Eatings Drinking, and Sleeping. 253 



of whom it is recorded, that when any great difficulty occurred 

 in the execution of his works, having little or no assistance 

 from books, or the labours of other men, his resources lay 

 within himself. In order, therefore, to be quiet, and uninter- 

 rupted, whilst he was in search of the necessary expedients, he 

 generally retired to his bed ; and he has been known to lie 

 there one, two, or three days, till ho had obtained the object in 

 view. He would then get up and execute his design without 

 any drawing or model. 



There are different kind of sleepers, as well as different kinds 

 of sleep : some cannot sleep from home — others cannot sleep 

 at home ; some can sleep on a board, and snore on a carpet; 

 while others tumble and toss on a soft bed, as if the down dis- 

 concerted them. 



Some again cannot sleep in a noise ; others cannot sleep out 

 of it. A miller awakens the moment the mill stops ; and a 

 tradesman from Cheapside cannot sleep in the country, be- 

 cause ** it is so plaguy quiet." 



Somnambulists, or sleep-walkers, usually sleep with their 

 eyes open ; but without vision. Shakspeare, who may be con- 

 sidered very good medical authority, makes Lady Macbeth 

 a somnambulist with her eyes open — *' but their sense is shut." 

 This is not always the case, however, and there is a singular 

 exception, in the instance of Johannes Oporinus, a printer, 

 who being employed one night in correcting the copy of a 

 Greek book, fell asleep as he read, and yet ceased not to read, 

 till he had finished not less than a whole page, of which, when 

 he awoke, he retained no recollection. 



There are many curious histories of sleeping prodigies on 

 record. The Philosophical Transactions have several : in one, 

 a man slept from August till January. There is a case, read 

 before a society of physicians, in 1756, of Elizabeth Orvin, 

 who began her sleeping fit in 1738, by a four days' nap, and 

 for ten years afterwards, never slept less than seventeen hours 

 out of the four-and-twenty. Dr. Brady relates, that some 

 strange methods were resorted to, to rouse her — such as rub- 

 bing her back with honey, and in a hot day exposing her to a 

 hive of bees, till her back was full of bumps ; — making a pin- 

 cushion of her, and performing acu-puncturation, with pins and 



OCT.— DEC. 1828. T 



