204 MORAL ASPECT OF SLEEP. 



dimiiiislies, and in this state of iinpotency it becomes necessary that his 

 vigor should be repaired, or action must cease. Provision has been 

 made by the wise author of our mental and corporeal fabric to renew 

 our exhausted vigor, or to restore our collapsed energies. The senses 

 cease to perform their functions; the powers of locomotion are sus- 

 pended, and " tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep" takes posses- 

 sion of man. In proportion to the soundness of this state, the suspen- 

 sion of the animal functions referred to is complete. The action of the 

 mind, so far as consciousness is concerned, is arrested in proportion to 

 the perfection of this condition. The mode in which it acts in sleep is 

 that fantastic and incoherent association of ideas called dreaming, which 

 either does not take place, or is not remembered when our slumbers 

 are profound. There is an imperfect sleep in which there is some per- 

 ception of physical objects, and some physical acts. In one form of 

 sleep, viz. sleep-walking, various acts may be performed. In no condi- 

 tion of the body to which this term can properly be applied, do the vi- 

 tal functions cease. The circulation of the blood is uninterrupted — the 

 nervous energy necessary for vital operations is transmitted — the de- 

 carbonization of the blood takes place through the inspiration and ex- 

 piration of atmospheric air — the nutritive and assimilative functions are 

 all progressive, and removal of effete portions of the body and the re- 

 quisite restorations to supply their place, all occur. Many and wonder- 

 ful operations are in progress unsuspended ; some perhaps more vigor- 

 ously performed under the guidance of the vis conservatrix natures, as 

 the doctors say, or under the direction of the infinite wisdom of the 

 Author of the Universe, as religion would teach. It is not easy to fur- 

 nish the phUosophy of this condition. What are the precise changes, 

 and how they occur, we believe are mysteries which have tempted his 

 curiosity, but have never yet condescended to reveal themselves to man. 

 It is known what are the phenomena — what are the circumstances that 

 are favorable, and what are the uses ; but beyond this the researches of 

 the physiologist, although they have been faithful, have not been suc- 

 cessful. On this subject take a passage from Richerand : " It has been 

 attempted to show the proximate cause of sleep ; some have said that 

 it depends on the collapse of the laminae of the cerebellum, which, as 

 they conceive, are in a state of erection during waking ; and they argue 

 from the experiment in which by compressing the cerebellum of a liv- 

 ing animal, sleep is immediately brought on. This sleep, like that pro- 

 duced by compression of any other part of the cerebral mass, is really 

 a state of disease ; and no more natural than apoplexy. Others, con- 

 ceiving sleep, no doubt, analogous to this affection, ascribe it to the col- 



