NETHERLANDS, THE. 



555 



watch, and, being suddenly aroused by the officer in 

 command, attacked the latter with his sword, and 

 would have killed him but for the interposition of 

 the by-standers. The result of the medical examina- 

 tion was that the act was involuntary, being the result 

 of a violent contusion of mind consequent upon the 

 sudden awaking from a profound sleep. Other cases 

 are cited by Wharton and Stille" in their work on 

 medical jurisprudence, by Hoffbauer, and by myself 

 in " Sleep and its Derangements." 



The following cases among others have occurred in 

 my own experience: A gentleman was roused one 

 night by his wife, who heard the street-door bell ring. 

 He got up, and, without paying attention to what she 

 said, dragged the sheets off of the bed, tore them hur- 

 riedly into strips, and proceeded to tie the pieces to- 

 gether. She finally succeeded in bringing him to 

 himself, when he said he had thought the house was 

 on fire, and he was providing means for their escape. 

 He did not recollect haying had any dream of the 

 kind, but was under the impression that the idea had 

 occurred to him at the instant of awaking. A few 

 years ago I had a gentleman under my charge who 

 would attempt to execute any order given him while 

 he was asleep by a person whispering into his ear. 

 Thus, if told in this way to shout, he shouted as loud 

 as he could ; if ordered to get up, he at once jumped 

 from the bed ; if directed to repeat certain words, he 

 said them, and so on. I am not able to give any cer- 

 tain explanation of the phenomena of " miryachit " or 

 of the " jumpers." or of certain of those cases of sleep- 

 drunkenness which seem to be of like character. But 

 they all appear to be due to the fact that a motor im- 

 pulse is excited by perceptions without the necessary 

 concurrence of the volition of the individual to cause 

 the discharge. They are, therefore, analogous to re- 

 flex actions, and especially to certain epileptic par- 

 oxysms due to reflex irritations. It would seem as 

 though the nerve-cells were very much in the condi- 

 tion of a package of dynamite^ or nitroglycerin, in 

 which a very slight impression is sufficient to effect a 

 discharge of nerve-force. 



NETHERLANDS, THE, a constitutional mon- 

 archy in western Europe. The Constitution, 

 proclaimed Nov. 3, 1848, vests the legislative 

 authority in the States-General, composed of 

 two chambers. The upper consists of 39 mem- 

 bers, chosen by the provincial councils from 

 among the highest class of tax-payers; the 

 lower, consisting of 86 members, is elected by 

 citizens paying from twenty to sixty guilders 

 of direct taxes. 



The Government. The reigning King is Will- 

 iam III, born Feb. 19, 1817, who succeeded 

 his father, William II, March 17, 1849. The 

 ministry is composed of the following mem- 

 bers : Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. P. J. A. 

 M. van der Does de Willebois ; Minister of the 

 Interior, Dr. J. Heeinskerk Az; Minister of 

 Justice, Dr. Baron M. W. du Tour van Bellin- 

 chave; Minister of Finance, W. J. L. Grobbee; 

 Minister of the Colonies, J. P. Sprenger van 

 Eick ; Minister of the Waterstaat, Commerce, 

 and Industry, J. G. van den Bergh ; Minister 

 of War, Major-General A. W. P. Weitzel; Min- 

 ister of Marine, W. F. van Erp Taalman Kip. 



Area and Population. The area of the Nether- 

 lands is 12,648 square miles, or 32,999 square 

 kilometres. The population in 1883 was 4,225,- 

 065, of which number 2,090,850 were males 

 and 2,134,215 females. The number of mar- 

 riages in 1883 was 29,815, of births 151,779, 

 of deaths 99,333, excess of births 52,4i6. As 



returned in the census of 1879, the population 

 was divided into 2,469,814 Protestants, 1,439,- 

 137 Catholics, 81,693 Israelites, and 22,049 of 

 other beliefs. The principal cities are Amster- 

 dam, with 361,326 inhabitants; Rotterdam, with 

 166,002; and the Hague, with 131,417 on the 

 31st of December, 1883. 



Commerce. The total value of the special 

 imports in 1882 was 937,680,000 guilders, as 

 compared with 865,568,000 guilders in 1880; 

 of the exports, 712,344,000, as compared with 

 647.975,000 guilders. Including the commerce 

 with the Dutch colonies the imports amounted 

 to 992,108,000, and the exports to 752,061,000 

 guilders. Of the imports, 290,712,000 guilders 

 came from the German Zollverein, 276,065,000 

 from Great Britain, 123,682,000 from Belgium, 

 76,493,000 from Russia, 42,784,000 from the 

 United States, and 53,103,000 from Java. Of 

 the exports, 336,255,000 guilders went to the 

 Zollverein, 155,683,000 to Great Britain, 112,- 

 884,000 to Belgium, 38,319,000 to the United 

 States, and 39,457,000 to Java. The imports 

 of articles of consumption in 1879 amounted 

 to 292,900,000 guilders, exports 233,800,000 ; 

 imports of raw materials 252,100,000, exports 

 141,600,000 guilders ; imports of manufactured 

 products 109,500,000, exports 80,400,000 guil- 

 ders ; imports of miscellaneous articles 161,- 

 300,000, exports 122,800,000 guilders ; imports 

 of precious metals 30,900,000, exports 3,100,- 

 000 guilders. 



Navigation. The total sailing tonnage with 

 cargoes entered in 1883 at Dutch ports was 

 2,246,927 cubic metres, of which 797,600 were 

 under the Dutch flag ; in ballast 35,838 cubic 

 metres, under the Dutch flag 19,202. The 

 steam tonnage entered with cargoes was 8,750,- 

 949 cubic metres, of which 2,417,435 carried 

 the Dutch flag; in ballast 153,303, of which 

 25,622 cubic metres were under the Dutch 

 flag. The merchant navy on the 1st of Janu- 

 ary, 1883, counted 701 sailing-vessels, weigh- 

 ing 587,473 cubic metres, and 96 steamers, 

 weighing 288,008. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs, The mileage 

 of railroads open to traffic Jan. 1, 1883, was 

 2,001 kilometres, of which 1,052 belonged to 

 the state. 



The number of private letters forwarded in 

 1883 was 47,162,360 domestic, 14,232,332 in- 

 ternational letters, and 20,235,882 post-cards, 

 total 81,630,574; the total number of journals, 

 45,773,598. The receipts of the administration 

 in 1883 were 4,924,382 guilders, expenditures 

 3,572,869 guilders. 



The length of the state telegraph lines on 

 Jan. 1, 1884, was 4,255 kilometres, the length 

 of wires 15,714 kilometres; the number of 

 dispatches in 1883 was 2,072,680 for the inte- 

 rior, and 1,274,463 foreign ; the receipts 1,065,- 

 479 guilders, expenditures 1,546,397 ordinary, 

 and 87,845 extraordinary. 



Finance. The budget for 1884 makes the to- 

 tal expenditures 143,580,725 guilders, of which 

 32,358,566 are on account of the public debt ; 



