iastic, who was in the habit of getting up during the night in a
state of somnambulism, taking pen, ink, and paper, and composing and
writing sermons. When he had finished one page he would read aloud what
he had written, and correct it. In order to ascertain whether the
somnambulist made use of his eyes, the archbishop held a piece of
pasteboard under his chin to prevent his seeing the paper upon which he
was writing; but he continued to write on, without being in the least
incommoded. He also, in this state, copied out pieces of music, and when
it happened that the words were written in too large a character, and
did not stand over the corresponding notes, he perceived his error,
blotted them out, and wrote them over again with great exactness. A
somnambulist is mentioned by Gassendi, who used to dress himself in his
sleep, go down into the cellar, draw wine from a cask, in perfect
darkness--but if he awoke in the cellar, he had then a difficulty in
groping his way through the passages back to his bed-room. The state of
the eyes during somnambulism is found to vary considerably--they are
sometimes closed--sometimes half closed--and frequently quite open; the
pupil is sometimes widely dilated, sometimes contracted, sometimes
natural, and for the most part insensible to light. This, however, is
not always the case. The servant girl, whose case was so well described
by Dr. Dyce, of Aberdeen, when this state was impending felt drowsy--a
pain in the head, usually slight, but on one occasion very intense, then
succeeded--and afterward a cloudiness or mistiness came over her eyes.
Occasionally her sensations were highly acute; the eyelids appeared
shut, though not entirely closed; the pupils were much contracted, and
there was great intolerance of light. She could not name objects when
the light of the candle or fire shone fully on them, but pointed them
out correctly in the shade, or when they were dimly illuminated. At
other times, however, the pupil of the eye was quite insensible to
light. Her feelings also appear to have been very excitable. During one
of her paroxysms she was taken to church; attended to the service with
every appearance of devotion, and was at one time so much affected by
the sermon, that she shed tears. The sensibility of the eye was also
observed, in the case of Dr. Bilden; when a degree of light, so slight
as not to affect the experimenter, was directed to the lids of this
somnambulist, it caused a s