A dictionary of practical medicine: comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures, and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different forms of life : with numerous prescriptions for the medicines recommended, a classification of diseases according to pathological principles, a copious bibliography, with references, and an appendix of approved formulae : the whole forming a library of pathology and practical medicine and a digest of medical literature (Volume 8).
- James Copland
- Date:
- 1834-59
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of practical medicine: comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures, and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different forms of life : with numerous prescriptions for the medicines recommended, a classification of diseases according to pathological principles, a copious bibliography, with references, and an appendix of approved formulae : the whole forming a library of pathology and practical medicine and a digest of medical literature (Volume 8). 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.)
![certain related, although incongruous or disjoint- ed conceptions in the sensorium. 8. The conceptions arising in the manner now explained—either with or without any obvious excitant or physical cause — may be so slight and evanescent as hardly to be remembered upon awaking, and as not to occasion any change of position, or any act implying volition, of either a conscious or unconscious kind. But not infre- quently the conceptions formed during sleep, when lively or active, give rise to volition, and arc followed by acts. The individual acts the dream, or performs the conception passing through his mind, without being so conscious of his act as to remember it when he awakes, or when the functions of sense and perception are fully re- stored. This constitutes somnambulism, or sleep- walking, a state of partial or imperfect sleep, which has been sufficiently noticed, in respect of its nature and relations, when treating of the pa- thology of Paralysis (see § 193, et seq.).* 9. Sleep, that it may be refreshing and restora- tive to both body and mind, should, 1st, take place at a stated and proper hour, and after stated intervals; 2d, continue for a certain period of time, without being prolonged much beyond that time ; 3d, be aided by the necessary preparations to secure ease of position, and to prevent dis- turbance of the vital and animal functions. When sleep is obtained without these precautions — when it occurs at unseasonable hours—when it is broken or unusually shortened — when it is taken on a loaded stomach, or after the ingurgi- tation of heating or stimulating beverages—when the position of the body is unusual, cramped, or uneasy—when the stomach or bowels are dis- tended by flatulence, or irritated by acidity, then it is either disturbed or unsound, unrefreshing; the body and mind are left, on waking, either lan- guid or torpid, and the requisite exertions or en- gagements of the following day are entered upon with disrelish, and are soon productive of fatigue. 10. To secure refreshing sleep, a sufficiently early and a punctual period of retiring to repose * [Under this head it may not be irrelevant to allude to a class of phenomena, now generally recognized by physi- ologists, and which have been sometimes erroneously call- ed mesmeric. They are, 1st. A state of complete coma or perfect insensibility, analogous to hysteric coma, and usu- ally distinguished from the coma of cerebral oppression by a constant twinkling movement of the eyelids. In this condition some surgical operations may be performed with- out any consciousness on the part of the patient. 2d. A state of somnambulism or sleep-walking, which may pre- sent all the varieties of the natural somnambulism from a very limited awakening of the mental powers to the state of complete double consciousness, in which the in- dividual manifests all the ordinary powers of his mind, but remembers nothing of what has passed when restored to his natural waking state. This state of somnambu- lism, in the form which it generally takes, is characterized by the facility with which the thoughts are directed into any channel which the observer may desire by the prin- ciple of suggestion, and by the want of power on the part of the somnambulist to apply the teachings of ordi- nary experience to the correction of the erroneous ideas which are thus made to occury the mind. 3d. A frequent phenomenon of this condition, and one which has its par- allel in natural somnambulism, is a remarkable exaltation of one or more of the senses, so that the individual be- comes susceptible of influences which, in his natural con- dition, would not be in the least perceived. 4th. In this condition, also, the muscular system may be excited to action in unusual modes, and with unusual energy. And, lastly, it is maintained by some physiologists, as Dr. El- liotson, that various effects may be produced upon the or- ganic functions by what is called mesmeric influence, and thus that it may exert an important curative effect. More extended observations, however, are required before any such curative influence can be admitted as established.— (Carpenter's Principles of Human Physiology, Am. ed.)] should be adopted, after having spent a reasonable period in the open air, chiefly in exercise suited to the state and constitution of the individual. The diet should be digestible and moderate in quantity, and such as will not favour flatulency or acidity. Repose ought not to be taken for some hours after a full meal, and the place in which it should be sought ought to be airy and dry, the temperature being not above 70° of Fahr. or below 55°. The bed should be firm and mod- erately elastic, slightly elevated towards the head, and the clothes, both above and under the person, sufficiently warm and light. All the day-clothes should be taken off. The chamber ought to be large and airy, and light and noise excluded. If air be not sufficiently renewed in the sleeping apartment, sleep becomes feverish or restless, and the individual awakes unrefreshed and uncom- fortable. 11. The amount of sleep should vary with the age, the occupation, the constitution, and the hab- its of the individual. During infancy and child- hood, prolonged periods of sleep are required for the nutrition of the nervous masses and the growth of the body. Infants sleep the greater part of the twenty-four hours. Children require twelve or fourteen hours ; older children, or those from eight years until fourteen or fifteen, about ten hours. From commencing puberty until full growth, or from twenty-five to thirty, eight hours are sufficient. After this age, the duration of sleep should range from six to eight hours, ac- cording to the occupations or exertions, mental or physical, of the individual. 12. The causes of sleep are not only the fatigue, the exhaustion, and the periodicity characterizing all our sensorial actions and manifestations already insisted upon as requiring restoration and re-en- forcement of nervous power during the periods of repose, but also various states and phenomena which act more or less on the sensorium of those who are either incapable or not in a situation of having recourse to those mental or physical operations which more certainly conduce to re- pose. The entire absence of sensorial impres- sions, or the monotonous repetition of such impres- sions, will frequently occasion sleep, as occurs when listening to a drawling, monotonous reader or preacher, or to distant sounds of unvarying loudness. Persons who have become accustom- ed to sleep, notwithstanding the continuance of sounds which would keep the unaccustomed awake, frequently cannot sleep when deprived of these sounds, or when removed to perfect still- ness, or when they are within the reach of sounds of a different intensity or key. Friction of vari- ous parts, especially in nervous or susceptible persons, prolonged combing of the hair, monoto- nous sounds of any kind, continued and gentle motions of the body in the same directions, rapid transport of the body backward, or with the back placed towards the place where the body is car- ried, as when thus seated in a carriage, or on a railway, and directing the mind to uninteresting objects or matters, severally induce sleep, espe- cially when other circumstances concur in caus- ing this effect. There are, moreover, other causes which produce sleep, and which may be viewed as pathological, inasmuch as they are more or less morbid in their consequences or nature : they require merely enumeration. Venereal excesses may occasion sleep, lethargy, or sopor, especially in the aged ; extreme exhaustion of the organic](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21111066_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
