UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 ROBERT ERNEST COWAN
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP, 
 
 BARON BEICHENBACH. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. HITTBLL. 
 
 <pto gorh: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CALVIN BLANCH 
 
 . 76 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1860.
 
 ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by JOHN 
 S. HITTELL, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
 United States for the Northern District of California. 
 
 L. HAUSEB, Printer, 8 North William Street, New York.
 
 toil 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION xm xxvn 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 13 
 
 The aim of his investigations 1 3 
 
 The Author's opportunity to study somnambulism 3 4 
 
 PART I. 
 SOMNAMBULISM OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ORIGIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 1 1. The beginnings 5 
 
 \ 2. Speaking in dreams the first sign of somnambulism 6 
 
 3. Sitting up in bed, the second sign 6 7 
 
 4. The somnambulist gets out of bed and works 7 
 
 <j 5. Somnambulism proper 8 
 
 \ 6. Familiarity in somnambulism 8 9 
 
 \ 7. Somnambulic prophecy 9 11 
 
 \ 8. A moonlight walk in a night-gown 11 12 
 
 g 9. Somnambulism possible in robust health 12 
 
 g 10. Premonitory symptoms 12 13 
 
 11. Transition to somnambulism 13 14 
 
 \ 12. Difference between sleep and somnambulism 14 15 
 
 13. Awakenin from somnambulism 15 17 
 
 256776
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 g 14. Sensitiveness necessary 18 20 
 
 g 15. Coolness favorable 20 
 
 g 16. Somnambulism caused by negative od 21 22 
 
 g 17. By electricity 2223 
 
 g 18. By organic substances 23 
 
 g 19. By plants 2324 
 
 g 20. By human od 2426 
 
 g 21. Fingers under toes 27 
 
 g 22. By blowing 28 
 
 g 23. By the glance 2829 
 
 g 24. By passes 2930 
 
 g 25. By sunshine, &c 3031 
 
 g 26. Summary 3133 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES WHICH DISTURB SOMNAMBULIC 
 SLEEP. 
 
 g 27. How to prevent somnambulism 34 35 
 
 28. How to awaken somnambulists 35 36 
 
 | 29. The shock from a person departing 36 37 
 
 g 30. Somnambulism an od-negative state of the nerves 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CBAMP. 
 
 g 31. What is the od-positive condition ? 38 
 
 g 32. Cramp common to sensitives 38 39 
 
 g 33. Cramp caused by magnets 39 42 
 
 g 34. By sitting with back to the west 42
 
 CONTENTS. V 
 
 35. By crystals 42 
 
 36. By metals 4344 
 
 g 37. By crowds 4145 
 
 38. By light .45 
 
 39. By upward passes 45 48 
 
 | 40. By the peculiar odic influence of individuals 48 50 
 
 g 41. By mental excitement 50 52 
 
 42. By obstructions to the flow of od 52 53 
 
 43. By like odic pairings . .T 53 54 
 
 44. By all od-positive soretic influences 54 55 
 
 <! 45. Cramps cured by nemetic od-negative influences. . . 55 57 
 \ 46. Somnambulism and cramp are opposite odic condi- 
 tions of the nervous system 57 58 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 
 
 47. The two occurring together in the human body 59 61 
 
 \ 48. Both caused by touch 6162 
 
 I 49. By passes 6264 
 
 50. By magnets 65 
 
 61. By green light 6667 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 \ 52. Their influence on each other 68 70 
 
 \ 53. Cramps caused by slight soretic influences 79 71 
 
 \ 54. By surcharge of od 71 72 
 
 g 55. By part-passes 72 74 
 
 56. By passes over the recurrent nerves 74 75 
 
 \ 57. By slow passes 75 
 
 | 58. Soundness of somnambulic sleep 75 77 
 
 59. Somnambulism under active odic influences 77 78 
 
 GO. Change from waking to somnambulism 78
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 2 61. Influence of position in sleep 78 79 
 
 2 G2. Moonshine .-. 7982 
 
 2 63. Duration of somnambulic sleep 83 
 
 2 64. Somnambulism for women and cramp for men . . . .83 84 
 
 2 65. Periodicity 8485 
 
 2 66. Temperature of the body 85 86 
 
 g 67. Swellings 8688 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 THE CONDITION OP THE SENSES. 
 
 2 68. Touch 8990 
 
 2 69. Smell 90 
 
 2 70. Hearing 9091 
 
 2 71. Hearing at the pit of the stomach 91 93 
 
 2 72. Hearing in the hand 9294 
 
 2 73. Odic hearing at the stomach 94 96 
 
 2 74. Taste 9697 
 
 2 75. Sight ^ 97 
 
 2 76. Seeing w'ith the eyes shut 98 
 
 2 77. Explanation of seeing without eyes 98 99 
 
 2 78. High-sensitives have a sense for od 99 101 
 
 2 79. Vision clearest in darkness 101 102 
 
 2 80. Miss Atzmannsdorfer's statement ] 02 103 
 
 2 81. Miss Krueger's statement 103 104 
 
 2 82. ScientiGc explanation of ordinary vision 104 
 
 2 83. Clairvoyance brought under natural laws 104 105 
 
 2 84. Seeing into the human body 105 107 
 
 2 85. Dangeroua revelations by clairvoyance 107 108 
 
 2 86. Summary about clairvoyance 108 110 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MUSCLES IN CRAMP. 
 
 2 87. Cramp an unvoluntary contraction Ill 112 
 
 2 88. Severity of strain 112113
 
 CONTENTS. VII 
 
 . Prevention of cramps 113 116 
 
 90. Summary 116117 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 \ 91. No two cases of somnambulism alike 118 
 
 92. Cases of catalepsy 119 
 
 \ 93. Influence of the two nervous systems 119 121 
 
 $ 94. Cold water good for cramps 121 
 
 $ 95. Weak acids also beneficial 121122 
 
 g 96. Cramps in extremities painless 122 
 
 \ 97. But painful in the trunk 122123 
 
 98. Nerves of sensation and motion 123 124 
 
 99. The odic thrill 124126 
 
 100. The thrill of cramp 126127 
 
 g 101. The odic waves of somnambulism and cramp com- 
 pared 128130 
 
 PART n: 
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP OP PHYSIOLOGICAL 
 ORIGIN. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 J 102. Explanatory remarks 131132 
 
 \ 103. Somnambulism and cramp caused by mental ex- 
 citement 132134
 
 VIII CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 
 
 g 104. Sensitive aversion to monotony 135 136 
 
 \ 105. Waving grain-fields 13g 
 
 \ 106. Revolving wagon wheels 137 
 
 107- Waterfalls 137138 
 
 1 108. Hopping of a caged bird 138 
 
 g 109. Swing of a pendulum 138140 
 
 \ 110. Change of work 140143 
 
 111. Standing and kneeling 143 145 
 
 112. Music 145 
 
 113. Summary 145147 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 INFLUENCES OF MENTAL ACTIVITY. 
 \ 114. Mental exertion 148150 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS AND DESIRES. 
 
 \ ] 15. Love and maternal love 151 152 
 
 \ 116. Sensitive women usually virtuous 152 
 
 \ 117. Grief 152154 
 
 \ 118. Mental depressions altering the odic emanations . 154 157 
 
 1 119. Moral suffering causes an od-positive disturbance 
 
 of the odic equilibrium 157 
 
 1 120. Vexation and anger 158 1GO 
 
 \ 121- Violent excitement weakening odic perception . . 160 162 
 2 122. Venting anger a relief for odic illness 162 1G3
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 123. Cramps caused by fright 163164 
 
 124. By outcries 165166 
 
 125. Odic perception weakened by fright .166 167 
 
 126. Cramp caused by jealousy 167 
 
 127. By laughing 167168 
 
 128. By joy 168169 
 
 129. By surprise 169170 
 
 130. By mental excitement 170 
 
 131. By emotions of memory 170 171 
 
 132. By emotions in dreams 171 172 
 
 133. Summary 172173 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 \ 134. Odic perception acute as sensitiveness is high. . . 174 175 
 
 g 135. Somnambulic prophecy 175 176 
 
 136. False somnambulic prediction 177 178 
 
 \ 137- Od generated by muscular force 178 180 
 
 \ 138. Experiment with a mirror 180 182 
 
 \ 139. Dr. Blass' control over Miss Beyer 182 183 
 
 140. Other experiments with Miss Beyer 183 185 
 
 \ 141. The author gets control of Miss Beyer 185 187 
 
 \ 142. The somnambulist does not confound her conscien- 
 tiousness with that of the operator 187 188 
 
 \ 143. The established facts of clairvoyance 188 191 
 
 144. Some general remarks on clairvoyance 191 192 
 
 145. A clairvoyant prophecy by Miss Reichel 192 193 
 
 g 146. Predictions by other somnambulists 193 195 
 
 ,147. Limits of objective clairvoyance 195 197 
 
 148. Miss Weigand's celestial revelations 197 199 
 
 149. Clairvoyant reading the thoughts of others 199 201 
 
 \ 150. Miss Reichel frightened by an imaginary dog . . .201 202 
 
 \ 151- Clairvoyants not hearing when spoken to 202 203 
 
 \ 152. Clairvoyance not necessarily belonging to somnam- 
 bulism .. ..203204
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 2 153. Acuteness of odic perception and somnambulism 
 
 opposite states 204 205 
 
 2 154- A blow at the materialists 206 209 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SOME PECULIAR MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 
 
 2 155. Drowsiness 210211 
 
 2 156. The somnambulic consciousness 211 213 
 
 2 157. The Author's first visit to Miss Girtler 213215 
 
 2 158. Thonghtfulness of Mrs. Lederer 215216 
 
 2 159. Truthfulness of Miss Zinkel 216217 
 
 2 160. Attention in somnambulism 217 218 
 
 2 161. Awaking from somnambulism 218 219 
 
 2 162. Miss Atzmannsdorfer and her linen 220 222 
 
 2 163. The clear consciousness of somnambulism 222 223 
 
 2 164. Somnambulism differs from common sleep only in 
 
 profoundness 223224 
 
 2 165. Thouing 224225 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 2 166. Recollection of occurrences during sleepwaking. .226 228 
 
 2 167. Different states of Miss Girtler's memory 228 
 
 2 168- Memory better in somnambulism than in normal 
 
 consciousness 228 229 
 
 2 169. The ideas of one somnambulic fit followed np in 
 
 the next 229230 
 
 2 170. Main facts about somnambulic memory 231 
 
 2 171. Uprightness and vanity 232233
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE NATURE OP SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 \ 172. Co-existent negative and positive od 234 235 
 
 173. Soretic influences treasured up in the nemetic state 235236 
 
 \ 174. "Why sleepwalkers clamber out on roofs 236 237 
 
 175. Weak soretic irritations causing activity 237 239 
 
 176. Conclusion 239 
 
 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX 241253
 
 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION, 
 
 THE following treatise, first published in the San 
 Francisco Home Journal, and here given as a distinct 
 book, was written by the Author, as portion of a very 
 long work, of 1600 closely printed octavo pages, en- 
 titled : Der sensitive Mensch und sein Verhalten zum 
 Ode (The sensitive Man and his relation to Od). This 
 work is so large that I will not undertake to translate 
 the whole of it, unless I receive some encouragement 
 during the course of my labors, and for the purpose of 
 inviting such "encouragment and showing my ability 
 to perform the labor, I now submit to the public a 
 version of the chapters in "Somnambulism and Cramp," 
 commencing in the German edition (Stuttgard and 
 Tubingen 1855) at page 546 of the second Volume and 
 ending at page 702 ; being about one tenth of the trea- 
 tise on The sensitive Man. No part of this work has 
 been published in English by any one save myself. 
 
