488 
Analyses of Boohs. 
[August, 
authority as Dr. Tuke has undertaken to consider sleep-walking 
or somnambulism as parallel with hypnotism. He remarks, in 
the very outset of his treatise, that “ on the vexed question of 
animal magnetism the bearing of natural somnambulism is most 
important, as the condition and ac5ts of the sleep-walker cannot 
be attributed to a magnetic fluid passing from an operator to the 
subject. . 
It need scarcely be said that Dr. Tuke does not, with Casper, 
refer the majority of cases of sleep-walking to credulity or im- 
posture. He admits, of course, that it may be simulated, with- 
out on that account denying genuine phenomena. Its connection 
with chorea, with hysteria, epilepsy, and even insanity, is recog- 
nised, though the author does not feel free to remark, with Dr. 
Echeverria, that “ somnambulism generally forebodes, when it 
does not betray, insanity.” As a matter of course, in all the 
above-mentioned phenomena, normal will is for the time being 
lost. But it is difficult, if at all possible, to give an account of 
what takes place in sleep-walking without using language appli- 
cable to mental aberration. From instances here mentioned it 
is plain that the sleep-walker may be no less dangerous to him- 
self and others than the lunatic. Not to speak of the frequent 
attempts of sleep-walkers to rush out at the windows of upper 
rooms, &c., a case is mentioned of a man named Fraser who 
killed his child whilst in a lit of somnambulism, and on trial was 
found not insane, but irresponsible. The author holds that this 
man, if not insane, was as dangerous as a madman, and thinks 
that'“ more stringent means ought to have been taken to guard 
against his doing anyone an injury,” — an opinion in which most 
of his readers will coincide. 
Some decidedly conflicting views are given on the responsi- 
bility of sleep-walkers. Thus Fodere holds that a man who 
commits a bad action during sleep is not wholly inexcusable, 
since in accordance with most observations he is only executing 
the plans which occupied his mind when awake. On the other 
hand Prof. Bell contends that in dreams the moral sense is 
always asleep. The question is of the more importance since 
certain injudicious thinkers urge that the drunkard should be 
held irresponsible for his actions, a feaiful mistake. 
The state of the senses in somnambulism is a point of much 
interest. The power of sight in the dark seems very acute ; the 
pupil is dilated, and the sleep-walker thus sees objects with a 
decree of light which in a normal state appears darkness. It is 
maintained by some authorities, e.g., Dr. Guy (“ The Factors of 
the Unsound Mind ”), that things are even seen by the sleep- 
walker “when cards or sheets of paper are interposed between 
the eye and the object to which it is directed.” Our author takes 
a different view. He writes : — u What happens is appaiently 
due to the muscular and tactile senses, and in some instances, 
perhaps, to the subjeft retaining in his mind a vivid representa- 
