AND BODILY STATES UPON THE IMAGINATION. 237 



told him to raise it, which he did. Yet he perceived none of the 

 persons standing round him, and though he heard any conversation 

 vi^hich was in conformity with the train of his ideas, he heard no- 

 thing of the discourse which those persons held on other suhjects. 

 His eyes seemed to be very sensible to objects relating to his 

 thoughts, but appeared to have no life in them ; and so fixed were 

 they, that, when he read, he was observed not to move his eyes, 

 but his whole head, from one side of the page to the other.* In 

 this remarkable case, which differs from all those which I have 

 hitherto brought forward, we have that singular action of the 

 senses exemplified which is peculiar to somnambulism ; — we have 

 vision recognising one object before it, whilst blind to all the rest. 

 Castelli saw his dictionary and books, whilst insensible to the pre- 

 sence of numerous persons who surrounded him ; his Imagination 

 rendered him attentive to the command of his master, which re- 

 lated to his own immediate employment, to the train of ideas then 

 in operation, whilst he was deaf to the conversation and remarks 

 which were made in as loud a tone. The eye of the sleep-walker 

 is insensible to the strongest light, whilst it perceives objects, at 

 the same time, in a state of gloom, which it would not be able, 

 under ordinary circumstances, to pierce. His ear perceives not 

 sounds of great power, whilst it collects the merest whisper that 

 bears upon the wanderings of his fancy. The young Devaud, to 

 certain particulars of whose case I have before alluded, whilst in a 

 fit of somnambulism, heard a clock strike which repeated, at every 

 stroke, the note of a cuckoo. '^ There are cuckoo's here," said he, 

 evidently associating the song of the bird with the situation in 

 which he fancied himself placed. The senses are all in limited ac- 

 tion in this state if excited, but are invariably controlled by the 

 fancy of the somnambulist. If Devaud was pinched or teazed 

 during a fit — unless his Imagination was more than commonly fixed 

 upon any subject — he was sensible of it, and wished to strike the 

 offender ; however, he never attacked the person who had done the 

 ill, but an ideal being whom his Imagination presented to him, and 

 whom he pursued through the chamber, without running against 

 the furniture ; nor could the persons whom he met in his way di- 

 vert him from his pursuit.t 



* See CyclopcBdia of Practical Medicine, Art. Somnambulism^ — the work of 

 F. Soave before quoted, &c. 



f A most pathetic and singular instance is given by Erasmus Darwin, of 

 the facility with which somnambulists tenant the scenes of their imagination 

 with sights and sounds, which affect them in this state ; and the manner in 