 For the clear understanding of Reichenbach's re- 
 marks on Somnambulism and Cramp the reader should 
 be familiar with his Odic-Magnetic Letters, which have 
 heretofore been translated by me and published in 
 English ; but for fear that those Letters may not be 
 within the reader's reach at the time when he may 
 wish to take up this book, I submit a brief abstract 
 of the main principles set forth in them.
 
 xiv TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Od is a force in nature hitherto unknown. It is 
 akin to the great natural forces of light, heat, electri- 
 city, magnetism, chemical affinity, etc. These were 
 formerly called "imponderable substances ;" but that 
 name is now abandoned for the better and more cor- 
 rect one of "natural forces." Od pervades the whole 
 universe, and radiates out from every particle of mat- 
 ter, but it is equally distributed. Wherever there is 
 magnetism, heat, electricity, friction, motion, chemical 
 action, or putrefaction, od is actively developed, or 
 concentrated, and it may be perveived under favorable 
 circumstances. It is a peculiarity of od, that not every- 
 body can perceive it. Acute odic perception is com- 
 paratively rare ; its possession is called sensitiveness, 
 or odic sensitiveness, and its possessors are styled sen- 
 sitives. The marks of sensitiveness are numerous, but 
 the main ones are natural somnambulism, and readi- 
 ness to fall asleep under mesmeric influence. These 
 are two infallible signs of high sensitiveness. Inability 
 to sleep on the left side, dislike of yellow colors, fond- 
 ness for blue, dislike of fatty diet, preference for 
 slightly sour victuals, and discomfort in crowds, are 
 other indications. 
 
 When od is actively developed, as by magnetism, it 
 radiates out from the generator ; and a high sensitive 
 can see the rays in the dark, but not in the light. The 
 odic rays seen in the dark resemble a light smoke 
 or a misty flame. Thus, if a high sensitive be confined 
 in a perfectly dark room till his eyes have had time 
 to accustom themselves to the darkness, and a horse- 
 shoe magnet be then held, with its points upwards, 
 before him, he will see a misty flame rising from each 
 pole. He will see similar misty flames from the ends
 
 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 of quartz crystals, from the ends of wires of which the 
 other ends are rubbed, filed, heated, exposed to sun- 
 light, connected with galvanic batteries, etc. The odic 
 radiation may by felt as well as seen. If the sensitive 
 put his hand near to the points of the magnet, crystal 
 or wire, he will feel a sensation, as of a little breath, 
 blowing against his hand ; and he will feel the same 
 kind of a little breath from a human hand ; for(the 
 human body, in which chemical action is constantly 
 active, is a powerful generator of od.) The odic sensa- 
 tions may be perceived in other manners, by the other 
 nerves, but we have not space here to explain these 
 points fully. 
 
 Od, like magnetism, electricity and light, has two 
 poles. The high sensitive looking carefully at the 
 misty flames arising from the magnet, sees that the 
 rays from the north pole are blueish, and from the 
 south pole, yellowish. The point of a quartz crystal 
 gives out a blue light, the base gives out reddish or 
 yellowish rays. This distinction of colors is owing to 
 the different odic poles ; the point of the crystal and 
 the north pole of the magnet are od-negative ; the 
 south pole of the magnet and the base of the crystal 
 od-positive. CThe human body has its odic poles also ; 
 the right side is negative, the left, positive., Like pair- 
 ings, as the presentation of an od-positive pole of a 
 strong od-generator to the positive left side of a high 
 sensitive, produces unpleasant sensations, while an od- 
 negative pole will cause an agreeable feeling. Thus 
 the point of a quartz crystal, and the north pole of a 
 magnet, and the right human hand, are all od-nega- 
 tive, and all cause a pleasant, coolish sensation when 
 presented to the positive left hand of a sensitive, while
 
 xvi TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 if they are presented to the negative right hand, they 
 will cause a lukewarm disagreeable feeling. Every- 
 thing that gives out a blueish odic light, is od-nega- 
 tivc and cool to the left side of the sensitive, and luke- 
 warm to the right side ; while everything giving out 
 a reddish light is cool to the right and unpleasant to 
 the left. ) 
 
 Light has its own polarity of color ; blue at one end 
 of the spectrum, red at the other ; and the od gener- 
 ated by light has its poles also ; the blue rays are od- 
 negative, the red rays od-positive. When the positive 
 and negative, red and blue odic rays meet as seen in 
 the dark, they do not annihilate, or neutralize each 
 other, but they unite and form a purplish flame. 
 
 There is an odic polarity in the chemical elements 
 taken as a whole ; oxygen being the most strongly od- 
 negative, and potassium the strongest od-positive. 
 The stronger the affinity for oxygen, the stronger the 
 odic positiveness. In this way the elements have been 
 ranged in what is called the od-chemical order, which 
 corresponds precisely with the electro-chemical order 
 fixed after by long study, by Berzelius and other che- 
 mists. 
 
 Wherever there is putrefaction, there is odic radia- 
 tion ; and Reichenbach supposes the vulgar belief that 
 ghosts are seen in graveyards, to have arisen from the 
 fact that high sensitives passing graveyards in very 
 dark nights, saw the odic lights over new graves, 
 where the bodies were putrefying. He also supposes 
 that the alleged wonder of water-finding is caused by 
 certain odic sensations felt by high sensitives when 
 walking over subterranean currents of water; the
 
 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 flow of that liquid, like all other motion, serving to 
 develop od. 
 
 He is not a sensitive himself, and he has not seen 
 the odic lights or felt the odic sensations, of which he 
 writes so much ; but he experimented for years with 
 more than a hundred sensitives, testing and counter- 
 testing their statements until he satisfied himself that 
 there was no possibility of error about the facts as 
 here stated. 
 
 It has been established by numerous mesmeric ex- 
 periments that there is a force sometimes called a 
 "fluid" unnamed until Reichenbach commenced his 
 researches a force which is generated in the human 
 system, and by which one man can throw another in- 
 to various mesmeric conditions, such as insensibility, 
 somnambulism and cramp. It has been further estab- 
 lished that there is some kind of a polarity on the 
 two sides of the human frame, a polarity which was 
 unexplained by our works on Chemistry and Physio- 
 logy. These two principles of the mesmeric force, as 
 it was called before Reichenbach named it od, and 
 the polarity of that force though not very clearly 
 set forth in the books on mesmerism, are yet clearly 
 deducible from facts therein stated, and once admitted 
 they almost compel us to receive Reichenbach's whole 
 system, for he has connected all its parts so closely 
 and strongly that the whole must stand or fall toge- 
 ther. 
 
 I have thus very briefly stated the main points of 
 the theory set forth in the Odic-Magnetic Letters ; and 
 I now proceed to present here a similar abstract of 
 the Treatise on Somnambulism and Cramp, so that
 
 xvm TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the reader, before commencing to read the body of the 
 book, may have a general idea of its contents. 
 
 And first in regard to the phenomena of Somnam- 
 bulism : 
 
 Somnambulism is a peculiar abnormal mental fit, or 
 temporary condition, wherein man loses his normal 
 consciousness and gets another abnormal one, and be- 
 comes a different person, with a new memory, powers 
 of perception, and modes of thought and action. Som- 
 nambulism is of two kinds, natural or spontaneous, and 
 artificial or mesmeric. The former occurs unexpected- 
 ly and often away without having been discovered, 
 the normal memory being ignorant of the occurrence 
 of the sleep-waking fit, as well as the acts done in it. 
 Somnambulism rarely occurs in a solitary fit, but hav- 
 ing once made its appearance in a person, recurs again 
 and again, and if the fits be short, they often recur at 
 regular intervals, as a particular hour every day. The 
 liability to somnambulism seems to be a physical af- 
 fection ; it often comes on about the age of puberty, 
 or during sickness, and disappears when the frame 
 gets its full growth and the nerves are strengthened 
 by exercise and health. It has been observed that the 
 tendency to sleepwalking seems to be hereditary in 
 certain families ; if one child in a house be a somnam- 
 bulist, the others will be liable to the same affection. 
 The fits of spontaneous somnambulism may occur at 
 any time during sleep, or during normal waking, and 
 if in the latter condition during labor, or conversa- 
 tion, while standing, sitting or walking. A person 
 once subject to it is never secure from its attacks. The 
 transition from normal walking to somnambulism and 
 from the latter to the former state are often almost
 
 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 instantaneous, and occur without any perceptible ex- 
 ternal causes. Mesmeric somnambulism is very much 
 like the spontaneous, but is brought on intentionally 
 by mesmeric treatment. 
 
 In somnambulism the senses are often dormant. The 
 eyes are closed, and when the lids are forced open the 
 iris is found to be turned upwards in a singular posi- 
 tion. The retina seems to be insensible, for the pupil 
 does not contract and enlarge in proportion to the 
 strength of the light. The ear is ordinarily deaf. 
 Loud, sudden and unexpected noises, such as the dis- 
 charge of pistols at the ear do not cause the somnam- 
 bulist to start. The nose does not seem to perceive 
 the strongest pungent odors, such as that of ammonia. 
 The nerves of touch convey no sense of pain. Pinch- 
 ing, pricking and cutting do not disturb or waken the 
 somnambulist. 
 
 Although the nerves of sense appear to have lost 
 their functions during somnambulism, yet the somnam- 
 bulist is not without means of perception. He sees 
 with his eyes closed, in darkness as well as in day- 
 light. Sometimes he possesses a clairvoyant power, 
 and sees and hears events occurring far from him in 
 places hidden from him by numerous walls or build- 
 ings. He sees through opaque substances ; can read 
 sealed letters, and look into his own body and the bo- 
 dies of others ; can read their thoughts ; and can even 
 foresee the forteae, particularly in regard to his own 
 health. 
 
 The somnambulist remembers all the impressions 
 made upon his mind while in somnambulism, and also 
 those made during normal consciousness, and even those 
 made in the latter state, but forgotten and entirely
 
 xx TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 beyond the reach of the waking memory. Thus cases 
 have occurred of somnambulists in mature age speak- 
 ing fluently in tongues which they had known in child- 
 hood, but afterwards, for want of practice, completely 
 forgotten for a score of years. The somnambulist, 
 when awake, does not remember the impressions made 
 on his mind in sleepwakmg, and therefore his memory 
 in the abnormal, is much more comprehensive than in 
 the normal state. 
 
