D R E A M. 
fons deputed to watch his actions, one of whom fired a 
piftol, the noife of which inftantly awakened him, and he 
fell down without fenfe. He was carried home and 
brought to himfelf, when he recollected very well the 
having been awakened in the vineyard ; but nothing more, 
except the fright at being found there alone, which had 
fnade him fwoon. 
“ The fubjedt ol[ his dreams is circumfcribed in a fmall 
circle of objects, that relate to the few ideas with which 
at his age his mind is furniflied ; fuch as.his lelfons, the 
church, the bells, and efpecially tales of ghofts. It 
is fufficient to ftrike his imagination the evening before a 
fit with forne tale, to direCt his fomnambulifm towards 
.the object of it. There was read to him while in this 
fituation the ftory of a robber; he imagined the very 
next moment that he faw robbers in the room. However, 
as he is much difpofed to dream that he is furrounded 
with them, it cannot be affirmed that this was an effeCt of 
the reading. It is obferved, that when his fupper has 
been more plentiful than ufual, his dreams are more dif- 
mal. Once he was obferved d re fling himfelf in perfect 
darknefs. His clothes were on a large table, mixed with 
tliofe of fome other perfons ; he immediately perceived 
this, and, in his fleep, complained of it much ; at lad 
a fmall light was brought, and then he duelled himfelf 
with fufficient precilion. If he is leafed or gently pinched, 
he is always fenfible of it, except he is at the time ftrongly 
engrolfed with fome other thing, and willies to ftrilce the 
offender; however, he never attacks the perfon who has 
done the ill, but an ideal being whom his imagination pre¬ 
sents to him, and whom he purfues through the chamber 
without running againft the furniture, nor can the per¬ 
fons whom he meets in his way divert him from his pur¬ 
suit. While his imagination was employed on various 
fubjedts, he heard a clock ftrike, which repeated at every 
Stroke the note of the cuckoo. There are cuckoos here, 
faid he ; and, upon being defired, he imitated the fongof 
that bird immediately. When he willies to fee an object, 
lie makes an effort to lift his eyelids; but they are fo lit¬ 
tle under his command, that he can hardly raife them 
a line or two, while lie draws up his eyebrows ; the iris 
at that time appears fixed, and his eye dim. When any 
thing is prefented to him, and he is told of it, he always 
half opens his eyes with a degree of difficulty, and. then 
Units them after he has taken what was offered to him. <a 
“The gentlemen of the committee infer from tliefe 
fa£ts, and from many others relative to the different fenfes, 
that their fyndtions are not fufpended as to what the fleep- 
walker willies to fee, that is, as to all thofe perceptions 
which accord with the objects about which his imagina¬ 
tion is occupied; that he may alfo be difpofed to receive 
thofe impreffions, when his imagination has no other ob¬ 
ject at the time; that in order to fee, he is obliged to 
open his eyes as much as he can, but when the imprellion 
is once made, it remains ; that objedts may ftrike his 
fight, without finking his imagination, if it is not inte- 
refted in them; and that he is fometimes informed of the 
prefence of objedts without either feeing or touching 
them. Having engaged him to write a theme, (fay the 
committee,) we faw him light a candle, take pen, ink, 
and paper, from the drawer of his table, and begin to 
write, while his mafter didtated. As he was writing, we 
put a thick paper before his eyes, notwithstanding which 
he continued to write and to form his letters very dil- 
tindtly ; (bowing figns, however, that fomething was in¬ 
commoding him, which apparently proceeded from the 
obftrudtion which the paper, being held too near his 
nofe, gave to his refpiration. Upon another occafion, 
the young .fomnambulift arofe at five o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing, and took the neceffary materials for writing, with 
his copy-book. He meant to have begun at the top of 
a page; but finding it already written on, he came to 
the blank part of the leaf, and wrote fome time from the 
following words, I Is deviennent ignorans par la parcjfe ; and, 
what is remarkable, after feveral lines lie perceived he 
Vol. VI. No. 332. 
