The causation of sleep : a physiological essay / by James Cappie.

  • Cappie, James, -1898 or 1899.
Date:
MDCCCLXXII. [1872]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The causation of sleep : a physiological essay / by James Cappie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    may receive at one time more, and at another time less blood. But it may be positively affirmed that if any particular set of vessels be made to receive more blood, it can only be by draining the vessels of some other part of the cranial cavity. In the eye of science scarcely any change can be said to be more wonderful than another. The magnitude or unexpectedness of results may in some cases be more impres- sive than in others, but everywhere the mystery of immediate causation remains equally inscrutable. Yet, if the feeling of wonder be permitted in any case, it may well be indulged in when contemplating the change from sleep to wakefulness. The world of con- sciousness is quickened anew: intelligence takes the place of chaos ; and reason and will, from being spell-bound, become potent for infinite good or for infinite mischief. To this immense psychical change the brain is intimately correlated. Its special function as a part of the animal economy is called into active exercise ; its structures are raised to a state of tension, and they are ready to respond to stimuli from without or from within.
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