 The condition of the mind in somnambulism varies 
 greatly in different cases. Some sleepwakers talk in 
 an unconnected manner, as if insane or monomaniac ; 
 but most act in a thoughtful manner, and speak more 
 intelligently than when awake. They walk, read, 
 work, talk, joke and laugh, like other persons. If 
 alone, they talk to themselves ; if in company, they 
 talk to others. Somnambulists are fond of getting 
 out into the moonlight, and for that purpose will 
 clamber out at night upon roofs, going in dangerous 
 places, where they would never venture awake, and 
 where the bravest men, accustomed to climb about on 
 buildings, would dislike to follow. If opposition be 
 made to the somnambulist going out upon the roof, the 
 latter will sometimes insist, declare that there is no 
 danger and go into a paroxysm of rage if prevented, 
 or show supernatural strength in breaking down bar- 
 riers, or breaking away from persons holding him. 
 Some somnambulists do not seem to think much of 
 dress, particularly when they have not been in that 
 state often, and have not spent much time while som- 
 nambulic in company ; thus most sleepwalkers go out 
 in their night gowns. 
 
 Where somnambulism is caused by mesmeric treat-
 
 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 ment, the somnambulist is in communication with the 
 mesmerizer, and hears him and sees him, while appa- 
 rently not hearing or seeing any other person, no mat- 
 ter how many there may be in the room. He is, also, 
 to a great extent, under the influence of the rnesineri- 
 zer, and will act and form opinions in accordance with' 
 the directions of the latter in a strange manner. When 
 the mesmerizer suggests an idea, the somnambulist's 
 mind seems to be entirely occupied by it. Sometimes 
 it happens that the spontaneous somnambulist gets into 
 a mental communication with another person, and 
 stands to him in the same relation as the mesmeric 
 somnambulist to the mesmerizer. If the sleepwaker is 
 not in communication with anybody, then accident 
 seems to suggest certain ideas, which occupy his mind 
 to a seeming extension of other impressions. It often 
 happens that the ideas dominant in one fit are taken 
 up again in the next one, and so on. Thus, a lady 
 may commence knitting a purse while somnambulic, 
 and work at it during a number of successive fits, put- 
 ting it away carefully before awaking, always com- 
 mencing methodically where the work was previously 
 abandoned, and never knowing anything of it when 
 awake. 
 
 The mind in somnambulism is ordinarily joyous and 
 jocose in mood, the cares of everyday life being for- 
 gotten. The sleepwaker in society neglects many of 
 the little customary conventional ceremonies, and is 
 familiar, but keeps within the bounds of decency and 
 propriety. 
 
 The somnambulist eats, drinks, and performs the 
 ordinary duties of life very much as in normal con 
 sciousness. The mind is often as clear and quick iu
 
 xxii TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 somnambulism as in waking hours ; and of many som- 
 nambulists, it is said that they show more wit asleep 
 than awake. 
 
 Such are the main features of somnambulism, as re- 
 ported by a great number of writers. The phenomena 
 are very different in different persons, scarcely any 
 two cases being alike. The clairvoyant power and su- 
 pernormal perception are looked upon as mere fictions 
 by many physiologists, especially those who have nev- 
 er had an opportunity to observe this rare and won- 
 derful abnormal condition. 
 
 Now for Reichenbach's explanations of the somnam- 
 bulic phenomena. 
 
 In perfect health the human body is pervaded by 
 od in a state of equilibrium. The person in whom that 
 equilibrium is steady and not easily disturbed, is a 
 non-sensitive ; he whose odic equilibrium is unsteady 
 is a sensitive. Only sensitives are liable to somnam- 
 bulism, which is a disturbed odic state, with negative 
 od predominant. Somnambulism is caused only by od- 
 negative influences, such as downward passes in the 
 mesmeric style, by the odic radiation from the north 
 pole of a magnet or the point of a quartz crystal ; and 
 it is cured or prevented by od-positive influence, 
 such as upward passes, the south point of the magnet, 
 the base of a crystal, etc. 
 
 As somnambulism is the od-negative state of the 
 nervous system, so cramp is the od-positive state ; the 
 influences which cause the one will cure the other. 
 Both states begin and end with odic nervous thrill?, 
 which, in the beginning of somnambulism and end of 
 cramp, fall from the head to the feet, and at the end 
 of somnambulic fits and beginning of cramps rise from
 
 TEANSLATOB'S INTRODUCTION. xxm 
 
 the feet to the head. The two opposite odic conditions 
 often occur together : negative and positive od do not 
 neutralize each other when they meet in the human 
 body. High sensitive, often somnambulic, invariably 
 suffer much with cramp. 
 
 Reichenbach, after giving a number of instances in 
 wMch he has witnessed clairvoyances, gives a theory 
 to explain that singular power. He says the whole 
 nervous system of a high sensitive, perceives the odic 
 rays, as the eye does the light rays ; and therefore, 
 the clairvoyant can see, by the odic perception, almost 
 as well without the use of the eyes as with them. As 
 the odic rays have no insulator but pass through all 
 substances, so everything is "diodanous," or permeable 
 to the odic rays, and consequently translucent to the 
 nerves of acute odic perception. Thus the high sen- 
 sitive, under favorable condition, can see into and 
 through the human body, and see the internal organs, 
 and perceive whether they are sound or diseased. 
 
 Negative od predominates in sunlight, and positive 
 od in moonlight, which latter is therefore the more 
 agreeable to the somnambulist in the od negative 
 state. The positive odic influence of the moonlight is 
 not strong enough to wake the sleeper, but only to 
 disturb and make him restless, and the result is that 
 he gets up and goes out into the positive moonlight, 
 and not content with that, he gets up as high as pos- 
 sible for the purpose of seeing the moonlight reflected 
 from other objects in the vicinity. These are the 
 causes why somnambulists are more uneasy when the 
 moon is full than at any other time, and why they al- 
 ways get up on house-tops, &c. 
 
 I am not prepared to assert that all Reichenbach's
 
 xxrv TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 alleged discoveries are really true. They have not 
 been subjected to all the tests. We know only that 
 they come from a most learned and able man, whose 
 previous eminence as a chemist and geologist and 
 technicist, predisposes us in his favor, whose books on 
 this subject of od, show us that he used all those tests, 
 and made all those experiments which scientific scep- 
 ticism could demand, and made them with the great- 
 est care and recorded them with unexampled minute- 
 ness. We know that he is an aged man, already be- 
 yond three score and ten, with no imaginable motive 
 to mislead. We know that his theory has none of the 
 marks of having been adopted in folly or delusion ; he 
 shows no preternatural wonders, come.s with no mes- 
 sage from the other world, endeavors to establish no 
 new faith, asks no credulity, hopes for nothing but to 
 extend the domain of science a domain wherein the 
 imposter and the dupe have nothing to gain and every- 
 thing to lose. 
 
 Many alleged important scientific discoveries have 
 proved false after thorough investigation. Some have 
 been subjects of dispute for many years, between mas- 
 ters of the branches under which they came, as was 
 the case with mesmerism and Laplace's theory of the 
 formation of the universe theories which have played 
 a very important part in physiology and astronomy. 
 So it may be with the odic theory. But it certainly 
 is too strong on the very face of Reichenbach's books, 
 it is supported and braced by too many universally 
 known facts, it is connected too ingeniously (to say 
 the least) with many well established principles ol 
 physics, it offers plausible explanations of too many 
 hitherto inexplicible mysteries, it i? set forth in works
 
 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxv 
 
 of too much learning, ability and elegance to allow us 
 to suppose that it should easily be overthrown. The 
 more we consider it, the more reasonable does the 
 theory appear. 
 
 Mesmerism, the power of certain men to throw cer- 
 tain other men into states of insensibility, somnambu- 
 lism and cramp, by passes, etc., is now recognized 
 as true by our highest physiological authority; and it 
 follows as a matter of course that the passes must ex- 
 ert an influence by means of a force not explained, un- 
 derstood, or even named before it was called "od" by 
 Reichenbach. I think it not only proved that there is 
 such a force, different from all the other known forces 
 of nature, but that it also has a polarity. At least, it 
 is a well known fact to experienced mesmerists, that 
 there is a polarity in the human frame, the right and 
 left sides being in an unmistakeable polar opposition. 
 When we once admit the two principles of the exist- 
 ence of the odic force in the human system, and the 
 polarity of the force and of the human body, they al- 
 most compel us to receive Reichenbach's whole sys- 
 tem, for he has connected all its parts so closely and 
 strongly that the whole must stand or fall together. 
 
 Some new words used in the following translation 
 may deserve explanation here. 
 
 Sensitiveness, Sensitive and Non-Sensitive are suffi- 
 ciently explained by what has gone before. High-sen- 
 sitive, demi-sensitive and low-sensitive are persons in 
 whom odic sensitiveness is high, moderate or weak. 
 Od, od-negative, and od-positive have been explained. 
 OH fy means to charge with od. Soretic. as an adjec- 
 tive applied to positive odic influences, exerted by up 
 ward passes &c. Nemetic applies to negative odic in-
 
 xxvi TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fluences. Soreticatty and nemetically are their respec- 
 tive adverbs. Pairing is the presentation of two odic 
 poles to each other. Like pairing is the presentation of 
 like poles; unlike pairing the presentation of opposite 
 poles. A double pass is a pass made with both hands; 
 a part pass is a pass which is not made over the whole 
 length of the body ; afuU-length pass is made over the 
 whole length ; afar pass is a pass made at a distance. 
 Diodanous means permeable to od ; diodaneity means 
 permeability to od. PsycJidogy, with its adjective and 
 adverb, is used here in its wide modern ense of the 
 science of mind. 
 
 J. S. H. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, September 19th 1859.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE, 
 
 THE AIM OF HIS INVESTIGATIONS. 
 
