S O M 



S O M 



SOMMARNAS, a town of Sweden, in the province 

 of Tavaltland ; 35 miles S.S.W. of Tavalthus. 



SOMME, a river of France, which rifes near Fon- 

 fomme, in the department of the Aifne, paffes by or near 

 to St. Quentin, Ham, Peronne, Bray, Corbie, Amiens, 

 Pequijjny, Abbeville, St. Valery, &c. and runs into the 

 Englifti Channel, about 5 miles AV.N.W. of St. Valery. 



SoMME, one of the eleven departments of the northern 

 region of France, compofed of Amienois, Ponthieu, Vi- 

 meux, and Santerre, between Calais and Oile, in N. lat. 

 49° 45', and bounded on the N. by the department of the 

 Straits of Calais, on the E. by the department of the 

 Aifne, on the S. by the department of the Oife, and on the 

 W. by that of the Lower Seine, and the Englifli Channel. 

 Its territorial extent is 65125 kiliometrcs, or in French 

 leagues 34 in length, and 16 in breadth. It is divided into 

 5 circles or dillricts, 41 cantons, and 848 communes. The 

 circles are Abbeville, containing 1 14,060 inhabitants ; Doul- 

 lans, with 45,627 ; Peronne, with 91,470 ; Montdidier, 

 with 62,668 ; and Amiens, with 151,209 inhabitants: the 

 whole population being 465,034. According to M. Haf- 

 fenfratz, it is divided into 5 circles and 72 cantons ; and 

 its population confiits of 381,760 perfons. The capital is 

 Amiens. In the year 1 1 of the French era, the amount of 

 its contributions was 5,650,664 fr., and its expences and 

 charges 395,027 fr. 69 cents. This department is fertile 

 in grain, fruits, hemp, flax, and pallures, and has fome 

 forefts. 



SOMMEIL, in French Mufic, an invocation to fleep ; 

 an old French movement of the lullaby kind, rHUch in fa- 

 vour during the time of Merfennus ; and continued in ufe, 

 according to Blainville, in the reign of Louis XIV., when 

 operas were firft attempted at Paris. 



SOMME RD A, or Sommern, in Geography, a town of 

 Saxony, in the territory of Erfurt ; 1 1 miles N.N.E. of 

 Erfurt. 



SOMMERDYCK, or Sommelsdyke, or Zomerdych, a 

 town of Holland, and chief town of the ifland of Over- 

 fiakee ; 2C miles W.S.W. of Dort. 



SOMMEREUX, a town of France, in the department 

 of the Oife; 3 miles N.E. of Grandvilliers. 



SOMMERFELD, a town of the New Mark of Bran- 

 denburg ; 15 miles S. of CrofTen. 



SOMMERGEM. SeeSoMEROEM. 



SOMME RO, a fmall ifland in the gulf of Finland. N. 

 lat. eo'' 8'. E. long. 24° 36'. 



SOMMERSET. See Somerset. 



SOMMERSHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in the 

 lordfhip of Speckfeld, on tlie Maine ; 4 miles S. of Wurz- 

 burg. N. lat 49° 45'.' E. long. 10° ?'. 



SOMMIER, Fr. the wind-cheft, or found-board of an 

 organ. Sec Sound-board. 



SOMMIERES, in Geography, a town of France, and 

 principal place of a diftriA, in the department of the 

 Gard ; 1 2 miles S.W. of Nifmes. N. lat. 43° 47'. E. long. 

 4° 1 1'. 



SOMMITE, in Minernlogy, Nepheliiie, Haiiy, a mineral 

 which occun. in fmall cryltals and cryllalline grains, in the 

 lava on the fides of mount Soinma, a part of Vefuvius. The 

 form of the cryftal is a fix-fided prifm ; the colour is greyilh 

 or greenifh-vThite : the angles are fufiiciently hard to fcratch 

 glafs. The cryftais are lankllar on the faces of the prifm, 

 but conchoidal, with a vitreous lulhe, in the diredtioii perpen- 

 dicular to the axis of the cryltal. It melts with difficulty 

 before the blow-pipe, into a tranfparent homogentoufi glafs. 



