SLEEP CONFINED TO THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 227 



CONVERSATION IX. 



Sleep necessary quantity varied by age, habit, tempera- 

 ment, fyc. state of the brain during sleep dreaming, 

 somnambulism influence of sleep on the other func- 

 tions influence of habit on the animal and organic 

 functions difference in the origin of these functions 

 relations and mutual influence of the functions 

 laws of existence death. 



Emily. To day you are to speak of sleep that re- 

 pose in which man participates with every other mem- 

 ber of the animal kind. It is singular how necessary the 

 periodical return of this state is to the animal system, in- 

 somuch that to a person in good health, it is one of the 

 most difficult things to keep awake twenty four hours in 

 succession. I have heard the animal system aptly 

 compared to a watch which required winding up once in 

 twenty four hours and this winding up is sleep. 



Dr. ~B. The comparison is hardly just, if by animal 

 system you mean the constitution generally, for sleep is 

 confined to what we have called the organs of animal 

 life. The functions of organic life are not suspended in 

 this way ; respiration, circulation, secretion, &LC. are in 

 continual action. The organs of animal life require 

 frequent intervals of repose, to recruit their exhausted 

 powers, and in this state of inactivity, the individual 

 seems to enjoy a mere vegetative existence. 



.Emily. It has appeared to me a little surprising that 