 DIFFERENT as the present investigations may be 
 from all previous essays on the same subject, they yet 
 have a similar origin, which, in my case, was the op- 
 portunity offered by accident of observing the highly 
 sensitive Miss Nowotny suffering with catalepsy on the 
 bed of sickness. The difference, in the method of in- 
 vestigation and the conclusions arrived at, may be 
 accounted for by the fact that my predecessors were, 
 almost without exception, physicians or medical dilet- 
 tanti, while I am an investigator of nature. As might 
 be expected from those upon their stand-point, their 
 conceptions and studies of somnambulism were doc- 
 torish, aiming only at cures ; while, on the other hand, 
 I took the philosophic trail, and adopted as my pur- 
 pose the study of the forces of universal nature here 
 active. I have therefore not inquired what practical
 
 2 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 benefit, of value for the treatment of future patients, 
 might be derived from the singular pathological phe- 
 nomena of Miss Nowotny, but I have labored to dig- 
 cover whether it might not be possible to reach the 
 physical and physiological causes, whence proceeded a 
 multitude of astonishing effects, such as I saw deve- 
 loped in cataleptic cases. The physicians, with an 
 immediate utilitarian purpose in view, went forward 
 with their study of somnambulism ; but I turned and 
 went backwards, neglecting all minor matters in the 
 search for the beginning of these efforts of nature. 
 Thus it was that while those worried themselves with 
 somnambulism, animal magnetism, fascinauon, and 
 clairvoyance, and finally sought, by means of extacies 
 and magnetic communication with the supernatural to 
 throw light upon the dark labyrinth, in which they 
 were ever becoming more hopelessly lost, I, taking the 
 contrary course, went from magnetism to crystaliza- 
 tion, thence to chemical analysis, and so on to sound, 
 warmth, light and electricity, and finally to the source 
 of all these enigmatic phenomena in the odic group. 
 For the purpose of laying bare the foundations of the 
 natural forces here ruling, I followed only the traces 
 of their dynamics, and as may be seen in my previous 
 writings, excluded from my investigations, the various 
 entangled phenomena of sleep-waking. In now ap- 
 proaching somnambulism, under these circumstances, 
 some justification of my conduct is necessary; and 
 this justification consists in the fact that I do not treat 
 of somnambulism in its whole extent, and even give 
 no consideration whatever to many of its dark sides 
 which are converted by some late writers into its main 
 features ; but I confine myself to those points of physio-
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 3 
 
 logy and psychology considering the latter only as a 
 natural and experimental science which are necessary 
 to the completeness and clearness of my physical labors ; 
 and which, therefore, I would not dare to omit. Noth- 
 ing that I write here has been obtained from others ; 
 I shall restrict myself carefully to the results of my 
 own investigations. 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 On this* occasion, those persons will be set at rest 
 who erroneously supposed and asserted that I knew 
 no somnambulists, and that I avoided mentioning 
 somnambulic phenomena for want of information. 
 Among my sensitive subjects there are some thirty and 
 odd somnambulists with whom I have had intercourse 
 for years. One of these remained in my house for 
 two weeks, others for three or four weeks, Miss Reichel 
 three months, and Miss Atzmannsdorfer for six months ; 
 and therefore I may claim to have an intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the facts of sleep-waking, such as few phy- 
 sicians have had. Consequently, the assertion that I 
 have no experience in the field of somnambulism is 
 less applicable to me than to any one else, and can 
 proceed only from physicians, in so far as I am not of 
 their profession. But I must beg the reader to keep 
 in mind that in this essay, the subject is not the curing 
 of disease, but the investigation of nature. All true 
 hygiene must have natural science as its foundation. 
 And thus my investigations will render more and 
 greater services to medicine than all the receipts for 
 the most effective passes and the artfullest manipula- 
 tions with palms and fingers. 9
 
 4 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 I shall treat of somnambulism under its two phases, 
 physiological and psychological. That these two 
 phases flow together in the somnambulic phenomena 
 is easily to be understood ; but the dividing line be- 
 tween them may nevertheless be accurately and se- 
 curely traced.
 
 PART I, 
 
 SOMNAMBULISM OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ORIGIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OP SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 1. The beginnings! When sensitiveness belongs 
 in a high degree to the constitution of a man from his 
 birth, or when it has been greatly increased by disease 
 it is no longer content with influencing his waking 
 life in a thousand ways, but lays hold also of his 
 sleep, the normal and healthy course of which it 
 changes to an abnormal and disturbed condition. 
 
 The first act, that of falling into the somnambulic 
 sleep an act which I have witnessed hundreds of 
 times does not differ perceptibly from the entrance 
 into the ordinary sleep. In Miss Atzmannsdorfer I 
 had frequent opportunities of observing sleepiness, 
 yawning, evident resistance and struggle, in which her 
 will was finally conquered, and then somnambulic sleep 
 immediately followed. Ordinarily, however, Miss 
 Reichel and Messrs. Sturmann, Winter and others, fell 
 quickly from waking into somnambulism. I once ad- 
 vised Miss Zinkel not to wear a night-cap, which I 
 thought unwholesome, and she accordingly commenced 
 to take her cap off but stopped she had gone into 
 somnambulism.
 
 6 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 2. Speaking in dreams the first sign of somnam- 
 bulism. The first sign of abnormal action often dis- 
 coverable in slightly sensitive persons, who are not 
 aware of any unhealthy action in their constitutions ; 
 is speaking in dreams. A perfectly non-sensitive man 
 seldom or never speaks in dream. No one has ever 
 heard me speak a word in dream, and I am a perfectly 
 non-sensitive, but possessed, at the same time, of strong 
 nervous sensibility. On the other hand-, nearly every 
 one of my sensitive subjects has informed me that he 
 talks in his dreams ; and the few, who could not tell 
 me this, had, as it happened, no information in regard 
 to themselves on this point. They must, however, 
 just as certainly have spoken in dreams as did the 
 others. Some of the weakest sensitives may be men- 
 tioned as examples of dream-talkers, and among them 
 are Dr. Friedrich, Dr. Diesing when a boy, Prof. 
 Schabus, Chevalier Sidorowicz, Prof. Shroetter, Prof. 
 Ragsky, Prof. Chevalier von Perger, Mr. Mauch, Mr. 
 Kotschy, Baron Schindler, Col. Arroquia, Major 
 Schwartzmann, Mr. Cevallos, Chevalier Siemianouski 
 and Mr. Offenheim. All the high sensitives, without 
 exception, are dream-talkers; such as Misses Genii- 
 dim, Hek, Hupp, Schwarz, Bcrnazke, and Blahusch, 
 Mrs. Mueller, Drs. Loew, Machold, and Natterer, 
 Messrs. Richard, Schuler, Alois Zinkel, Klein, Leo- 
 polder, Schiller, Preinreich, and many others. They 
 talk not only to themselves and to imaginary persons, 
 but they also conduct conversations with persons ac- 
 tually present, to whom they speak and reply with 
 readiness. 
 
 3. Sitting up in bed, the second sign, The next
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OP SOMNAMBULISM. 7 
 
 phenomenon, in the development of somnambulism, 
 is, that such persons sit up in their beds, and accom- 
 pany their words with gesticulations. With this 
 dream-moving, the somnambulic action begins. The 
 dream-conceptions gain such a strength and clearness 
 that they appear to the dreamer to be real, and govern 
 his conduct. Stephen Kollar, Miss Karhan, Mrs. 
 Fenzl and Mrs. Preinreich are examples. The eyes of 
 the somnambulist on these occasions are closed, but 
 they move in such a lively manner that they appear to 
 be winking. I have often satisfied myself that there 
 was no real winking, but that the lids were kept 
 closed. 
 
 4. The somnambulist gets out of bed and works. 
 
 When the sensitives advance another degree in their 
 somnambulism, they get out of bed, walk about and 
 do all kinds of work, mechanical and intellectual, 
 write ' letters, compositions and poetry. Many sensi- 
 tives do such things when children, particularly boys 
 at the age of puberty. Examples of such dream- 
 workers are Mr. Cevallos, Dr. Diesing, Sebastian Zin- 
 kel, Drs. Friedrich, Max Krueger, Mr. Kotschy, Major 
 Schwartzmann, Mr. Hochstetter, Mr. Kratochwila, Ste- 
 phan Kollar, Mr. Schiller, Mr. Preinreich, Mr. Enter, 
 Mr. Delhez, Baronet Siemianavski, Mr. Weiner, Mr. 
 Steiger, Mr. Offenheim, Dr. Machold, Dr. Loew, 
 Mr. Leopolder, Baron Schindler, Miss Matilda von 
 Unckhrechtsberg, Mrs. von Varady, Mrs. Bauer, and 
 Miss Dorfer. All these are healthy persons, and the 
 most of them have not been given to sleep-walking 
 since arriving at their majority.
 
 8 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 5. Somnambulism proper. The next degree is 
 that of somnambulism proper. There are certain con- 
 ditions in the sleep of healthy sensitive persons, which 
 should perhaps be reckoned as somnambulic. I wit- 
 nessed one case which showed conclusively that mode- 
 rate sensitives, considered by themselves and others to 
 be very healthy, may fall into somnambulism under 
 very peculiar circumstances. Miss Zinkel was one of 
 a family of nine children, all of whom grew up to 
 be strong men and vigorous women. Health and 
 strength, large muscle and fine bone are hereditary in 
 the family. Miss Zinkel herself may make every claim 
 to good and durable health. And yet, she and her 
 brothers and sisters are highly sensitive. This wo- 
 man, who had never been in the somnambulic sleep in 
 her life before, and had never even heard of it, sat 
 down one evening in my presence, in good health, but 
 somewhat tired with the labors and cares of the day. 
 I took the light away for one or two minutes, into 
 another room, and when I returned I was astonished 
 to find her asleep. 
 
 6. Familiarity in somnambulism. She soon began 
 to speak in an unsual tone of voice, and when I went 
 near her, she began to speak to me, addressing me as, 
 " Thou, Thou, Baron, I have something to say to thee." 
 [This address has a meaning which English-speaking 
 people cannot comprehend without a special explana- 
 tion. " Thou" and " thee" are always used by Ger- 
 mans, as well as by Frenchmen and Spaniards, in ad- 
 dressing near relatives, intimate friends, while other 
 persons are addressed as " You," or its equivalent, 
 implying that the parties stand upon a relation of
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OP SOMNAMBULISM. 9 
 
 formality and ceremony very different from the inti- 
 macy implied by the address " Thou." People coming 
 from the Continent of Europe to England or the 
 United IStates, find it very queer that children have to 
 be treated to the formality of " You," and that the 
 nearest intimacy will not enable them to use the 
 " Thou," an endearing familiarity which they prized 
 so much in their native lands. If a gentleman were 
 to say " Thou," to a lady of his ordinary acquaintance, 
 in Germany it would be considered an insult ; much 
 less would a lady venture to address a strange gentle- 
 man in that style. Miss Zinkel, in her normal condi- 
 tion, would not have thought of -saying " Thou" to 
 Baron Reichenbach, and more than ordinary courage 
 would have been required to carry the thought into 
 execution, after its conception. " Thou" was used in 
 England three or four hundred years ago, as it is now 
 in Continental Europe, and indeed it has not gone 
 entirely out of use yet in some of the provinces. 
 TRANS.] 
 
 7. Somnamliiilic prophecy. I saw that this was 
 no ordinary sleep, but I was astonished to think that 
 she was a somnambulist. She told me then, among 
 other things, that she was afraid of the coming night, 
 because at twelve o'clock she would have an attack of 
 the tooth-ache, which would last an hour. I took note 
 of these words, and waked her, after some time, with 
 upward passes, but said nothing to her of what had 
 occurred ; and one reason for my silence was, that she 
 has a great dislike for somnambulism, and is afraid 
 that she may fall into that condition, which she would 
 
 consider a great misfortune. [This statement of Rei- 
 
 1*
 
 10 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 chenbach that he was silent on account of Miss Zin- 
 kel's fear of somnambulism, does not accord very well 
 with his assertion, made only a few lines previously, 
 that she had never heard of that state. The discre- 
 pancy may be explained by supposing the author to 
 be guilty of an anachronism. He may have attributed 
 motives, which governed him subsequently, to an earlier 
 time. TRANS.] The next morning I inquired, with 
 much curiosity, how she felt and how she had slept. 
 She complained that her sleep had been disturbed. 
 " And by what?" I asked. " By toothache," was the 
 answer. " And when did it attack you ?" Just at 
 12 o'clock." And how long did it last?" "A long 
 hour ; I heard the clock strike one before the pain 
 ceased." She had not had toothache in a twelve month 
 previous to this. 
 
