, in his somnambulic crisis, sing with the utmost correctness, and with full enjoyment of his performance. Under this affection, persons sometimes live half their lifetime alternating between the normal and abnormal states, and performing the ordinary functions of life indifferently in both, with this distinction, that if the patient be dull and doltish when he is said to be awake, he is comparatively alert and intelligent when nominally asleep. I am in possession of three works written during the crisis by three different somnambulists. Now, it is evident that consciousness, and an exalted consciousness, must be allowed in somnambulism. This cannot possibly be denied; but mark what follows. It is the peculiarity of somnambulism, it is the differential quality by which that state is contradistinguished from the state of dreaming, that we have no recollection when we awake of what has occurred during its continuance. Consciousness is thus cut in two: memory does not connect the train of consciousness in the one state with the train of consciousness in the other. When the patient again relapses into the state of somnambulism, he again remembers all that had occurred during every former alternative of that state; but he not only remembers this: he recalls also the events of his normal existence, so that, whereas the patient in his somnambulic crisis has a memory of his whole life, in his waking intervals he has a memory only of half his life. At the time of Locke, the phenomena of somnambulism had been very little studied; nay, so great is the ignorance that prevails in this country in regard to its nature even now, that you will find this, its distinctive character, wholly unnoticed in the best works upon the subject. But this distinction, you observe, is incompetent always to discriminate the states of dreaming and somnambulism. It may be true that if we recollect our visions during sleep, this recollection excludes somnambulism, but the want of memory by no means proves that the visions we are known by others to have had, were not common dreams. The phenomena do not always enable us to discriminate the two states. Somnambulism may exist in many different degrees: the sleep-walking, from which it takes its name, is only one of its higher phenomena, and one comparatively

rare.

In general, the subject of this affection does not leave his bed, and it is then frequently impossible to say whether the manifestations exhibited are the phenomena of somnambulism or of dreaming. Talking during sleep, for example, may be a symptom of either, and it is often only from our general knowledge of the habits and predispositions of the sleeper that we are warranted in referring this effect to the one and not to the other class of phenomena. We have, however, abundant evidence to prove that forgetfulness is not a decisive criterion of somnambulism. Persons whom there is no reason to suspect of this affection often manifest during sleep the strongest indications of dreaming, and yet when they awaken in the morning retain no memory of what they may have done or said during the night. Locke's argument that because we do not always remember our consciousness during sleep, we have not, therefore, been always conscious, is thus, on the ground of fact and analogy, disproved."' Dr. Rush has written thus of this curious state: "Dreaming is a transient paroxysm of delirium: somnambulism is nothing but a higher grade of the same disease. It is a transient paroxysm of madness. Like madness, it is accompanied with muscular action, with incoherent or coherent conduct, and with that complete oblivion of both which takes place in the worst grade of madness. Coherence of conduct discovers itself in persons who are affected with it undertaking or resuming certain habitual exercises or employments. Thus, we read of a scholar resuming his studies, the poet his pen, and the artizan his labors, while under its influence, with their usual industry, taste, and correctness. It extended still further in the late Dr. Blacklock of Edinburgh, who rose from his bed, to which he had retired at an early hour, came into the room where his family were assembled, conversed with them, and afterwards entertained them with a pleasant song without any of them suspecting he was asleep, and without his retaining after he awoke the least recollection of what he had done.""

'Lectures on Metaphysics, 3d ed., vol. i., p. 319 et seq. See also vol. ii., p. 271, *Rush on the Mind, p. 302.

328. Cases of Somnambulism.-One circumstance is to be borne in mind with reference to somnambulism, and that is, that it is very easily simulated, and all the instances of it which are recorded in books must be received with some suspicion. Some of these, however, seem to be well authenticated; and of these it may be well to refer to a few. The first we will refer to is somewhat like that which we have quoted from Professor Junker. [237] In 1838, a man was brought before Alderman Thorp, who had a parcel cut from his arm although he had strapped it on tightly to prevent this, as he was often falling asleep even during his walk. Yet, even then, he usually took the parcels to their proper directions.1

So Franklin assures us that he floated on his back, in a warm bath at Southampton, for nearly an hour asleep; and Galen says of himself that he once walked about a whole night in his sleep till awakened by stumbling against a stone which lay in his way.

"A butcher's boy, about sixteen years old, apparently in perfect health, after dosing a few minutes in his chair, suddenly started up, and began to employ himself about his usual avocations. He had saddled and mounted his horse, and it was with the greatest difficulty that those around him could remove him from the saddle and carry him within doors. While he was held in the chair by force he continued violently the actions of kicking, whipping, and spurring. His observations regarding orders from his master's customers, the payment at the turnpike gate, etc., were seemingly rational. The eyes when opened were perfectly sensible to light. It appears that flagellation even had no effect in restoring the patient to a proper sense of his condition. The pulse in this case was 130, full and hard; on the abstraction of thirty ounces of blood it sunk to 80, and diaphoresis ensued. After laboring under this frenzy for the space of an hour he became sensible, was astonished at what he was told had happened, and stated that he recollected nothing subsequent to his having fetched some water and moved from one

Dendy, The Philosophy of Mystery, p. 309

chair to another, which, indeed, he had done immediately before his delirium came on."

One girl was taken to church while the paroxysm was on her. She shed tears during the sermon, particularly during the account given of the execution of three young men at Edinburgh, who had described in their dying declarations the dangerous steps with which their career of vice and infamy took its commencement. When she returned home she recovered in a quarter of an hour, was quite 238 amused at the questions put to her about the church and sermon, and denied that she had been in any such place; but next night on being taken ill she mentioned that she had been at church, repeated the words of the text, and gave an accurate account of the tragical narrative of the three young men by which her feelings had been so powerfully affected."

329. Psychology of Somnambulism.—We very often. find that even where somnambulism is not present there is somniloquence, and in many cases people learn readily to do little automatic acts during sleep. It is said, we believe, with perfect truth, that the albatross sleeps upon the wing. And all these facts illustrate the principle which is laid down above, that sleep is in many cases local as it were, and that while a man's eyes are shut his sense of touch may be exalted, as that of a blind man's often is; and the impressions of the sense of touch may be in perfect harmony with that minute memory which lives in the eye during some vivid dreams. In this case the memory would be in place of the eye, or any other sense that was for the time in abeyance. And this theory is borne out by the fact that we never have examples of somnambulists doing new things or going to strange places, which would require the co-ordination of the sense of sight and touch, but they invariably do things that they have been in the habit of doing. But of acts that he has been accustomed to do the somnambulist finds nothing too difficult. Thus we have numerous instances of persons who have walked securely in their sleep along the edge of a precipice, of men who have been found swimming in the sea