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Article ACCOUNT OF A REMARKABLE SLEEP-WALKER. ← Page 4 of 4
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of A Remarkable Sleep-Walker.
chamber without running against the furniture , nor can the persons Whom he meets in his way divert him from his pursuit . While his imagination was employed on various subjects , he heard a clock strike , which repeated at every stroke the note of a cuckoo . — 'There are cuckoos here , ' said he ; and , upon being desired , he imitated the song of that bird immediately . When he wishes to see an objecthe makes an effort to lift his
eye-, lids ; but they are so little under his command , that he can hardly raise them a line or two , while he draws up his eye-brows ; the iris at that time appears to be fixed , and his eye dim . When any thing is presented to him , and he is ( old of it , he always half opens his eyes with a degree of difficultv , and then shuts them after he has taken what was offered to him .
The report infers from these facts , and from many other relative to the different senses , that their functions are not suspended as to what the Sleep-walker wishes to see , that is , as to all those perceptions which accord with the- objects about which his imagination is oc ^ cupied ; that he may also ' be disposed to receive those impressions , when his imagination has no other object at the time . ; that'in order to seehe is obliged to open his eyes as much as he canbut when the
, , impression is once made it remains ; that objects may strike his sight without striking his imagination , if it is not interested in them ; and that he is sometimes informed of the presence of objects without either seeing or touching them . Having engaged ' him to write a theme , say the committee , we saw him liht a candletake peninkand paper from the drawer of
g , , , his table , and begin to write , while his master dictated . As he was writing , we put a thick paper before his eyes , notwithstanding which he continued write , and to form his letters very distinctly ; shewing signs , however , that something was incommoding him , which apparently proceeded from the obstruction which the paper , being held too near his nose , gave to his respiration .
Upon another occasion , the young somnambulist arose at five o ' clock in the morning , and took the necessary 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 a . blank part of the leaf , and wrote some time from the following words , Fiunt ignari pigriiiai / s deviennenl ignorans par la paresse ; and , what is remarkable , after several lines he perceived he had forgot the s in the word
ignorans , unci had put erroneously a double r in paresse ; he then gave over writing to add the . y he had forgot , and to erase the superfluous r . Another time he had made , of his own accord , a piece of writing , in order , as he said , to please his master . It consisted of" three kinds of writingtexthalf textand small writ ; each of them performed
, , , with the proper pen . He drew , in the comer of the same paper , the figure of a hat ; he then asked for a pen-knife to take out a blot of ink , which he had made between two letters , and he erased it without injuri : ig * them . Lastly , he made some ar . thmetical calculations with great accuracy .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of A Remarkable Sleep-Walker.
chamber without running against the furniture , nor can the persons Whom he meets in his way divert him from his pursuit . While his imagination was employed on various subjects , he heard a clock strike , which repeated at every stroke the note of a cuckoo . — 'There are cuckoos here , ' said he ; and , upon being desired , he imitated the song of that bird immediately . When he wishes to see an objecthe makes an effort to lift his
eye-, lids ; but they are so little under his command , that he can hardly raise them a line or two , while he draws up his eye-brows ; the iris at that time appears to be fixed , and his eye dim . When any thing is presented to him , and he is ( old of it , he always half opens his eyes with a degree of difficultv , and then shuts them after he has taken what was offered to him .
The report infers from these facts , and from many other relative to the different senses , that their functions are not suspended as to what the Sleep-walker wishes to see , that is , as to all those perceptions which accord with the- objects about which his imagination is oc ^ cupied ; that he may also ' be disposed to receive those impressions , when his imagination has no other object at the time . ; that'in order to seehe is obliged to open his eyes as much as he canbut when the
, , impression is once made it remains ; that objects may strike his sight without striking his imagination , if it is not interested in them ; and that he is sometimes informed of the presence of objects without either seeing or touching them . Having engaged ' him to write a theme , say the committee , we saw him liht a candletake peninkand paper from the drawer of
g , , , his table , and begin to write , while his master dictated . As he was writing , we put a thick paper before his eyes , notwithstanding which he continued write , and to form his letters very distinctly ; shewing signs , however , that something was incommoding him , which apparently proceeded from the obstruction which the paper , being held too near his nose , gave to his respiration .
Upon another occasion , the young somnambulist arose at five o ' clock in the morning , and took the necessary 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 a . blank part of the leaf , and wrote some time from the following words , Fiunt ignari pigriiiai / s deviennenl ignorans par la paresse ; and , what is remarkable , after several lines he perceived he had forgot the s in the word
ignorans , unci had put erroneously a double r in paresse ; he then gave over writing to add the . y he had forgot , and to erase the superfluous r . Another time he had made , of his own accord , a piece of writing , in order , as he said , to please his master . It consisted of" three kinds of writingtexthalf textand small writ ; each of them performed
, , , with the proper pen . He drew , in the comer of the same paper , the figure of a hat ; he then asked for a pen-knife to take out a blot of ink , which he had made between two letters , and he erased it without injuri : ig * them . Lastly , he made some ar . thmetical calculations with great accuracy .