 I did not tell her of the interest which I took in 
 her replies. They furnished me the proof and the first 
 example that sensitive persons, in robust health, may 
 faU into somnambulic skep, and that so deeply that they 
 may be able to make prophecies about their physical 
 conditions, such as no human knowledge, no other human 
 faculty, would ever be capable of making. 
 
 Such cases happened repeatedly about that time, 
 offering different phases. One evening she went into 
 the somnambulic sleep while sitting upon the sofa, and 
 then said she would have a severe attack of cramp, 
 which would commence at three o clock in the morn- 
 ing, and last an hour and a half. Nothing was said 
 to her after she awoke of this prediction, in the desire 
 not to pain her with unavailing apprehensions. But 
 the cramp came at three o'clock, as foretold, and lasted 
 till half-past four.
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 11 
 
 Mrs. Heintl, a young woman of a fine figure, offered 
 another example. She is always in good health, and 
 is in the full-bloom of her beauty. Nevertheless, it 
 happens that she gets up in her bed, speaks, even cries 
 and bawls, lights a candle, works, writes, opens the 
 windows, sits upon the sills, with her legs hanging 
 out, and, in short, is completely under the dominion 
 of somnambulism, and exposes herself to all its dan- 
 gers. 
 
 8. A moonlight walk in a night-gown. I found 
 a third example in Mrs. Cecelia Bauer. She is a 
 healthy, robust woman, and like Mrs. Heintl, was never 
 ill in her life. While living with her parents, in Nuss- 
 dorf, she often arose in the night and did all kinds of 
 dangerous acts about the house. One winter's night, 
 when there was snow upon the ground, she opened the 
 house-door and went out into the street, bare-footed 
 and dressed only in a night-gown. It so happened that 
 a fire broke out in the village, soon after she went out ; 
 the alarm was given ; and the sleeper was awakened 
 by the uproar and jostling of the excited multitude. 
 She found herself, dressed very scantily, in the midst 
 of the crowd, with the bright moon overhead. There 
 have been pretended somnambulists, who have slipped 
 out of houses at night, but these would-be dreamers 
 never go out in their night-gowns, on moon-light nights, 
 nor bare-footed in the snow ; nor do they wait, on an 
 alarm of fire, till they are surrounded and jostled by 
 the crowd. When Mrs. Bauer was seen by her rela- 
 tives, or friends, in her somnambulism, she was led back 
 to the house ; but it often happened that she went out 
 and returned unnoticed, and lay down quietly again in
 
 12 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 her bed. The next morning she would know nothing 
 of her adventures of the previous night, but the marks 
 of her movements and actions would show that she had 
 been up. 
 
 These are women ; but men have been observed to 
 act in the same manner. Mr. Klein, who was always 
 healthy, discovered often that he had arisen in his sleep, 
 walked about, worked at different things, and then gone 
 to bed again. Dr. Friedrich and Messrs. Delhez, Offen- 
 heim, and many others, also walked and worked in their 
 sleep, when young. 
 
 9. Somnambulism possible in robust health. These 
 somnambulists are all persons in perfect health who 
 were never troubled by illness, and had the most robust 
 constitutions imaginable. I shall again return to this 
 portion of the subject, but shall say nothing more of it 
 now than that I consider the scientific principle well- 
 established, that perfectly healthy sensitives, who at least 
 consider themselves to be free from all disease, not only 
 walk in their sleep, but fall into the deepest somnambulism. 
 
 This principle being fixed, it will be proper to glance 
 briefly at the cause of somnambulic sleep, as I have 
 observed it in highly sensitive that is diseased per- 
 sons and in moderate sensitives who had fallen into a 
 temporary illnes. Thereafter we shall return to the 
 qualities of sleep-waking and from them go back to 
 its causes. 
 
 1 i. Premonitory symptoms. A great number of 
 causes may induce Cramp and Catalepsy in sensitive 
 impressible persons. Somnambulism may be induced 
 by the same causes, or it may be a consequence of Ca-
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 13 
 
 talepsy. This change does not occur gradually, but 
 in a rapid, often in an instantaneous transition from 
 consciousness to the state of sleep. The premonitory 
 symptoms, were usually a general chilliness, sometimes 
 even an icy coldness. These symptoms were noted in 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Nowotny, Sturmann 
 and Weigand. The chilliness is followed by a remark- 
 able, irresistible disposition to yawn; which was invari- 
 ably succeeded in a few minutes by somnambulism in 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Kynast. A third 
 symptom is a burning and watering of the eyes, which 
 break out into a flood of tears if the subject endeavors 
 to resist the somnambulic attack. These facts were 
 noticed frequently in Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer 
 and Zinkel. 
 
 11. Transition to somnambulism. The actual 
 transition to the somnambulic sleep occurs instanta- 
 neously. Miss Atzmannsdorfer while engaged with me 
 in waking and sensible conversation often changed, 
 without any perceptible break or stoppage in her lan- 
 guage, to talking mere nonsense. I made similar ob- 
 servations on Misses Krueger, Beyer and Sturmann ; 
 they had fallen into somnambulism. This "state had 
 come upon them as if it had been induced by a mere 
 turn of a screw governing the rudder in the brain. 
 The eyes were then closed and the skin without sensa- 
 tion, but the sense of hearing was good. Misses Girt- 
 ler, Seckendorf, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Reichel, Krue- 
 ger, Weigand, Blahusch, Kynast, Sturmann and Dorfer, 
 Mrs. Lederer, Krebs, Kienesberger and many others 
 always had their eyes closed while in somnambulism. 
 I stuck pins into the hands of Misses Sturmann, Girtler,
 
 14 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 Nowotny, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Kynast, without 
 shrinking or sense of pain on their part. These are all 
 well known phenomena which I merely mention by the 
 way, and do not purpose to examine further. 
 
 The use of "thou" in addressing others is a peculiar 
 mark of the somnambulists ; they use it in speaking to 
 every one, whatever his rank may be, high or low. 
 Often, when it is doubtful whether a sleep is normal or 
 abnormal, this is one of the most trustworthy means 
 of determining. 
 
 12. Difference between sleep and somnambulism. 
 
 The chief difference between the somnambulic and 
 the normal sleeper, is that the latter has no clear con- 
 sciousness, or is entirely unconscious, while the former 
 is more or less conscious of his own existence and of 
 what is going on about him ; and this consciousness is 
 sometimes so lively that it is scarcely to be distinguished 
 from that of a waking person. Miss Reichel, while 
 somnambulic in my house for weeks at a stretch, did 
 not the less perform, as well as others, all the ordinary 
 processes of life, and she worked industriously at her 
 sewing with closed eyes for day after day. She walked 
 safely through the crowded streets of Vienna with 
 closed eyes, and made her purchases in the shops. 
 Misses Seckendorf and Girtler, with closed eyes, ob- 
 served all the rules of conventional propriety ; the 
 latter took particular care of her head-dress, and pick- 
 ing up an almanac, looked for certain days in it with 
 her eyes shut, and when she had found them, pointed 
 them out with her finger. I saw her pick up a pin 
 from the table-cloth and put it in a proper place. A glass 
 of water had been brought and placed in silence on the
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 15 
 
 table-cloth before her ; she reached out her hand with 
 confidence, laid hold of the glass at once and drank 
 its contents. I often conversed with Miss Atzmanns- 
 dorfer for hours, when she was somnambulic, about her 
 past life, her prospects for the future, and other matters 
 then interesting to her. Mrs. Lederer was lively and 
 witty when in somnambulism, and laughed and joked 
 about herself and others. Many of the girls liked to 
 have love made to them, and were particularly pleased 
 with flattery. Half Vienna remembers the somnambu- 
 list brewer boy, Simmering, who, with closed eyes, 
 harnessed up his horses, got into his wagon and drove 
 through the city, managing his horses judiciously. In 
 short the somnambulists have such clear consciousness, 
 and such good humor, are so lively and talkative, par- 
 ticularly when they have become experienced in that 
 condition, that a strange observer, coming in acciden- 
 tally, can not distinguish their condition and conduct 
 from that of waking persons, except by the closed eyes 
 
 13. Awakening from somnambulism. If the som- 
 nambulists are left to themselves they remain in that 
 condition for half an hour, a day or a night, and then 
 awake to their ordinary consciousness. But sometimes 
 they sleep-wake on for weeks and months; and indeed, 
 one case in Vienna came to my knowledge where the 
 somnambulist did not wake for half a year. The 
 awakening usually occurs in a short time, and the en- 
 trance into every-day life appears rather dull. Miss 
 Krueger, when awakening, rubbed her eyes slowly, 
 looked round staringly, did not at first see clearly, 
 and then wondered at the darkness and murkiness of 
 the actual, world as compared with the joyous, care-
 
 16 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 free dream-life from which she had just returned. Mis- 
 ses Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, and others, acted in the 
 same manner. Mrs. Lederer, in awakening, rubbed 
 her eyes for a long time, and stared wondering at 
 everything about her until she had finally come to 
 herself. When Miss Zinkel was about to awaken, she 
 began to rub her eyes, and I observed that this rub- 
 bing began at the inner corner of the eye and extend- 
 ed out to the temple. As this is a nemetic pass tow- 
 ards the facial nerves, so the rubbing was not mere- 
 ly accidental, but was a self-awakening by back pas- 
 ses. On one occasion she joined the five fingers of 
 each hand together in a point, and without touching 
 her eyes made a slow pass from the inner corners of 
 the eyes to the temples. Indeed she once seized my 
 hand, placed the points of my fingers together, and 
 then used them to make similar passes over her eyes. 
 If I had undertaken to awaken her, with all care and 
 forethought, in this manner, I could not have done it 
 in a more methodical and regular manner than this, 
 at that time, new and inexperienced somnambulist did. 
 The awakening which followed was at first unclear, as 
 is the case with all somnambulists. She opened her 
 eye-lids, but apparently did not see. I made all kinds 
 of quick motions towards the eyes, but they were not 
 noticed ; there was no shrinking or winking ; the pu- 
 pil did not move. After the eyes were opened, a full 
 minute of somnambulism intervened, before she arrived 
 at the clear waking consciousness and sensation which 
 succeeded. When I made another violent motion tow- 
 ards the eyes, she drew back in fright. The ordinary 
 consciousness always began with astonishment and 
 wonder at the circumstances, in which she found herself.
 
