THE TREATMENT OP DISEASES. 



impossible to do so, and the countenance assumes a ghastly expression, with the 

 eyes half open. In a minute or two the power of movement returns, the patient 

 by a mighty effort succeeds in rousing himself, fearing each moment lest the horrible 

 paroxysm should recur. 



Morbid dreams are not unfrequently among the premonitory symptoms of 

 insanity, and should be regarded as an indication, either that the digestive organs 

 are not performing their functions properly, or that the patient is over-taxing his 

 strength bodily or mentally, or perhaps both. Many cases of insanity preceded by 

 terrifying dreams have been recorded. In one a lady dreamed that she had 

 committed murder under circumstances of great atrocity. She cut up the dead 

 body, but could not with all her efforts divide the head, which resisted her blows 

 with an axe and other instruments. Finally she filled the nose, eyes, and mouth 

 with gunpowder, and applied a match. Instead of exploding, smoke issued slowly 

 from the orifices of the skull, and was resolved into a human form, which finally 

 assumed the shape of a police officer sent to arrest her. She was imprisoned, tried, 

 and sentenced to execution by being drowned in a lake of melted sulphur. While 

 the preparations were being made for the punishment she awoke. This dream was 

 repeated on several subsequent nights, and finally it made such an impression on 

 her mind, that she had to be placed under restraint. 



We must now turn our attention to the measures that may be taken for the cure 

 of somnambulism, and the allied conditions to which we have had occasion to refer. 

 To begin with, it is essential that the patient should be removed from the society of 

 those who would be disposed, thoughtlessly perhaps, to foster into a habit the 

 recently-established disease. This of course applies chiefly to the case of boys and 

 girls at school. Then the patient must be prevented from falling into that morbidly 

 deep sleep in which the phenomena we have described are usually produced. He 

 should never be allowed to indulge in what has been called the " intoxication of 

 repose." This is best accomplished by waking him up once or twice in the night, 

 before he has had time to walk or talk or perform other unseemly acts. In the case 

 of adults, this may be accomplished by an alarum, which may be purchased for a few 

 shillings. This simple precaution will often succeed in effecting a cure. Should 

 the patient always or usually become somnambulistic at a certain hour, the alarum 

 should awake him a little before that time. People have sometimes cured them- 

 selves by tying their wrists to the bed-post before going to sleep. Care should be 

 taken to lie with the head high, and the body should not be covered with too great 

 a weight of bed-clothes. When the health rs below par it should be seen to at once, 

 or treatment will prove of little avail. Constipation should be remedied without 

 delay. Plenty of exercise should be taken in the open air, and the hours of sleep 

 may be advantageously limited to six or seven that is, for an adult. The bedroom 

 should, if possible, be large and airy, but at all events the windows should be left 

 open all night for a good inch at the top, winter and summer. Heavy suppers must 

 be avoided, and malt liquors are to be taken with caution. The best supper for a 

 somnambulist is a glass of milk and a piece of dry bread or a biscuit. He should 

 sleep on a hard mattress in preference to a feather bed. The specific medicine for 

 these cases is bromide 'of potassium two or three table-spoonfuls of the mixture 



