ed in "The Philosophy of Natural History," by
Dr. Smellie, he tells us that, when she was in one of her paroxysms, he
ran a pin repeatedly into her arm--but not a muscle moved, nor was any
symptom of pain discoverable. Here we may observe an important and
interesting fact, that, as a general principle, in proportion as the
mind concentrates its powers and energizes itself within, the
sensibility of the body diminishes. The soldier, in his excitement on
the battle-field, feels not his wounds; he will faint from loss of blood
before he knows that he has been "hit." The unconsciousness of danger is
often the best protection against it. On looking down a precipice, a
sense of apprehension instantly suggests itself; the nervous system
recoils; the circulation of the blood within the brain on a sudden
becomes irregular; dizziness ensues and a total loss of command over the
voluntary muscles. Man is probably the only being in whom this occurs;
the stag, the goat, the antelope, will gaze unmoved down the chasms of
the deepest Alpine precipices. The dizziness which is felt on ascending
an elevation, arises undoubtedly from mental alarm, which modifies the
impressions received by the eye, which no longer correctly estimates the
relations of distance. Accordingly we are told by Mr. Wilkinson in his
"Tour to the British Mountains," that a blind man, who was the
scientific and philosophic Mr. Gough, ascended with him to the summit of
one of the Cumberland Mountains; and in walking along, he described to
him the fearful precipices which he pretended surrounded him; but soon
he repented his inventive picturesque description, for the blind man,
mentally affected by the supposed peril of his situation, became
suddenly dizzy, and screaming with the apprehension that he was tumbling
down the rocks into the abyss below, fell upon the ground. In cases of
sleep-walking upon dangerous heights, there is no apprehension or
fear--the mind is intently absorbed in the object pursued; all the
muscular movements are performed with confidence and with unerring
precision; and under these circumstances the gravitation of the body is
supported on the most slender basis.

One of the most curious and indeed inexplicable phenomena connected with
somnambulism is, that persons in this condition are said to derive a
knowledge of surrounding objects independent of the organs of the
external senses. The Archbishop of Bordeaux attested the case of a young
eccles