 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOMNAMBULISM. 17 
 
 Miss Dorfer, and most of my other somnambulists, on 
 awakening, are startled when they look round, and are 
 frequently much surprised at seeing the company about 
 them. Unless they have been subjected to tiresome 
 experiments while asleep, they feel refreshed, and go 
 about their work with a lively spirit. Miss Krueger 
 praised the somnambulic sleep as a pleasure, invariably 
 refreshing and strengthening. Mrs. Kienesberger re- 
 presented it as comparable to a recovery from sick- 
 ness. Miss Atzmannsdorfer always felt active and 
 light-hearted after a somnambulic sleep. Miss Beyer 
 spoke highly of the refreshment which she felt after 
 sleeping in my quiet house, and the strengthening which 
 such undisturbed sleep brought to her. All the som- 
 nambulists spoke in like manner, unless some peculiar 
 illness oppressed them. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch of the ordinary course of som- 
 nambulism. We will now examine some of its pecu- 
 liarities in detail.
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 14. Sensitiveness necessary. The internal cause 
 of somnambulism is as yet unknown to us. It appears 
 from my investigation that all persons capable of going 
 into somnambulism, possess the quality of sensitiveness. 
 All persons, without exception, whom I have seen in 
 somnambulic sleep were highly sensitive. A somnam- 
 bulist will never be found wanting in sensitive impres- 
 sibility. Sensitiveness is a necessary precondition to 
 somnambulism. 
 
 Although we know of no physiological causal con- 
 nection between sensitiveness and somnambulism, and 
 know none of the internal causes of the latter state, 
 yet we know many of its external inducements, and of 
 the excitements which bring it on. In studying these 
 we shall gradually approach the internal course of 
 these wonderful phenomena, and perhaps we may, at 
 some day, unveil them. But in these investigations 
 we must be careful to stand fast by the facts by the 
 scientific facts and trust to nothing else to o suppo- 
 sitions or imaginations, no matter how closely they 
 may appear to be related to established principles. 
 But aft the facts must be kept in view. The laws of 
 logical reasoning must be closely observed. Here it 
 is particularly that the physicians have committed
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 19 
 
 their errors in regard to somnambulism, and have done 
 indescribable evil to science. The cause of their error 
 is easely to be understood. Their professional action 
 is governed by probabilities, often by mere supposi- 
 tions. The diagnosis of most diseases is a mere matter 
 of probability from first to last ; the wisest physician 
 guesses well ; the others as well as they can ; and in 
 numberless cases even the wisest can do no more than 
 guess at the disease and the best propable remedy. 
 In this manner the physician is accustomed to suppo- 
 sition and guess work. His whole scientific education, 
 his whole method of recognizing fact in natural philo- 
 sophy, and his modes of reasoning are trained in this 
 path. Thus we often see imaginative physicians, gov- 
 erned by a lively habit of associating ideas, and more 
 fitted to be poets than doctors, losing themselves in the 
 most adventurous combinations of the powers of nature. 
 And where could they find a more luxuriant field for 
 a tumbling-ground, than that of the darkly attractive 
 somnambulism ? There they tie together the under- 
 most and the uppermost ; there they mix in genial 
 union what should remain miles apart. The more sin- 
 gular the juxtaposition of the most inconsistent pheno- 
 mena, the greater is the admiration of the multitude. 
 By such methods the study of somnambulism has fallen 
 into the deepest disgrace with sober science, and at 
 last she has' turned her eyes away from it entirely. 
 For this result, somnambulism itself is not at all to 
 blame, but only the illogical, the unscientific, the com- 
 pletely false method in which it has been handled by 
 many physicians from the time of Mesmer to the present 
 day. And when feeling, faith, religion and the spirit- 
 world were mixed up with the question, what hope was
 
 20 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 there for success in philosophic investigation? Faith 
 and knowledge cannot exist together. The former 
 rests upon authority and natural disposition, the latter 
 upon facts and evidence. Evidence fails where faith 
 is necessary ; and where there is no evidence there is 
 no knowledge. Science recognizes no proposition as 
 true until it has been established by proof, and is sterii- 
 ly hostile to every thing else. Where demonstrative 
 evidence is impossible there must at least be a strongly 
 supported induction. This principle dare not be neg- 
 lected in natural science, and least of all in the regard 
 to somnambulism ; and I shall observe it strictly in 
 this investigation. 
 
 15. Coolness favorable. A cool temperature is as 
 favorable to somnambulism as it is to ordinary sleep. 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Zinkel, Reichel, Krue- 
 ger and others, when restless from warmth, soon fell 
 into somnambulism if they became cool. 
 
 Such coolness might be caused by the wind. South 
 winds, and still more west winds hinder somnambulic 
 sleep ; north winds and cool east winds induce it. 
 When Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Reichel, and Mrs. 
 Kienesberger went from my country-house into the 
 park, they were often afraid of becoming somnambulic 
 under the influence of the east wind, and sometimes 
 did fall into that state. 
 
 Rain has a similar influence, particularly when it 
 occurs in hot weather. Many sensitives fall into long 
 fits of somnambulism when a cold rain comes on. 
 Storms in the heat of summer always dispose sensitives 
 towards somnambulism.
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 21 
 
 16. Somnambulism caused by negative od, The 
 
 influence of negative od from all substances is favor- 
 able to sleep upon all high sensitives. Miss Blahusch 
 one evening, in the dark chamber, fell every moment 
 into irresistible sleepiness ; and it was found that there 
 were a number of large crystals lying near, the nega- 
 tive poles being towards her. I turned them about 
 and the attacks of somnambulism ceased. Magnets 
 had the same effect. The northward pole invariably 
 caused somnambulism, and particularly in Misses 
 Nowotny, Sturmann, Blahusch, Dorfer, Weigand, 
 Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer and Beyer. I placed a 
 magnetic wand, as tall as a man, near the left side 
 of Miss Beyer, she standing up and holding it in 
 her hand, with the northward pole near her head ; 
 and in less than half a minute she was in somnam- 
 bulism. When Miss Atzmannsdorfer could not sleep 
 at night, it was her custom to get this wand and 
 take it to bed with her. She knew from experience 
 that when it lay at her left side, with the northward 
 pole towards her head, she would soon go to sleep. 
 But then she continued to sleep so long as the wand 
 lay at her side. It has happened that she has gone 
 to sleep with it in the evening, and on going to see 
 her the next afternoon at three o'clock, I have found 
 her still in the somnambulic sleep, and could not awaken 
 her until I had the wand out of bed. But the wand in 
 these cases reached only to the eyes and where the 
 nerve of the forehead leading backward lies beneath 
 the skin ; otherwise the influence was hostile to sleep, 
 as may be easily understood. I tried similar experi- 
 ments with Miss Krueger, and she also was somnam- 
 bulic. Lady Elise von Seckendorf laid both hands
 
 22 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 on the unlike poles of a five-leaved horse-shoe mag- 
 net, and in a few seconds she had fallen into somnam- 
 bulism which lasted an hour. If I placed magnets, in 
 unlike pairings, under the feet of Miss Atzmannsdorfer 
 while she was in somnambulic sleep, she continued to 
 sleep till the magnets were removed. The same lady 
 stood once near the northern end of an iron wire, 
 thirty feet long, stretched in the direction of the me- 
 ridian, and took hold of it in her left hand, she was 
 so oppressed by somnambulic sleepiness that I was 
 compelled to place her at the southern end of the wire, 
 to avoid being disturbed in my experiments ; and there 
 she remained wide awake. I could mention facts of 
 this kind by the hundred, for in daily intercourse with 
 highly sensitive persons they were constantly recur- 
 ring, and at last I took no more note of them. 
 
 All these cases prove that the magnetic poles, partic- 
 ularly the northward pole in its unlike influence upon 
 the left side of the high sensitive, induce somnambulism 
 easily and quickly. 
 
 17. By electricity. In 4ike manner electricity is 
 an excellent means of causing somnambulic sleep ; that 
 is positive electricity which throws the person into the 
 negative state. Miss Atzmannsdorfer felt the electrical 
 current streaming from points like a cool breeze, and 
 at once it made her drowsy. On another occasion, 
 when I turned currents towards her from positively 
 electrified points, she felt them as a very cold wind, 
 and this across the room. The influence was so sopo- 
 rific that she went asleep every minute during my in- 
 v<- fixation, and I had to awaken her repeatedly. The 
 same results were observed in experiments with Miss
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 23 
 
 Reichel and other sensitives ; and the tendency of po- 
 sitive electricity to produce somnambulism was shown 
 on every trial. 
 
 18. By organic substances. All organic substances 
 have somniferous influence upon sensitives disposed to 
 somnambulism. I shall first mention some plants. 
 When Miss Atzmannsdorfer was in her most sensitive 
 condition, she found nothing more cool and agreeable 
 than to approach a solitary tree, with dense foliage, 
 standing alone in a meadow. But scarcely would she 
 yielcf to her desire to lie down in its shadow, before 
 she would fall into somnambulism. Often when she 
 went out walking in the wood about my residence, she 
 would be absent so long as to cause anxiety for her ; 
 and on these occasions she had always fallen into som- 
 nambulism under some tree, and remained there for 
 hours in her dreams. It was the same with Miss 
 Reichel and Mrs. Kienesberger. But this influence 
 continued only so long as the trees were in full leaf, 
 and disappeared as the leaves fell in the autumn. 
 Consequently, the influence was owing to the emission 
 of od under the heightened organic activity ; and more 
 particularly to the negative outpouring of the Caudex 
 ascendens through leaves and buds. 
 
 19. By plants. Plants differ in their somniferous 
 influence. All my somnambulists assured me that the 
 rose was the best of soporifics ; and not only the flow- 
 ers, the leaves of which they made into salad and ate, 
 but also the bushes were described as having this qual- 
 ity, by Miss Atzmannsdorfer, Rcichel, Beyer, Lcopol- 
 der, and Mrs. Kienesberger. I paid little attention to
 
 24 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 these assertions, and ascribed them to general love of 
 roses. It was only when Miss Beyer told me that, 
 next to the roses, she considered the blossoms of the 
 pear and apple-trees to be the greatest vegetable sopo- 
 rifics, and very similar in their influence to the roses, 
 and when Miss Zinkel confirmed the statements of 
 Miss Beyer, that I began to attach importance to this 
 idea. The pomaceas [apple kind], and the rosaceas 
 [rose kind], are near akin, and belong to the same 
 class of rosifloras. Nature has distinguished these 
 group of plants from others, the roots of the Poma- 
 ceas, for instance, containing the peculiar substance 
 known as ptdorkisine, and has given them a singular 
 somniferous influence upon the keen excitability of 
 high-sensitives. Chemistry will, in time, explain the 
 singularity. My successors, in these investigations, 
 will examine many other plants, with the aid of high- 
 sensitives, and their labor will be of the greatest value 
 to physiology, chemistry and therapeutics. 
 
