57 
rigid, especially when the patient is still: this is the reverse of their 
condition in sleep, when they are usually flaccid even in motion 
but are entirely so at rest. 
The somnambule with his eyes closed and all his senses sealed, 
will perform his daily work, however intricate, write, read, thread a 
needle, sew, and do other works requiring keen insight, manual dex- 
terity, and delicate touch. During the entire acting of this, the senses 
continue paralyzed. He neither sees nor hears nor feels with the 
bodily organs. Zhe mind only is awake; and manifestly the mind 
then receives impressions of external objects, and guides the actions 
of the body without the assistance of its usual informants, the 
Senses. If undisturbed, the patient usually retires to his bed; 
somnambulism gives place to sleep; the limbs relax; dreams 
come, go, and are remembered. Finally, he wakes from slumber 
without the slightest recollection of anything that had happened 
during the period of somnambulism. 
This description of the condition of somnambulism is abridged 
from the second volume of the late Serjeant Cox’s work,* “ What 
am I?” 
I will now give you one or two examples of the state of 
natural somnambulism which appear in more than one of the 
books relating to the subject. Dr. Arnold Weinholt reports the 
following on the authority of Dr. Schulz, the famous physician of 
Hamburgh :— 
‘* A girl between twelve and thirteen years of age belonging to a family of 
some distinction, was afflicted with a violent nervous complaint in which strong 
convulsive motion alternated with catalepsy and syncope. Besides, she 
frequently had paroxysms, during which she conversed with much liveliness 
and ingenuity. In this state she distinguished without difficulty all colours that 
were presented to her, recognised the numbers of cards, and the stripes upon 
those which were variegated. She described the colour of the binding of books 
when shown to her. She wrote in the same method as usual, and cut figures 
in paper as she was accustomed to do for pastime in her waking state. Her 
eyes at this time were firmly closed ; but in order to be assured that she made 
“no use of them, a bandage was placed over them on the approach of the 
paroxysm.” 
* Whatam I? A Popular Introduction to Mental Philosophy and Psychology. 
By Edward W. Cox, Serjeant-at-Law. London: Longman and Co., Pater- 
noster Row. 1874. 
