en 



SuMNAMlll'l-ISM. 



tori* work, ' Delia Kom dt-ll.i Fantasia Humana ;' some of them given 

 on the authority of Gauendi. One of Gaasendi's umDambuli8U uaed 

 to rise and drew himself in hi* sleep, go down to the cellar and 

 draw wine from a calk. He appeared to aee in the dark a*, well as 

 in a clear day ; but when he awoko, . itli.-r in the street or cellar, 

 he was obliged to grope anl feel hia way back to his bed. He always 

 answered his wife as if awake, but in the morning recollected nothing 

 of what had passed. Another sleep-walker, a countryman of Gassendi's, 

 piased on stilts over a swollen torrent in the uight, but oil awaking 

 was afraid to return before daylight, or until the water had subsided. 

 This species of somnambulism has been known to be hereditary. 

 II. ! -tins, in his work 'De Xatura, Differentiis, et Causis eoruin qui 

 I ). : mientes ambulant ' (seu ' de Noctauibulouibus '), Lips., 1695, 8vo., 

 ).. 17-', im-ntioiiH three brothers who wore affected with it at the same 

 tii:.,- ; and Willis knew a whole family that was subject to it. Perhaps 

 however these may rather be considered as instances of the influence 

 of example and of the power of unconscious imitation, which some- 

 times render* it in a manner contagious. Of this there is a curious 

 example given by Dr. IVzzi, in a work entitled ' Scretti di Medico 

 Argomento,' Venet, 1813. It appears that his nephew, after reading 

 more ft **" once the history of a somnambulist, was himself seized with 

 this affection ; and also that the servant who attended him soon began 

 to exhibit iu his own person similar phenomena. 



Essential somnambulism occurs in many persons (says Dr. Good) 

 without any manifest predisponent cause, though it is generally con- 

 nected with a considerable irritability of habit. A morbid state of 

 much, whore thifl habit exists, has very frequently proved an 

 exciting cause ; and where this is the case, the attention of the phy- 

 sician must of course be directed to that quarter. With respect to 

 tli.- in. tic of treatment during the fit, though it hag sometimes been 

 recommended to employ violent means, so as to awaken the somnam- 

 bulist suddenly, and to repeat thia as often as the attacks come on, 

 until they have completely ceased ; yet M. Bertrand warns us against 

 such a proceeding. " If, in the first place," says he, " sensibility is 

 completely extinguished, all the means employed to awaken the 

 somnambulist will be useless ; secondly, even when it is possible to 

 awaken him at once, the sudden shock produces serious conse- 

 quences ; thirdly, as somnambulism is often the result of a salutary 

 crisis of nature, one is never sure of not hurting the patient by sup- 

 pressing it ; and, lastly, the sudden suspension of habit of the animal 

 economy that has been contracted for a long time, must in all cases be 

 attended with danger." He adds that the best plan is to try to put 

 oneself in connection with the patient by entering into the course of 

 ideas by which he is occupied during the attack, and so endeavour to 

 direct him in a reasonable manner. 



II. Symptomatic or Morbid Somnambulism generally presents itself as 

 one of the phenomena attending catalepsy. [CATALEPSY.] This form 

 of somnambulism does not appear to have been noticed by the ancients ; 

 but there are many cases on record long before the time of Mesmer, 

 as well as others described by persons unacquainted with and even 

 opposed to the doctrines of animal magnetism. The following case is 

 given by Colquhoun, on the authority of Sauvages, and may be found 

 in greater detail in the ' Hist, de 1' Academic des Sciences,' for the year 

 1 ~i- : A girl of twenty years of age was frequently attacked with cata- 

 leptic insensibility, during which she continued stiff and deprived of all 

 sensation, whether standing, sitting, or lying, in the position she might 

 happen to be in at the time of the commencement of the attack, and 

 she could be pushed forward, like a statue, when it was wished to 

 remove her from one place to another. She was afterwards placed in a 

 different state, which commenced with the same deprivation of sense 

 ami luotion, but at intervals presented a wonderful kind of animation. 

