I have tried many remedies: a hop-pillow, hop-tea, etc. etc. etc. "Winter before last, at Kingston, Canada, in great misery from the "deprivation, I resorted to laudanum again and again - fifty drops, "seventy drops, ninety drops, and upwards of a hundred; yet "still I had no sleep. Here in Boston I have been advised to get "mesmerized; and if professors of that art are willing to try, they "may try. Most surely to succeed, I say, 'Let me rest from perse"cution because of principles and opinions, which has been unrelent"ing during thirty-five years; give me my rights as a British subject •"in Canada, and deeds to land there vexatiously withheld; restore to "me property in Britain taken out of my possession under most "iniquitous pretences; and let me rejoin my children in such a happy "home as I once enjoyed.'

All this is now submitted, frankly and sincerely, to your learned and liberal profession.

Bob. P. Gourlay.

Marlboro' Hotel, Boston, May 10th, 1843."

Sleeplessness - Continued

To the Editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

Sir, - You have heard of my sleeping two hours, and wish for "publication, a detail of circumstances, which I now furnish.

June 16th, the British steamer being to sail, I was employed from "daylight till noon writing and despatching letters. Ten minutes "past twelve the last was mailed. I then ran to a newspaper-office, "purchased the paper of that day, and mailed it also.

By this time the President of the United States was approaching: "and I stood, in heavy rain, till the procession had passed the Post-"office. After that I was engaged with business till near two o'clock, "sometimes in, sometimes out of doors, and got drenched. Returning "home, I put off my wet clothes, and went to dinner at half-past two "o'clock. About three, I retired to my bedroom: sat down to read, having pulled off my coat and boots; but in a quarter of an hour was "overpowered with drowsiness; flung myself into bed, under the "coverlid; immediately became warm, perspired, and soon after slept "soundly and certainly! Awakening, I deemed it, for a few minutes, "morning; rejoiced that the weather looked propitious for the Bunker"hill celebration; but feeling my clothes became undeceived: started "up; looked from my window to the Old South, and saw by the clock "that it was half an hour past five p.m. In fact, I had been in the "land of Nod, as near as may be, the time above-named.

One of the newspapers, with the too customary practice of mis"representing, reported that I had been caught napping - but this "statement was immediately conveyed to my fellow-boarders, and is "perfectly correct. Some inquired, if I felt refreshed; but no percep"tible effect was produced, and the occurrence has in no way changed "my long-established habit. I have not slept since; and now that "the weather is hot, I have many restless and miserable nights.

'From short (as usual) and disturbed repose I wake: how happy they who wake no more!'

Rob. P. Gourlay. "Marlboro' Hotel, July 15th, 1843."

The author was well acquainted with Mr. Gourlay for some months, in the city of Boston, in the early part of 1843.

The two cases afford the most interesting contrast of the opposite state of the nerve-power or fluid being in the first case deficient to carry on the functions of life: whilst in the latter, the lungs, generating an excess, did not admit of ordinary sleep, itself a state of nervous congestion.

When Mr. Gourlay exposed himself to the action of humidity, he slept for two hours, caused by the abstraction of vital electricity; whilst the exposure of Cornelius Vroman to a damp atmosphere, in 1853, carried off too much electricity, and death ensued, as his abnormal state did not admit of any further diminution without compromising life.

On the inhalation of narcotic and stimulating vapours, the superior lobes of the brain are first affected; in the next place, the posterior and cerebellum; then the sensitive portion of the spinal cord; then the roots of the nerves of sensation; after the anterior portion of the spinal cord, the roots of the motor nerves; and lastly, the medulla oblongata, from which arise the nerves, the suspension of whose function involves the vital functions. In the first two stages no danger exists, but if carried beyond these, a few inhalations more may compromise the life of the patient.

Loss of sensibility does not necessarily imply loss of consciousness.

There are numerous theories relative to the physiological action of anaesthetics. Nunneley, Ozanam, and Scoutetten have been the most prominent advocates, that the carbonization of the blood was the cause of insensibility. Flourens, Longet, Lallemand, Perrin, Broca, Duroy, suppose that the loss of sensibility is produced by acting directly on the cerebro-spinal axis: whilst another class of eminent physiologists attribute the anaesthetic state to arise from the retardation of the oxygenation of the blood.

The author still adheres to the physiological explanation he advanced in 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844 - namely, that the brain is nervously congested, the stimulant action of the anaesthetic agent on the nervous tissue of the lungs causes the generation of a large and sadden excess of nervous fluid. Vide extract of lecture delivered in Providence, March, 1843.

Of course each case presents its special nervous phenomena. In some the spinal cord seems to be attacked without materially influencing the cerebral hemispheres, so far as the loss of consciousness is concerned; others seem to be acted on through the par vagum; whilst another class are apparently acted on through the circulation. Those anaesthetic agents which directly increase the respiratory function, are the least dangerous: as they merely increase or create an excess of vital fluid, which produces nervous congestion of the brain.