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CLXI. Of dreams and somnambulism. Although sleep implies the per- 

 fect repose of the organs of sensation and of motion, some of these or- 

 gans persist in their activity*; which obliges us to acknowledge inter- 

 mediate states between sleep and waking, real mixed situations, which 

 belong, more or less, to one or to the other. Let us suppose, for instance, 

 that the imagination reproduces, in the brain, sensations it has formerly 

 known, the intellect works, associates, and combines ideas, often dis- 

 cordant, and sometimes natural, brings forth monsters, horrible, fantastic, 

 or ridiculous ;. raises joy, hope, grief, surprise, or terror ; and all these 

 fancies, all these emotions, are recollected more or less distinctly, when 

 we are again awake, so as to allow no doubt but that the brain has been 

 really in action, during the repose of the organs of sense and motion. 

 Dreams is the name given to these phenomena. Sometimes we speak 

 in sleep, and this brings us a little nearer to the state of waking, since 

 to the action of the brain is added that of the organs of speech. Finally, 

 all the relative functions are capable of action, excepting the outward 

 senses. The brain acts, and determines the action of the organs of mo- 

 tion or speech, only in consequence of former impressions ; and this state, 

 which differs from waking, only by the inaction of the senses, is called 

 somnambulism. 



On this head we meet with surprising relations. Somnambulists have 

 been seen to get up, dress, go out of the house, opening and shutting 

 carefully all the doors, dig, draw water, hold rational and connected dis- 

 course, go to bed again, and awake without any recollection of what 

 they had said and done in their sleep. This state is always very perilous. 

 For as they proceed entirely upon former impressions, somnambulists 

 have no warning from their senses, of the dangers they are near. Ac- 

 cordingly, they are often seen throwing themselves out at a window, or 

 falling from roofs, on which they have got up, without being on that ac- 

 count more dexterous in balancing themselves there, as the vulgar believe 

 in their fondness for the marvellous. 



Sometimes, one organ of sense remains open to impression, and then 

 you can direct, at pleasure, the intellectual action. Thus, you will make 

 him that talks in his sleep, speak on what subject you choose, and steal 

 from him the confession of his most secret thoughts. This fact may be 

 cited in proof of the errors of the senses, "and of the need there is to cor- 

 rect them by one another. 



The conditions of the organs influences the subject of the dreams. The 

 superabundance of the seminal fluid provokes libidinous dreams; those 

 labouring under pituitary cachexies will dream of objects of a hue like 

 that of their fluids. The hydropic dreams of waters and fountains, 

 whilst he who is suffering with an inflammatory affection, sees all things 

 tinged red, that is, of the colour of blood, the predominant fluid. 



Difficult digestion disturbs sleep. If the stomach, over-filled with food, 

 hinders the falling of the diaphragm, the chest dilates with difficulty, the 

 blood, which flows through the. lungs, stagnates in the right cavities of 

 the heart, and a painful sensation comes on, as if an enormous weight lay 



* The individual who even enjoys the most profound sleep, seldom wakens in the 

 same position as that^in which he was at the moment of falling asleep : it is changed 

 frequently during the time, owing, perhaps, to certain obscure sensations giving rise 

 to movements analogous to those of the foetus in utero, although more perfect, and 

 seemingly influenced by habit, &c. 



