334 PHYSIOLOGY. 



in partial or complete repose. This is called somnambulism 

 or sleep-walking. j 



11. Many remarkable cases of somnambulism have been 

 lately published, as the effects of animal magnetism ; but in 

 many of these, it is to be feared, credulity existed on one 

 side, and imposition was practised on the other. That som- 

 nambulism, or a state nearly similar, is brought about by the 

 practices of magnetizers in persons of acute sensibility, and 

 highly excitable nervous temperament, would seem scarcely 

 to admit of a doubt. Still, all such cases should be regarded 

 with great circumspection, and every means employed to 

 detect imposition and fraud. 



12.\Somnambulism seems to differ from the waking state, 

 only in consciousness being absentJ The person appears to 

 enjoy the full exercise of all his faculties ; he can converse, 

 walk, sing, compose verses, and perform various operations ; 

 and yet in the waking state he has no recollection of what 

 has occurred. In this respect somnambulism differs from 

 dreaming, and resembles a morbid state ; indeed, it is a state 

 of disease analagous to trance, catalepsy, or epilepsy. 



13. | A state, the reverse of somnambulism, is called incu- 

 bus, or nightmare. In this affection, a person feels a sense 

 of weight and suffocation, as if there was a heavy load on 

 his stomach or chest, and imagines that some frightful object 

 is seated there]. This is owing to some oppression of the 

 digestive, circulatory, and respiratory organs, most usually 

 occasioned by a late, hearty supper of indigestible food. 



/Frightful dreams denote ill health; and are often caused by 

 \L- derangement of some important organ, as of the heart, 

 stomach, or liver, exciting the brain to sympathetic action. 

 To dream immediately on going to sleep, is always a mark 

 of disease. 



14. There is still another state which bears a close resem- 

 blance to somnambulism, and this is termed revery, absence 

 of mind, or brown study. In this, the attention is so com- 