 20. By human Od. The out-streamings of human 
 od, in their different degrees, have a strong influence 
 on the somnambulic condition. On the 31st July, 
 1845, 1 arrived at home after a long journey, and found 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer in so highly sensitive a state 
 that she fell into somnambulism every day. I went 
 into the room where she was and spoke to her, and, 
 within two or three minutes, she felt cool and fell into 
 somnambulic sleep. The near approach of others 
 of my son, my daughter, the servants in the house, or 
 any one el?c had the same effect upon her. The near 
 proximity of any one for several minutes, brought on 
 the sleep. This extreme sensitiveness continued for
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 25 
 
 ten or twelve days, at the end of which time it moder- 
 ated, and she could remain awake for some time, with 
 others at her side. If I wished to speak with her in 
 a waking condition during that period, I had to keep 
 the whole width of the room between us, and even that 
 precaution did not help much. When she had once 
 fallen asleep, she could not awake so long as I was 
 near her. My departure was always soon followed 
 by her awakening. If she had slept long previous to 
 my approach and was about to wake up, her sleep 
 gained new strength from my presence, and continued 
 until I went away, soon after which it ceased. When 
 other persons spoke with her during sleep, her awaken- 
 ing was delayed as long as the conversation lasted. 
 Thus it was in July and August ; in November her 
 sensitiveness to the cooling influence of my odic atmos- 
 phere had decreased but little, and she could seldom 
 be near me ten minutes without falling asleep. Mrs. 
 Lederer was sensitive to a like degree. The presence 
 of her physician for five minutes was sufficient to cast 
 her into somnambulism. If I sat down near to Miss 
 Kynast, to converse with her in the dark chamber, the 
 somnambulic influence was soon irresistible. The 
 same was the case with Miss Blahusch, except that I 
 always arrested the influence by backward passes. 
 Miss Krueger lay down squarely upon a sofa, I lay 
 down at her side, my right near to her left. She soon 
 felt the somnambulic influence and she had scarcely 
 expressed her apprehension of its approach before she 
 was asleep. Miss Weigand continued stubbornly in 
 somnambulism so long as men stood near her, and even 
 if the time had come when she usually woke up. Miss 
 Dorfer said she felt cool while I was experimenting 
 
 2
 
 26 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 with her, and then in the midst of the work she ad- 
 dressed me as " Thou," and I saw that she had gone 
 over into somnambulism. " Miss Zinkel, in her impres- 
 sible periods had to keep away from me, if she did not 
 wish to fall into an irresistible and speedy sleep. 
 When she was lively and active, and came near me, 
 with her left towards my right side, she soon began to 
 feel cool, her arms were covered with goose flesh, her 
 eyes watered, she began to yawn, and if she did 
 not then flee at once, she was asleep in a few 
 seconds. Miss Beyer in one of her most impres- 
 sible periods, came to me and I was arranging some 
 papers, so that I might go to work with her, but 
 before I had done, she was asleep ; my right side 
 during this time being towards her front. The pre- 
 sence of her physician, Dr. Blass, had the same in. 
 fluence upon her ; fifteen minutes was enough to throw 
 her into sleep, even when he remained at some dis- 
 tance from her. She could rarely remain awake more 
 than half an hour when working with me. When she 
 fell asleep on such occasions I left her for an hour, or 
 she walked about the room for a while until I awak- 
 ened her with backward passes. I could then work 
 on with her for another half hour, at the end of which 
 time the same ceremony was repeated. When the in- 
 fluence was strong upon her, she felt a coolness which 
 changed to cold and shivering. 
 
 These examples are sufficient to show that high sen- 
 sitives are strongly impressed, then made drowsy, and 
 finally thrown into somnambulism by the approach of 
 others. ( And since a cool sensation accompanies the 
 influence, the latter must be od-negative, accumulative, 
 preceding and inducing sleep.
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 27 
 
 21. Fingers under toes. One of the strongest 
 soporifics I found to consist in placing the fingers of 
 my right hand diagonally under the toes of the left 
 foot. I tried Miss Zinkel in this manner, and in less 
 than a minute she felt a coolness, her eyes watered, she 
 yawned against her will while excited in thinking 
 about other subjects than somnambulism, and she felt 
 the near approach of sleep. I had to remove my fin- 
 gers to prevent it from taking possession of her. On 
 another occasion I took hold of her toes with my un- 
 like hands, and almost immediately she was in som- 
 nambulism. When I did the same to Miss Atzmanns- 
 dorfer, she lying in bed, she felt an agreeably cool 
 sensation, and in little more than a minute she had 
 made the transition from ordinary consciousness into 
 somnambulic dream. The transition was still more 
 speedy with Miss Beyer. I had only to place my fin- 
 gers under her toes as she sat in her chair, and in a 
 moment she shivered and slept. In her sensitive pe- 
 riods I could do the same with her hands. If I laid 
 the fingers of my right hand crosswise, pointing out- 
 wards in her left hand, she soon went to sleep, but 
 many minutes were required. The coolness, yawning 
 and drowsiness occupied some time before sleep oc- 
 curred ; whereas with the hands under the toes the 
 sleep followed almost immediately. When Mrs. 
 Anschiitz lay in bed holding in her left the right 
 hand of her husband, she soon fell into somnambulism. 
 The influence from the hand went up to the head 
 through the brachial plexus, and.from the foot through 
 the whole spinal marrow, wherefore the latter method 
 was the more powerful.
 
 28 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 22. By blowing. Blowing, particularly upon the 
 head, is a very ancient means of producing sleep ; and 
 the magnetic physicians use it without understanding 
 the nature of its operation. Its influence may now be 
 easely understood. As in all other processes of che- 
 mical decomposition, respiration is accompanied by a 
 development of negative od which is carried off by the 
 breath ; and this again must have a cooling influence 
 on the positive portions of the human frame, and hence 
 its soporific power. Miss Zinkel found blowing to be 
 cool and agreeable only on the left side of her head ; 
 on the right it was warm and disagreeable. This fact 
 accords precisely with the od-negative character of the 
 breath. But the sensation of coolness was so predo- 
 minant in the head that the warmth on the right was 
 not noticed until I inquired particularly about it. 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Reichel and Krueger imme- 
 diately felt the soporific power of the breath, and the 
 last remained asleep so long as I breathed upon the 
 corner of her head. Thus waking and sleep, fact and 
 fancy, truth and wild imaginings were separated only 
 by a breath ! 
 
 23. By the glance. According to the assertion 
 of my somnambulists there is a strong soporific power 
 in the glance. Miss Girtler, when awake, carefully 
 avoided the eye of her physician, because she knew 
 from experience that the meeting of their glances 
 would cause her to fall into somnambulism. Mrs. Le- 
 derer was also afraid of the eyes of her physician for 
 the same reason. When Miss Beyer is in her most 
 excitable condition, a sharp glance by her physician, 
 into her eye, will throw her into sleep at once. I shall
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 29 
 
 not now consider the question whether this be the im- 
 mediate influence of the glance, but shall only remind 
 the reader that, according to my investigations, the eye 
 is one of the least od-luminous portions of the body. 
 
 Somnambulism may be induced by human od, applied 
 through conductors. I placed a wooden staff in the 
 right hand of Dr. Horst, of Vienna, and Mrs. Lederer 
 was thrown into sleep by the touch of the stick upon 
 her left hand. Before going to sleep she described the 
 feeling produced by the stick as cool and agreeable. 
 
 24. By passeSt Passes are the most powerful 
 means of producing somnambulism in sensitives. This 
 is a well-known fact, and I shall restrict myself here to 
 the enumeration of some of the most interesting vouch- 
 ers. In trying some experiments not connected with 
 somnambulism, I made some passes over Miss Kynast, 
 from the head to the abdomen, and she immediately 
 lost her consciousness in sleep. Two or three passes 
 would at any time throw Mrs. Lederer into sleep. 
 While Miss Beyer was sitting on the sofa, and I was 
 six feet distant, I made two or three passes, and she 
 was asleep. I thought I would try an experiment with 
 farpasses on Mrs. Kowats. There were three rooms 
 between us, and she was made so drowsy by my mo- 
 tions that I was compelled to stop. Miss Martha Leo- 
 polder was with Mrs. Kowats, and barely managed to 
 keep awake. I made several passes over the head of 
 Miss Zinkel, who at that time had never been somnam- 
 bulic, and she complained of giddiness. She sat down, 
 and I made several passes over her body, in the hope 
 of driving off the giddiness, which I supposed to be 
 owing to an accumulation of od. Scarcely had I done
 
 30 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 so, when she fell into somnambulism, for the first time 
 in her life. Whenever I made any downward passes 
 over her, she felt the premonitory symptoms of som- 
 nambulism, coolness, watering of the eyes, yawning 
 and drowsiness ; but to avoid throwing her into com- 
 plete sleep, I generally stopped when she became 
 drowsy. It is clearly to be seen that a sensitive per- 
 son who has never been somnambulic, may easily be 
 led over into that state. Lady [Freifmulein] Elise 
 von Seckendorf became somnambulic when I made one 
 pass over her right hand with my right, or with a crys- 
 tal of gypsum. The dispersive influence of downward 
 passes, made even with substances of a like odic pole, 
 had the same effect. The second pass with the same 
 crystal over Miss Weigand's right hand threw her into 
 somnambulism, and another pass brought on cramps. 
 At certain-times Miss Beyer would fall asleep after a 
 single unlike downward pass made over her toes. I 
 found Miss Reichel once in somnambulism, and after 
 conversing with her for half an hour, was about to go 
 away, when she requested me to make some downward 
 passes over her, so that she might sleep more soundly 
 after I should go. At the eighth pass she said it was 
 enough. Thus it happened in unnumbered cases, that 
 more or fewer downward passes produced aH the char- 
 acteristic symptoms of somnambulism in sensitive per- 
 sons; but never did I succeed in having the same influ- 
 ence upon non-sensitives; and according to my experience 
 none but the sensitives can be throivn into somnambulism 
 by art. 
 
 25. By sunshine, &c, Sunshine which enlivens and 
 refreshes all the rest of nature, has a tendency to
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 31 
 
 induce somnambulism. Miss Reichel complained of a 
 similar tendency on her system. Miss Sturmann and 
 others made similar remarks. But the influence of the 
 sun's rays, like their odic nature, is compound, and it 
 differs according to circumstances. 
 
 There are a number of other substances which may in- 
 duce somnambulism. Though Frederick Weidlich liked 
 the taste of bitter almonds, yet on the other hand he 
 had a great dislike to them, because he had learned 
 by experience that they had a tendency to throw him 
 into somnambulism. Chloroform in water had a 
 cooling and soporific effect on Miss Beyer. On one 
 occasion, while in somnambulism, such a mixture was 
 held under her nose, she expressed pleasure at smelling 
 it, said it was cooling and would make her sleep more 
 soundly ; thus having the same influence upon, her as 
 downward passes had upon Miss Reichel. 'A vial of 
 chloroform placed in Miss Beyer's hand, caused a 
 strong sensation of cold, and in some minutes brought 
 on sleep. Water, strongly od-negative, is the strongest 
 soporific substance known to me. When Misses Wei- 
 gand, Sturmann and others drank a tumblerful of such 
 water they went off at once into somnambulism. Miss 
 Sturmann would sink down unconscious before drink- 
 ing half the contents of the tumbler ; those about her 
 had to take care that the glass did not fall and spill 
 the water over her dress. I was the daily witness of 
 such cases. 
 
 26. Summary, If we take in at one glance all 
 the circumstances under which somnambulism begins, 
 we may discover some general characteristics which 
 mark all its action.
 