 She first became motionless, then, some minutes afterwards, she begau 

 to yawn, sat up on the bed, and enacted the following scene, which she 

 repeated at least fifty times. She spoke with an unusual liveliness and 

 cheerfulness, and what she said was a continuation of what she had 

 i-poken in her previous fit, or a repetition of some part of the catechism 

 which she had heard read on the preceding evening. She frequently 

 addressed her acquaintances in the house, and sometimes made ironical 

 applications of moral apophthegms to them under feigned names with 

 open eyes, and such gestures as she had made the previous evening. 

 That during all this time she was not awake, was clear from various 

 experiments. A hand was suddenly passed near her eyes, without pro- 

 ducing any motion in the eyelids or any attempt to evade it, or inter- 

 rupting her speech in the slightest degree. The same thing happened 

 win -n a finger was suddenly approached close to her eye, or a burning 

 taper held so near to it that the hair of her eyelids was actually burnt, 

 and also when any one called loudly into her ear from behind, or threw 

 a stone against the bedstead. Nay more, brandy and spirit of hurl* 

 horn were poured into her eyes and mouth ; Spanish snuff was blown 

 into her nostrils; she was pricked with needles; IKT litters were 

 wrenched ; the ball of her eye wag touched with a feather, and even 

 with the finger : yet she manifested not the slightest sensation. During 

 these trances she always began to speak with more than usual animation 

 noon afterwards, she sang and laughed aloud, attempted to get out oi 

 bed, and at length sprang out of it and uttered a cry of joy. She kepi 

 the middle way between the bedsteads as well as when awake, and 

 never came against them turned dexterously round between the bed- 

 steads and a concealed closet, without ever groping her way or touching 



the objects ; and after turning round, she returned to her bed, covered 

 elf with the clothes, and again became stiff as at the commence- 

 ment. She then awoke as if from a profound sleep, aud when she per- 

 ceived, from the appearance of the bystanders, that she must have had 

 ler fits again, she wept the whole day for shame, and m \ . i know 

 what had happened to her during the paroxysm. The above is by no 

 means one of the most wonderful cases of somnambulism oocuring during 

 a cataleptic seizure, but it has been chosen on account of the respect- 

 able authority on which it rests. Those recorded by M. I 

 ,' Memoire sur la Docouverte des Phduomcnes que presentent la 

 lepsie et le Somnambulisuie, ic.,' 1787 ; and Klectricito' Auimulu 

 prouviSe par la Decouverte des Phduonienes Physiques et Moraux <)< hi 

 JaUlepsie Hyste'rique, et de ses Varie'tes,' Lyon, 1808), are nut porhui-s 

 less authentic. 



III. Artificial Somnambulitm, or that which is occasioned by the 

 proceedings employed in animal magnetism, is not expressly mentioned 

 l>y any ancient writer, but some lines by Solon, and a verse in Plautus 

 (' Auiphitr.' i. 1-157) have been supposed by some persons to allude to 

 these manipulations. As an account of the doctrines of Mesmer has 

 been already given under the head of ANIMAL MAGNETISM, it will be 

 sufficient here to refer to the ' Kapport sur Ics Experiences Magne'tiques 

 faites par la Commission de I'Academie Koyale de Meclecine [a Pari*), 

 lu dans les Seances des 21 et 28 Juin, 1831, par M. Husson, Rapporteur.' 



With respect to the phenomenon of somnambulism as eau.-.'l >>- 

 mesmerism, or animal magnetism, so much credulity and deception 

 have been brought to light in connection with it, that a person cannot 

 be too cautious in sifting aud weighing the evidence on which each of 

 the alleged instances rests ; but after all this mass of kn,i\ > TV :.nd folly 

 has been cleared away, there still remain a large number of instances 

 which cannot be disbelieved without discarding all historical e\ 

 whatever. For more information on the subject the reader may con- 

 sult, besides the works already quoted, the Rev. Chaunoey Towns- 

 bend's work on Somnambulism, and 'Le Magiu'tisuic Animal m 

 France,' by M. Bertrand, Paris, 1826. 