Its fpecific gravity is 3.3. According to Vauquelin, fom. 

 mite contains 



46 



49 

 2 

 I 



Silex . . _ 



Alumine 



Lime ... 



Oxyd of iron 



This mineral covers the cavities of lava, and is accom- 

 panied with hornblende, mica, and vefuvian. 



SOMNAMBULISM, in Medicine, horn fomnus, Jleep, 

 and amhulo, I lualk ; fometimes alfo called noHambulifm, or 

 night- ■waliing ; is a fingular condition of the body, in which 

 a perfon performs many voluntary aftions, implying a certain 

 degree of perception of the prefence of external objefts, 

 but without confcioufnefs while the aftions are performed, 

 and without recoUeAion of them when the confcioufnefs 

 returns. 



This affeftion, as its name implies, is commonly confidered 

 as an imperfeft degree of fleep ; as it moll frequently occurs 

 after fleep, and feemsto be but a more aftive exertion of vo- 

 lition than that which takes place in imperfeft fleep, when 

 we move, and even talk, and fupport ourfelvcs in different 

 poftures. " There are many cafes," fays Mr. Stewart, 

 " in which fleep feems to be partial ; that is, when the mind 

 lofes its influence over fome powers, and retains it over 

 others. In the cafe of the fomnambuli, it retains its power 

 over the limbs, but it pofleffes no influence over its own 

 thoughts, and fcarcely any over the body ; excepting thofe 

 particular members of it which are employed in walking." 

 (See his Elements of ihf Philofophy of the Human Mind, 

 chap. 5, part i. ij 5.) The fubjeft is very obfcure, in con- 

 fequence perhaps of the rarity of thefe cafes, which have 

 not been fufficiently examined, fince the phyfiology of the 

 mind was rationally invefl;igated. Dr. Cleghorn, however, 

 in his excellent thcfis " De Somno" (Edin. 1783), 

 pointed out fome circumltances which diftinguifli this con- 

 dition from fleep ; and Dr. Darwin has more recently con- 

 fidered it as belonging to reverie, and not to fleep, or as ap- 

 proximating rather to epilepfy or catalepfy, than to mere 

 dreaming, or night-mare, to which it has alfo been referred. 



Some of the molt remarkable and beft authenticated 

 cafes of fomnambulifm on record fcem to favour this view of 

 the fubjeft. The older authors, Horll, Scnnert, Schcnck, 

 Henry ab Heers, Willis, and many others, have related cafes 

 of fomnambulifm, in which various aftions were uncon- 

 fcioufly performed, fuch as opening doors and windows, 

 croffing bridges, even walking on the tops of houf'es, and 

 up precipitous paths, climbing to take a rook's neft, and 

 various other feats. It is faid, that if any fenfation is excited 

 fufficiently llrong to awaken the fomnambuli, they experience 

 great furprize and terror, fometimes fall in fyncope, and 

 have no recolleftion of what has pafied during the paroxyfm. 

 The eflence of tlie difeafe, however, as Dr. Darwin obferves, 

 feems to " confill in the inaptitude of the mind to attend to 

 external llimuli ;" and they are not eafily awakened. One 

 of the cafes mofl fully invcfligated, and reported to the 

 Phyfical Society of I.,aufanne, while it exhibits the pecu- 

 liarities of the malady, fecins to prove that a flight and brief 

 imprcflion is aftually made upon the feiifes, which excites 

 afterwards fo powerful a conception, or is fo ftrongly fixed 

 in the imagmatinn, that the volition continues to dircft the 

 aftioiis as accurately as if the imprenions on the fcnfes were 

 rejieated ; whiili is alfo the charader of reverie. 



Tlie fomnambulill, in the cafe alluded to, was a lad thir- 

 teen years and a half old, of a good coiiilitution, but of 

 great ieiifibility and irritability, and very variable fpirits. 

 U u 2 His 



