Dreams merging into somnambulism may produce tragic results. Dr. G. Tourdes * relates how a man sleeping beside his wife dreamed that she was a robber whom he must kill. He accordingly attempted to suffocate her with a pillow, and it was with great difficulty that she succeeded in waking him, and so saving her life.

In 1843 a young man was tried for the attempted murder of an innkeeper at Lyons. † He had arrived at the inn towards nightfall, and was allotted a room. In the dead of night loud cries were heard from this room, and the landlord, rushing in to see what was the matter, was set upon by his guest and seriously wounded. It was ascertained that the young man was a somnambulist, who had dreamt that the landlord was murdering the occupants of a room near his own, and that he was defending them. He was, of course, acquitted. A case is also recorded by Drs. Guy and Ferrier, in their 'Forensic Medicine.' 'Two men, being in a place infested by robbers, engaged that one should watch while the other slept. But the watcher, falling asleep, and dreaming that he was pursued, shot his companion through the heart.'

* Article 'Sommeil,' 'Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales.'

† 'Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales,' article 'Somnambulisme,' by Drs. Ball and Chambard.

We have many instances of mental work being accomplished during somnambulism. Professor Woehner, * of Gottingen, after vainly trying for several days to write a Greek poem on a given subject, composed it successfully while in this condition, which probably was brought about by the mental strain of his previous futile efforts. †

It rarely happens, however, that solutions of problems, poems, etc., written by persons in this state, have any value. They may begin well, but generally drift into nonsense, probably because the mental concentration has been dispelled by some new idea crossing the first, and displacing it. We hear of the philosopher who dreamt while under nitrous oxide gas he had solved the problem of the universe and hastened to write down his discovery. But when he came to read the script, he only found the words, 'The whole of space is pervaded by the smell of turpentine.'

The effect of natural or accidental somnambulism on the health is anything but beneficial. ‡ An attack is generally followed by feelings of weariness and discomfort, for which the subject is at a loss to account. The concentrated mind-power does not operate in a beneficial direction, but impels the sleeper to bodily or mental effort likely to have an exhausting and hurtful effect upon him. But the artificially-produced mental condition seen in hypnotism can be turned to therapeutic uses, and be made to fill a void which no other plan of treatment can reach. Bernheim considers hypnotic sleep analogous to the natural state, with the important difference that in natural sleep the subject is only in relation with himself, whereas in the artificial state he is in relation with the operator, who is therefore able to direct the thoughts into the channel he wishes. That it resembles natural sleep is proved by the fact that it is possible in certain cases for one to pass into the other. Dr. Van Eeden told me that a patient of his, a gentleman, wearied by long waiting and exhausted by the heat, fell asleep in the waiting-room. The doctor came in, and, seeing him asleep, said, ' Don't wake, but come with me into my consulting-room.' The patient got up and, with assistance, did as he was desired.

After the treatment was over he was led back in the same way to his former seat in the waiting-room, and allowed to finish his sleep. He soon awoke, apologized to the other patients for having slept, and expressed surprise that his turn had not yet come for seeing the doctor. Great was his astonishment when he was told that the seance had taken place and was finished without his knowing anything about it. Dr. Maury, * who cannot be accused of being too easily influenced, gives some instances in which, while sitting by his fireside dozing after dinner, he had heard, as in a dream, the words uttered by his wife and friends, and had followed out the train of thought suggested by them in his dreams, and had even acted upon suggestions so made. † If a person is very tired, it is frequently possible to obtain an answer to a question whispered in his ear without awakening him. Hack Tuke and Braid give several examples of this in their writings.

* 'Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales,' article 'Somnambulisme,' by Drs. Ball and Chambard.

† Coleridge's poetical fragment, ' Kubla Khan,' was probably composed in a dream - not in somnambulism - as he remembered and wrote it down on awaking.

‡ Ordinary somnambulism is best treated by hypnotic suggestion. I have cured cases very speedily, and natural somnambulists are generally good hypnotic subjects. This is what one would expect, for by hypnotism a condition is artificially substituted similar in its nature to the morbid one, but controllable by suggestion.

