** cSIccp anb Jxtmus." 



By 0. MUNRO SMITH, L.R.C.P.Loni)., M.R.C.S. 

 February Uh, 1886. 



IT is ohviniis tli.at tho stibjeot I wish to call yniir '.liUmiMtn 

 to this cvoning is a very wide one ; for the considor- 

 fition of the nature and phenomena of sleep in all its 

 forms necessitates also an investigation into the nature of 

 life itself which is its antithesis, and death which it 

 mysteriously resembles ; and if wo endeavour to follow 

 some of the questions involved to their limits, we shall 

 find ourselves embarked on a sea of stormy metaphysics, 

 in which there is great danger of being hopelessly over- 

 whelmed. To avoid this as much as possible, I am, anxious 

 to confine myself chiefly to some of the fiicts and theories 

 bearing upon the causation of sleep. To do this with any 

 hope of success, we must try to break into the region of 

 poetry and romance, to rescue the subject from the fatal 

 moonlight glamour in which it lies, and to expose it to 

 the daylight of physiology. I do not mean to imply that 

 this has not been done before, and I certainly i do not 

 in tin's paper claim any originality. Dr. Carpenter, M. 

 Mauray, Abercrombie, Dr. Simmons, and many others have 

 carefully investigated it in a scientific spirit, and have 

 thrown great light on it ; but most people seem inclined 

 cither to take; it for granted that to go to shxip is part of 



