Medical inquiries and observations (Volume 1-2).

  • Benjamin Rush
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical inquiries and observations (Volume 1-2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    is favourable to easy and sound sleep; and the want of it, in persons who are accustomed to that meal, is often fol- lowed by a restless night. The absence of its stimulus is probably supplied by a full gall-bladder (which always at- tends an empty stomach) in persons who are not in the habit of eating suppers. 5. The stimulus of the urine, accumulated in the blad- der during sleep, has a perceptible influence upon animal ] ife. It is often so considerable as to interrupt sleep ; and it is one of the causes of our waking at a regular hour in the morning. It is moreover a frequent cause of the acti- vity of the understanding and passions in dreams ; and hence we dream more in our morning slumbers, when the bladder is full, than we do in the beginning or middle of the night. 6. The faeces exert a constant stimulus upon the bow- els in sleep. This is so considerable as to render it less profound when they have been accumulated for two or three days, or when they have been deposited in the ex- tremity of the alimentary canal. 7. The partial and irregular exercises of the understand- ing and passions in dreams have an occasional influence in promoting life. They occur only where there is a defi- ciency of other stimuli. Such is the force with which the mind acts upon the body in dreams, that Dr. Brambilla, physician to the emperor of Germany, informs us, that he has seen instances of wounds in soldiers being inflamed, and putting on a gangrenous appearance in consequence of the commotions excited in their bodies by irritating dreams.* The stimulating passions act through the medium of the will; and the exercises of this faculty of the mind some- times extend so far as to produce actions in the muscles of the limbs, and occasionally in the whole body, as we see in persons who walk in their sleep. The stimulus of lust often awakens us with pleasure or pain, according as we are disposed to respect or disobey the precepts of our * A fever was excUed in Cinna the poet, in consequence of his dream- ing that he saw Caesar, the night after he w;is assassinated, and was in- vited to accompany him to a dreary place, to which he pointed, in order to sup with him. Convulsions, and other diseases, I believe, are often ex- cited in the night, by terrifying or distressing dreams.
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