The close analogy between sleep and hypnotism is shown in many ways. If a person is hypnotized every night, hypnosis may be made to take the place of sleep for an indefinite time, and the only difference observable in the two conditions would be that in hypnotic sleep the

* ' Le Sommeil et les Reves,' Paris, 1865, p. 42.

† He relates how, on one occasion, he was sitting in his easy-chair half awake, when his wife spoke to him. He was awakened by the words, and remembered them, but was quite unable to tell whether he had uttered them himself, or whether they were his wife's. On this he remarks, ' How many actions and ideas are daily suggested to us by others which we act upon, thinking they are our own !' patient would not be easily aroused, if at all, and would be en rapport with the operator. The experience of one of my patients also points to this close resemblance. When not able to sleep at night, he now repeats on himself the process I used to adopt with him - viz., gentle stroking of the forehead. He tells me this never fails to send him to sleep in a few minutes. It would be interesting to ascertain if the sleep so induced possessed the characteristics of the hypnotic state. It is frequently possible to suggest dreams to the somnambulist. Thus I told an officer to dream that he was in Jamaica, and playing polo at Up Park Camp. When he awoke, he volunteered the remark that he had had a most vivid dream, and proceeded to describe a polo match, of which he had filled in the details without help from me.

One need not be hypnotized to have dreams suggested, for Forel tells how he forced a disagreeable dream on a sceptical medical friend who said he didn't believe in suggestion. 'Nevertheless,' said Dr. Forel, 'you will dream of the devil to-night, and wake up in a terrible fright.' His friend laughed at the idea, but the prediction came true. *

As in natural somnambulism a person may be able to do things of which he is at other times incapable, so in the artificially-produced condition he can sometimes be made to excel himself. Beaunis found in experimenting with the dynamometer that the muscular power could be greatly increased at times by suggesting in the hypnotic state increased strength and effort; and one frequently finds that the grasp of an enfeebled patient can be perceptibly strengthened by similar suggestions. The therapeutic bearing of this experiment is easily seen.

* The whole subject of dreams has been recently scientifically treated by Professor Freud and his followers, and we have a new psychology evolved therefrom. They contend that every dream has a meaning, symbolic if not apparent, and by psycho-analysis trace it to its source in the subconscious. They hold that a dream is invariably the expression of a wish. The good work done by Freud in this neglected and apparently hopeless field is undoubtedly epoch-making, but his theories are, I think, exaggerated, and his arguments somewhat strained. By such reasoning one can explain anything, from the Baconian authorship of Shakespeare's plays onwards.

Dr. Grazzini, of Florence, has kindly sent me some copies of drawings done, while in a state of hypnotic somnambulism, by an uneducated man who in waking moments hardly knew the use of a pencil. These copies are faithfully and well executed, but probably the man would have been quite unable to initiate a design. The faculty of imitation was strengthened by the hypnotic condition, and at the same time he concentrated all his attention on the figures, and took infinite pains to reproduce them. I have frequently told somnambulic subjects that on awaking they are to write such and such a sentence with their left hand, and have invariably found the task accomplished fairly well, though in many instances I have heard the same person before the operation declare it impossible, and found him unable to make an intelligible letter. This may prove a practical hint in the case of left-handed children.

An artist under the same circumstances would no doubt produce a drawing in his usual style; and a musician, in a similar way, if asked to play, would perform some familiar air. Whatever a man's natural disposition might be, it would come out if he were in a state of profound hypnotic sleep; but we shall see that ' suggestion ' in this condition has power to modify even life-long habits and deep-rooted tendencies.*

* Frequent repetition of the suggestion, especially if done with confidence, has what may be called a cumulative action, expressed by Delbceuf in a kind of mathematical formula. This, of course, is also the case in our waking moments, and is well understood and turned to account by advertising tradesmen. The announcement in confident language on every blank wall, that 'Johnson's soap is the best,' becomes, by constant repetition, almost an axiom, and we are inclined to accept its truth. In the same way it is told of George IV. that from constantly repeating the story of his being at Waterloo he at length got to believe that he had really taken part in the battle.