Sleep and dreams.

  • Symonds, John Addington, 1807-1871.
Date:
[1857]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sleep and dreams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    heat to the air and other surrounding objects by virtue of its own faculty of manufacturing heat. The animal caloric is formed in greater quantity, in proportion as the respiration and the circulation are more active; therefore it is not wonderful that during sleep cold should have a greater effect upon the body than during our waking moments. It is probable, also, that there is a direct relation through the nervous force, which seems to be intimately connected with the production of heat. Digestion and the assimilative function are, probably, more active during sleep ; so also is the function of perspi- ration ; but I must not dwell upon these points, as we have much before us. There are provisions for excluding the agents which excite some of the organs of sense. Thus, the eye is curtained by its drooping lids, and the muscle which puts the drum of the ear on the stretch is probably relaxed ; but all external exciting causes may be removed, except the contact of clothing with the skin, or the impression on the part of the body which is reclining, and yet sleep may be absent. The feeling of wakefulness continues, the thoughts are those of waking hours, and the will is ready to put any resolves into action. And again, on the other hand, the most vivid and violent impressions may be made on the organs of sense with- out interfering with the accession, or interrupting the course of sleep. The weary gunner sinks into slumber by the side of roaring cannon ; the jaded sailor boy drops asleep upon the high and giddy mast, In cradle of the rude imperious surge, and many an overworn artizan dozes before the blaze of a furnace, or the glare of gas lamps.