*66 Of* REVERIE. Si-.cT.XlX 8. 9} 



their aflociatibn with each other. As the heart of 

 a viper pulfates long after it is cut out of the body, 

 and removed from the ftimulus of the blood. 



8. In the fection on fleep, it was obferved 

 that the nerves of fenfe are equally alive 'and fuf- 

 ceptible to 'irritation in that ftate, as when we are 

 awake ; but that they are fecluded from ftimulating 

 objects, or rendered unfit to receive them : but in 

 complete reverie the reverfe happens, the immedi- 

 ate organs of fenfe are e*xpofed to their ufual (li- 

 mn li ; but are either not excited into action at all, 

 or not into fp great action, as to produce attention 

 or fenfation. 



The total forgetfulnefs of what Cartes in reveries ; 

 and the. furprife on recovering from them, are ex- 

 plained in Se&ion XVIII, 19. and in Section XVIL 



3- 7- 



9. It appears from hence, that rever e is a dif- 



eafe of the epileptic or cataleptic kind, fmce the 

 paroxyfms of this young lady always began and 

 frequently terminated with convulfia^s ; and though 

 in its greateft degree it has been called fomnambu- 

 lation, or fleep-walking, it is totally different from 

 fleep ; becaufe the eflential character of ileep con- 

 lifts in the total fufpenfion of volition, which in re- 

 verie is not affected ; and tl>e eflential character of 

 reverie confifts not in the abfence of thofe irritative 

 motions of our fenfes, which are occafioned by the 

 ftimulus of external objects, but in their never 

 being productive of fenfation. So that during a fit 

 of reverie that if range event happens to the whole, 

 fyftem of nerves, which .occurs only to fome parti- 

 cular branches of them in thofe, who are a fecond 

 time expofed to the action of contagious matter. 

 If the matter of the fmall-pox be inferted into the 

 arm of one, who has previoufly had that difeafe, it 

 will (limulate the wound, but the general fenfation 

 or inflammation of the fyftem dees not follow, 



which 