IV. Ecstatic Somnambulism, M. Bertrand has given this name to 

 that species which is produced by a high exaltation of the mind, and 

 becomes in a manner infectious by sympathy in such persons as are 

 predisposed and subjected to the same influences. Of this last species, 

 the devotional ecslatit is perhaps the most frequent and the most 

 remarkable ; and this has been supposed to have had some com: 

 with the oracles and other miraculous stories of antiquity. M. Ber- 

 trand has, however, for obvious reasons, selected his instances i'mm 

 four different periods iu modern times, in each of which the devotional 

 ecstasis appeared as a sort of epidemic, and presented symptoms very 

 similar to those occurring in the three former species of somnambulism. 

 The first series of phenomena are those which took place in connection 

 with the burning of the unhappy Grandier on the charge of sorcery at 

 Loudun, in 1634, an account of which may be found in Bayle (' Diet. 

 Hist.,' art. ' Grandier ') ; or in the ' Hist, des Diables de Loudun,' by a 

 Protestant Refugee, Anist., 1693, 12mo. The next instances are ex- 

 tracted from a scarce work entitled ' Thdatre SacriS des Cdvenues,' and 

 relate to the French Protestants who, after the revocation of tho 

 Edict of Nantes, 1685, went by the name of the ' Trembleurs des 

 Cevennes,' and were persecuted aud massacred in those mountains. 

 The tliird epidemic broke out at the tomb of the AbbcS Paris in the 

 church of St. Mcdard, at Paris, about the year 1731. These are 

 perhaps the most celebrated of all, as having been selected by Hume 

 to oppose to the miracles of the New Testament. The original and 

 authentic account of them was published by Jl. Carre de Montgeron, 

 in a work entitled ' La Verite" des Miracles operes a 1'Intercessiou de 

 M. de Paris,' c., 2 vols. 4to, 1737, 1741 ; and they are examined at 

 some length and with great acuteness by Bishop Douglas, in hU 

 ' Criterion, or Miracles Examined,' &c. To these he has added, 

 fourthly, some considerations on the state produced in the patients 

 who, towards the end of the last century, were exorcised by a juir-t 

 named Gossner, at Ratisbon. All account of these (supposed) mira- 

 culous cures is to be found in a work entitled ' L'Aiitimagni'tisme ; 

 ou Origine, Progres, Decadence, Iteuouvellement, et Refutation du 

 Magnetisme Animal," 8vo, Londres, 1784 (pronounced by M. Deleuze 

 to be the ablest publication that had appeared against the doctrines of 

 Mesmer), which account is extracted from a work called ' Proces-verlial 

 des Operations Merveilleuses, ic., par le Ministcre du Sieur Gassner,' 

 lie., Schillingsfiirst, 1775. As, however, neither these nor many other 

 examples that might be brought forward can be fully noticed here, it 

 has been thought sufficient to point out the places where further 

 information may be procured. 



SONG, a term applied to either a short poetical or musical com- 

 position, but most frequently to the two in union. 



As denoting a musical composition, long is used, in this country, to 

 signify a vocal melody of any length or character, and not confined to 

 a single movement ; and while the solemn air of the oratorio, and the 

 aria grande of the Italian opera, are frequently, though erroneously, 

 calK-d by this name, the same is bestowed on the short, simple ballad. 

 But this is only one instance among many of the defective state of our 

 musical nomenclature. Of the varict , see Am, BALLAD, CAN- 



The term however is not absolutely unlimited in its meaning, 

 for, as regards performance, it is most frequently confined to an air for a 

 single voice. Thus 'our composers, especially iu the 16th and 17th 



