Sect. XIX. 5: OF REVERIE. § 173 



5. The ideas and motions dependent on irritation during the 

 firft weeks of her difeafe, whilft the reverie was complete, were 

 never fucceeded by the feniation of pleafure or pain ; as fh» 

 neither law, heard, nor felt any of the furrounding objects. 

 Nor was it certain that any irritative motions fucceeded the fam- 

 ulus of external objects, till the reverie became lefs complete, 

 and then me could walk about the room without running againft 

 the furniture of it. Afterwards, when the reverie became ftill 

 lefs complete from the ufe of opium, fome few irritations were at 

 times fucceeded by her attention to them. As when (he fmelt 

 at*a tuberofe, and drank a difh of tea, but this only when (he 

 feemed voluntarily to attend to them. 



6. In common life when we Men to diftant founds, or wifh 

 \to diftinguifh objects in the night, we are obliged ftrongly to 



exert our volition to difpofe the organs of fenfe to perceive them, 

 and to fupprefs the other trains of ideas, which might interrupt 

 thefe feeble fenfations. Hence in the prefent hiftory the ftrong- 

 e(l ilimuli were not perceived, except when the faculty of voli- 

 tion was exerted on. the organ of fenfe 5 and then even coi 

 nion ftimuli were fometimes perceived : for her mind was fo 

 ilrenuouflv employed in purfuingirs own trains of voluntary or 

 fenfitive ideas, that no common ftimuli could fo far excite her 

 attention as to difunite them ; that is, the quantity of volition 1 

 of fenfation already exifting was greater than any, which could 

 be produced in confequence of common degrees offtimulation. 

 But the few ftimuli of the tuberofe, and of the tea, which flic 

 did perceive, were fuch, as accidentally coincided with the trains 

 of thought, which were palling in her mind ; and hence did not 

 difunite thofe trains, and create furprife. And their being per- 

 ceived at all was owing to the power of volition preceding or 

 coinciding with that of irritation. 



This explication is countenanced by a fact mentioned con- 

 cerning a fomnambulift in the Laufanne Tranfactions, who 

 fometimes opened his eyes for a ihort time to examine, where 

 he was, or where his ink-pot ftood, and then {hut them again, 

 dipping his pen into the pot every now and then, and writing 

 on, but never opening his eyes afterwards, although he wrote 

 on from line to line regularly, and corrected (ome errors of the 

 pen, or in fpelling : fo much eafier was it to him to refer to his 

 • ideas of the portions of things, than to his perceptions of them, 



7. The aflbciated motions perfiited in their ufual channel, as 

 appeared by the combinations of her ideas, and the ufe of her 

 mufcles, and the equality of her pulfe ; for the natural motic is 

 of the arterial fyftem, though originally excited like other mo- 

 tions by ftinxuius, feem in part to continue bv their ail <i 



