Pervigilium, or long periods of physiologic wakefulness / by George M. Gould.

  • Gould, George Milbrey, 1848-1922.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Pervigilium, or long periods of physiologic wakefulness / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    32- rReorinted from American Medicine, Vol. VII, No. 18, pages 707-708, ^ ^ April 30, 1904.] PERVIGILIUM, OR LONG PERIODS OF PHYSIOLOGIC WAKEFULNESS. BY GEORGE M. GOULD, M.D., of Philadelphia. Sleeplessness as a result of pathologic conditions of the brain or mind has often been described,' and espe- cially the very general and extreme illustrations in the insane are well known. There are other instances arising from shock, etc., which show at least the influ- ence of morbid action, as, for instance, the case cited by Winslow'' of a woman who was horrified at finding her husband dead at her side in bed. There are also cases of “idiopathic sleeplessness,” in which weeks may pass without 5 minutes of continuous sleep, and in which the intellect does not show disorder, and there are no symp- toms of bodily and mental fatigue, etc. Winslow cites the case of Paganini, who, he says, rarely slept, “ so intense was his passion for music.” Boerhaave is recorded not to have slept for a period of 6 weeks in con- sequence of his brain being overwrought by intense thought on a profound subject of study. In this connection may be quoted a passage from the Semi-Monthly Medical News, of 1859 : The question how long a person can exist without sleep is one oftener asked than answered, and the difficulties of answer- ing the question by experiment would seem to leave it forever unsolved. A Chinese merchant had been convicted of murder- ing his wife, and was sentenced to die by being deprived of sleep. This painful mode of death was carried into execution under the following circumstances: The condemned was placed in prison under the care of three of the police guard, who relieved each other every alternate hour, and who prevented the prisoner falling asleep, night or day. He thus lived 19 days ''^hhout enjoying any sleep. At the commencement of the eighth day his sufferings were so Intense that he implored the authorities to grant him the blessed opportunity of being strangled, guillotined, burned to death, drowned, garroted, shot, quartered, blown up with gunpowder, or put to death in any conceivable way which their humanity or ferocity could invent. This will give a slight idea of the horrors of death from want of sleep. who rarely closed her eyes in sleep minutes for nearly a year. Her existence under these clrcnmsiances was perfectly miraculous.—F'okbes Winsi.ow “Obscure Diseases of the Drain and .Mind.