652 SLEEP-WAKING. 



wonders of him, because I lay no stress upon the circumstance of 

 sleep-wakers sometimes apparently seeing in the dark or with their 

 eyes shut, though it is unquestionable and occurred even in 

 some of the cases which I have already detailed, since the 

 sight may become so acute that darkness is light to them, and 

 since the smallest aperture of the eyelids may be sufficient to 

 see through, and access may not be totally impossible to the 

 eyes, though they appear closed or are even bandaged. A case 

 is related, by Professor Feder, of a Gottingen student, who, in his 

 sleep, with his eyes shut, would select music, place it on his harp- 

 sichord, and play it expressively ; write letters ; tell that it snowed, 

 and that a man was at the window of the opposite house, &c. A 

 ropemaker at Breslau, would be seized with sleep in the midst 

 of his occupation, and, when his surface, ears, and nose were 

 perfectly insensible, and his eyes firmly closed, continue his busi- 

 ness just if he had been awake, pursue his journey without miss- 

 ing the road, and, finding some timber in a narrow lane, pass over 

 it as well as if awake, and once on horseback, in passing the 

 river lime on his way to Weimar, let his horse drink, and drew 

 up his legs to prevent them from getting wet; yet " he could 

 not see when his eyes were forced open." d Dr. Schultz of Ham- 

 burgh speaks of a girl of thirteen, who, in her paroxysms, recog- 

 nised all colours, and the number and stripes of painted cards, not 

 only with her eyes closed, but bandaged. 



In America, Dr. Belden, in 1834- e , very minutely detailed 

 an extraordinary case, in which the sleep waker, a girl of six- 

 teen, did, in her paroxysms, every thing with the greatest 

 accuracy that she was accustomed to do when awake, threaded 

 needles, read, wrote, and corrected any omissions, although 

 in darkness and with her eyes closed and most carefully 

 bandaged. Sometimes she evidently saw and was directed 

 by her eyes ; for, when once the stair-door, which was usually 

 left open, was fastened by the blade of a knife placed over the 

 latch, she rushed from her room impatiently, and, extending 

 her hand before reaching the door, seized the knife and threw 

 it indignantly on the floor, exclaiming, Why do you wish 

 to fasten me in ? Her eyes were sometimes wide open, and the 



d These cases are quoted in Isis revelata from the French Encyclopaedia.) 

 vol. xxxviii. ; Encyclopaedia Britannica, SLEEPWALKER; Psychological Magazine ; 

 Acta Vratislav. class iv. art. 7. 



e Journal of the Medical Sciences, No. 28. 



