f thought where it
had been interrupted by slumber. Mitchell reports a case in an
unmarried woman of forty-five. She was a seamstress of dark complexion
and never had any previous symptoms. On July 20, 1865, she became
seasick in a gale of wind on the Hudson, and this was followed by an
occasional loss of sight and by giddiness. Finally, in November she
slept from Wednesday night to Monday at noon, and died a few days
later. Jones of New Orleans relates the case of a girl of twenty-seven
who had been asleep for the last eighteen years, only waking at certain
intervals, and then remaining awake from seven to ten minutes. The
sleep commenced at the age of nine, after repeated large doses of
quinin and morphin. Periods of consciousness were regular, waking at 6
A.M. and every hour thereafter until noon, then at 3 P.M., again at
sunset, and at 9 P.M., and once or twice before morning. The sleep was
deep, and nothing seemed to arouse her. Gairdner mentions the case of a
woman who, for one hundred and sixty days, remained in a lethargic
stupor, being only a mindless automaton. Her life was maintained by
means of the stomach tube. The Revue d'Hypnotisme contains the report
of a young woman of twenty-five, who was completing the fourth year of
an uninterrupted trance. She began May 30, 1883, after a fright, and
on the same day, after several convulsive attacks, she fell into a
profound sleep, during which she was kept alive by small quantities of
liquid food, which she swallowed automatically. The excretions were
greatly diminished, and menstruation was suppressed. There is a case
reported of a Spanish soldier of twenty-two, confined in the Military
Hospital of San Ambrosio, Cuba, who had been in a cataleptic state for
fourteen months. His body would remain in any position in which it was
placed; defecation and micturition were normal; he occasionally sneezed
or coughed, and is reported to have uttered some words at night. The
strange feature of this case was that the man was regularly nourished
and increased in weight ten pounds. It was noted that, some months
before, this patient was injured and had suffered extreme depression,
which was attributed to nostalgia, after which he began to have
intermittent and temporary attacks, which culminated as related.
Camuset and Planes in January, 1896, mention a man who began to have
grand hallucinations in 1883. In March, 1884, he exhibited the first
signs of sleep, and on March 10th