230 ON THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN MENTAL 



will not svveetea this little hand. To bed — to bed ; there's knock- 

 ing at the gate : come, come, come, come, give me your hand ; 

 what's done cannot be undone. To bed — to bed — to bed." — 

 Nothing can exceed the fidelity of this illustration. Reality itself 

 is not more true to nature, than this fictitious character to these in- 

 stances of sleep-talking depending upon similar causes or intense 

 mental anxiety. 



The milder forms of this affection, which, apart from bodily in- 

 disposition, depend merely upon an irritable and restless state of 

 mind, are, in most instances, relieved by the administration of opium 

 before the attack. As its invasion is, in general, ])eriodical, and its 

 paroxysms pretty regular in occurrence, the person should be awoke 

 about an hour before the attack is expected, and opium freely 

 given ; so that its effects may be in full operation at the time of 

 the usual occurrence of the diseatie. When this affection depends, 

 as it commonly does, upon bodily disorder, it will be removed or 

 mitigated only in proportion as its exciting cause is lessened or 

 altogether removed ; and, of course, the indiscriminate use of opium 

 in such cases cannot be too severely condemned. 



I shall now proceed with the consideration of the subject of som- 

 nambulism properly so called, not, in this lecture, adverting to that 

 state of extatic somnambulism produced by the manipulations of the 

 animal magnetiser. Somnambulism, or sleep-walking, is a peculiar 

 condition of the nervous system consequent upon our dreams, in 

 which the Imagination gains the power of directing our move- 

 ments, and, in some measure, of controlling the operations of the 

 senses, although the operations of these organs are then excited in 

 a particular manner, widely different from their waking actions, 

 which I shall presently particularly notice. In sleep-walking, the 

 affected person is a sort of anomaly in nature. He is blind and 

 sees, hears and is deaf, sensible and insensible at the same moment. 

 The causes of this walking are various, and like those of insanity 

 and dreaming generally, and in strict accordance, also, wi.Ii 

 those which produce hallucination, are dependent, upon the two 

 classes of causes to which I have so frequently adverted, viz., 

 bodily disorder producing mental excitement, or certain states of 

 the latter independent of the former. There is evidently a predis- 

 position to this affection in the organization of the nervous system 

 of the individuals in whom it occurs. They generally possess all 

 the characteristics of what is called the nervous temperament, or 

 constitution ; they are thin, dark, sallow, addicted to study, foster- 

 ing ridiculous fancies, and taking up unwarrantable prejudices. 