73 
had forgot the s in the word ignorans, and had put erro- 
neoufly a double r in parcjfe ; he then gave over writing, 
to add the s he had forgot, and to erafe the fuperfluous r. 
Another time he had made, of his own accord, a piece 
of writing, in order, as lie faid, to pleafe his mafter. It 
confided of three kinds of writing, text, half text, and 
fmall writ ; each of them performed with the proper 
pen. He drew, in the corner of the fame paper, the fi¬ 
gure of a hat; he then afked for a penknife to take out 
a blot of ink which he had made between two letters, 
and he erafed it without injuring them. He alfo made 
fome arithmetical calculations with great accuracy. 
“ In order to explain fome of the faCts obferved by the 
academicians which we have here mentioned, they efta- 
blifti two general obfervations, which refult from what 
they have faid with r.efpeCt to the fenfes and the dreams 
of this fleep-walker. i. That he is obliged to open his 
eyes, in order to recognife objedts which he wiffies to fee; 
but the impreffion once made, although rapidly, is vivid 
enough to fupeiffede the neceffity of his opening them 
again, to view the fame objedts anew ; that is, the fame 
objedts are afterwards prefented to his imagination with 
as much force and precifion as if he actually faw them. 
2. That his imagination, thus warmed, reprefents to him 
objedts, and fuch as he figures to himfelf, with as much 
vivacity as if he really faw them; and, further, that all 
his fenfes, being fubordinate to his imagination, feem con¬ 
centrated in the objedt with which it is occupied, and 
have at that time no perception of any thing but what 
relates to that objedt. Thefe two caufes united feem to 
them fufficient for explaining one of the moft Angular 
facts that occurred to their obfervation, to wit, how young 
Devaud can write, although he has his eyes (lint, and an 
obftacle before them. His paper is imprinted on his ima¬ 
gination, and every letter which he means to write is alfo 
painted there, at the place in which it ought to (land on 
the paper, and without being confounded with the other- 
letters; now it is clear that his hand, which is obedient 
to the will of his imagination, will trace them on the real 
paper, in the fame order in which they are reprefented 
on that which is pictured in his head. It is thus that he 
is able to write feveral letters, feveral fentences, and en¬ 
tire pieces of writing; and what feems to confirm the 
idea, that he writes according to the paper painted on 
his imagination is, that a certain lleep-walker, who is de- 
feribed in the French Encyclopedic (article Somnambulifm), 
having written fomething on a paper, another piece of 
paper of the fame fize was fubftituted in its (lead, which 
he took for his own, and made upon this blank paper the 
corrections he meant to have made on the other which 
had been taken away, precifely in the places where they 
would have been. 
“ It appears from the recital of another fadl', that De¬ 
vaud, intending to write at the top of the firft leaf of a 
white paper book, Vivey, le —flopped a moment as if to 
recoiled! the day of the month, left a blank fpace, and 
then proceeded to Dccembre 1787; after.which he afked 
for an almanac : a little book, fuch as is given to chil¬ 
dren, was offered to him ; he took it, opened it, brought 
it near his eyes, then threw it on the table. An almanac 
which he knew, was then prefented to him; this was in 
German, and of a form fimilar to the almanac of Vevey ; 
he took it, and then faid, ‘ What is this they have given 
me ; here, there is your German almanac.’ At laft they 
gave him the almanac of Berne ; he took this like wife, 
and went to examine it at the bottom of an alcove that 
was perfectly dark. He was heard turning over the 
leaves, and faying 24, then a moment-afterwards 34. Re¬ 
turning to his place, with the almanac open at tiie month 
of December, he laid it on the table and wrote in the 
fpace which he had left blank the 24th. This feene hap¬ 
pened on the 23d ; but as he imagined it to be the 24th, 
he did not miftake. The following is the explication 
given of this fact by the authors of the report: ‘ The 
dates 23d, 24th, and 25th, of the month of December, 
U ' had 