 32 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 First, a cool temperature favors it, as do the north 
 and east winds, rainy weather and the outbreak of 
 storms in the hot seasons. The effect of this coolness 
 will be understood, when we remember that the od- 
 negative poles of crystals, the northward poles of mag- 
 nets, the electric currents in the air, all which favor 
 and induce somnambulism, cause a sensation of cool- 
 ness to the sensitive. These agencies all have a cool- 
 ing influence on the left side of sensitives. All are 
 unlike to the left side, and unlikeness always produced 
 the agreeably cool feeling, but particularly under 
 strong od-negative influence. This is the case with 
 sunshine, which though of a mixed character, is yet 
 predominantly od-negative ; also with chloroform, a 
 cool, strongly od-negative liquid, and finally also with 
 water charged with negative od. The influence of 
 vegetables and animals upon sensitives is of the same 
 nature. A tree and wood, in full leaf, breathe out a 
 strong atmosphere of negative od. The approach of 
 human beings always has a cooling influence on sensi- 
 tives ; and the cause of this is that persons facing each 
 other in ordinary positions, bring the unlike poles 
 opposite to each other. A similar influence was 
 excited when I placed the fingers of my right hand 
 under the left toes of a sensitive, or when I blew my 
 od-negative breath upon her head, or when her left 
 hand was touched by a staff held in the right hand 
 of another person. But the mightiest ajront in pro- 
 ducing somnambulism, the downward pass, includes all 
 these in itself whether made with magnets, crystals, or 
 hands. In every case its influence was cool and neme- 
 tic weak when made by presenting like to like, and 
 in full power when like was passed over unlike from the
 
 EXTERNAL CAUSES OF SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 33 
 
 centre to the extremities. And now we have arrived 
 at that important principle, drawn from an extensive 
 experience, somnambulism is caused in sensitives by 
 nemetic influences, and particularly by unlike and od- 
 negative agents. We shall find occasion hereafter to 
 look farther into the conditions under which somnam- 
 bulism is produced. 
 
 2*
 
 34 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES WHICH DISTURB SOMNAMBULIC 
 SLEEP. 
 
 27. How to prevent somnambulism. We shall 
 put the principle announced in the end of the last 
 chapter to trial by examining the opposite phenomena 
 the removal of the condition induced by nemetic 
 influences. The two investigations must control and 
 confirm each other mutually, in case they be properly 
 managed. 
 
 When Miss Blahusch had sat for awhile by my side, 
 in the dark chamber, she began to get drowsy, and, if 
 undisturbed, went into somnambulism and exhibited 
 all its symptoms. This result interrupted the experi- 
 ments which I wished to make with her in the normal 
 state ; and I studied means of keeping her awake. I 
 found that upward passes, from the body over the face 
 to the eyes, were always effectual to arrest the drow- 
 siness. A few such passes, oftentimes a single one, 
 would suffice to restore her at once to her natural 
 liveliness. The same facts were repeatedly observed 
 with Mrs. Bauer, Baroness Natorp, Mrs. Keinesberger, 
 and Misses Leopolder, Atzmannsdorfer, Rupp, Beyer 
 and others. In every case a slight nemetic manage- 
 ment blew away the tendency to somnambulism.
 
 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES DISTURBING THE SLEEP. 35 
 
 When somnambulic sleep has commenced it may 
 easily be dispelled. All the so-styled magnetic physi- 
 cians have a multitude of means to destroy it. Such 
 heroic expedients as tubs of water before the bed, 
 and-so-forth, are entirely unnecessary. I know a Mrs. 
 
 L , whose son, between the years of ten and twelve, 
 
 was a somnambulist. After trying every other remedy 
 in vain for the supposed vice, she began to use the rod. 
 When he arose in his bed she began to beat him, 
 but she never succeeded in awakening him. She 
 smote away upon the bare flesh until it was all raw 
 and bleeding, but he showed no sign of pain and 
 seemed to pay no attention to the whipping. The 
 poor mother was frightened ; she did not know the 
 meaning of this insensibility to pain. 
 
 28. How to awaken somnambulism, If, instead 
 of such treatment, she had used a few upward passes 
 over his body, she would have succeeded better. 
 When Mrs. Lederer, Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Bla- 
 husch, Zinkel, Kynast and Krueger were somnambulic, 
 I awakened them with a few double upward passes, 
 from the pit of the stomach to the eyes. Four or five 
 passes over the eyes to the temples sufficed to wake up 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Krueger. Miss Weigand 
 awakened as soon as the fingers of the right hand had 
 passed a short distance over the stomach. I awakened 
 Miss Beyer by two or three upward passes over her 
 toes. Miss Reichel awoke when a pass was made, 
 from her abdomen over her head to the back of her 
 neck, with the negative pole of a magnet, or with 
 a piece of lodestone. On one occasion Miss Zinkel 
 had attacks of colic : I cured them by one or two
 
 36 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 passes with my right hand, and at the same time she 
 went to sleep. I supposed her sleep to be normal, 
 and at the end of a quarter of an hour, shook her 
 to wake her up ; but she was in somnambulism, and 
 spoke to me, " thouing" me. I made a few passes 
 from her eyes to her ears, and from her neck to 
 her eyes, and she awoke. When Mrs. Lederer and 
 Miss Dorfer were lying asleep, they would soon awake, 
 if I stood at the head of the bed. Miss Atzmanns- 
 dorfer was several times awakened by the mere walk- 
 ing of some one past the head of her bed. 
 
 29. The shock from a person departing. A sin- 
 gular cause of awakening is found in the shock of se- 
 paration. When Miss Beyer was in somnambulic 
 sleep, in the presence of her physician or myself, the 
 departure of either would awaken her. When Mrs. 
 Anschuetz was somnambulic, holding her husband's 
 right hand in her left, she was at once awakened by his 
 departure. If he did not wish to wake her up, he had 
 to go away slowly and gradually. Once he thought 
 himself far enough away to be able to move briskly, 
 but the consequence was that she started, and almost 
 awoke. 
 
 I have had repeated opportunities, of late, to observe 
 a singular mode of awakening in Miss Zinkel. When 
 near the end of her sleep, she often said, " I shall now 
 soon awake ; I feel it coming in my eyes." It may 
 be inferred from this that a nemetic process takes 
 place, and is perceptible to the sleeper for several 
 minutes before it restores him to wakefulness. Then, 
 before waking, she used the points of the fingers, 
 bunched together, to make passes over and touchii g
 
 EXTERNAL INFLUENCE DISTURBING SLEEP. 37 
 
 the eyes to the temples, with odic slowness ; thus awak- 
 ing herself by the most methodical upward passes, as 
 though she had thoroughly studied the process, which, 
 however, was entirely unknown to her in her normal 
 condition. 
 
 30. Somnambulism an od-negative state of the 
 
 nerveSi The methods of preventing and dispelling 
 somnambulism have not yet been so fully studied as 
 the means of inducing it ; but, so far as observed, they 
 are all accompanied by influences which accumulate od 
 from without to the nervous centres. Such influences 
 characterize the upward passes to cure drowsiness, 
 and upward passes to stop somnambulic sleep, either 
 over the whole body, over the pit of the stomach, over 
 the eyes or over the toes, with the hands or the poles 
 of a magnet ; and the same may be said of the effect 
 of a person standing at the head of a somnambulist, 
 of the shock of separation, and of the sleep-waker's 
 own passes. This leads us to the principle that som- 
 nambulism is disturbed and dispelled by soretic in- 
 fluences on the nervous system ; and this principle sup- 
 ports and confirms the one previously arrived at in 
 regard to the influences which cause and favor the 
 somnambulic sleep. 
 
 When we take these two principles in view at once 
 the production of sleep-waking, by the dispersion, 
 and its deduction by the accumulation, of od we 
 arrive at the important deduction that somnambulism 
 is an od-negative state ofj/he-wexyous system.
 
 38 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CRAMP. 
 
 31. What is the od-positive condition I The ques- 
 tion now suggests itself: If somnambulism be the od- 
 negative condition of the nervous system, what is the 
 state under the dominion of positive od ? We find all 
 kind of cramps in intimate connection with somnam- 
 bulism ; and like the latter they are always the com- 
 panions of high sensitiveness. It was, therefore, an 
 important portion of my task to investigate whether 
 there were not certain general relations connecting 
 cramp with the odic influences, and whether it might 
 be included and securely classed among the phenomena 
 of sensitiveness. For the purpose of approaching the 
 solution of these questions, we shall consider the cir- 
 cumstances under which those cramps, coming within 
 the range of our present investigation, occur. 
 
 32. Cramp common to sensitives, Most sensitives 
 are predisposed to cramps. Their diseases have usu- 
 ally more or less connection with cramps. All high- 
 sensitives suffer much from them at least I have found 
 no exception. Mr. Sturm, otherwise a healthy man, 
 has frequent attacks of cramps, which reach from the 
 feet to the hips. Very slight causes suffice to cramp 
 various portions of Miss Dorfer's body. Mr. Bollman
 
 CBAMP. 39 
 
 has been troubled with cramps in his hands, arms and 
 feet, since childhood. Miss Weigelsberg was often 
 seized with a cramp in the tongue, which would not 
 permit her to speak ; and any little surprise might 
 bring on this disagreeable condition. Miss Reichel 
 often has cramps of laughing, weeping and mouth-con- 
 tortions. About a year before I became acquainted 
 with her, she lay, on one occasion, immovable for a 
 considerable time in cramp ; and her friends, suppos- 
 ing her to be dead, were about bury her. Chevalier 
 Sidorowicz often suffers with cramps of the breast. 
 Misses Zinkel, Beyer, Leopolder, Sturmann and others, 
 are thrown into cramps by the slightest causes. Ba- 
 roness Natorp, fell ill, after delivery of a child, and 
 lay for forty hours immovable in a spasm. I could 
 mention a multitude of other similiar cases; but there 
 is nothing peculiar about them. Everybody may be 
 attacked by such cramps, and I call attention here only 
 to the fact that cases occur chiefly to sensitives. 
 
 The transitions from colic and headache to cramps, 
 sometimes through swoon and sometimes without it, 
 are very various. Miss Nowotny suffered for years by 
 headache without cramps; then the former ceased and 
 the latter began. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz \wis troubled, 
 in her youth, by almost constant headache. This dis- 
 appeared during a certain period, and cramps set in ; 
 and they now cause her continuous suffering. In oth- 
 ers, whose health improved, the diseases followed the 
 reverse order. Miss Ernestine Anschuetz suffered, for- 
 merly, with cramps, but she is now better ; she is free 
 from cramp, but has headache. 
 
 33. Cramp caused by magnets. We shall now
 
 40 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 examine the causes of cramps jn sensitive persons, and 
 the several odic influences which accompany it. 
 Cramps may be induced in sensitives by the magnet. 
 Every magnet, whether a horse-shoe or bar, when 
 pointed with either pole towards Miss Nowotny's hand, 
 made it stiff and induced a painless cramp. Small 
 magnets, as large as a finger, had to lie in her hand for 
 some minutes before they caused cramp and tied her 
 fingers together. Larger magnets exercised the same 
 influence in less time ; very large ones caused a more 
 rigid cramp, and the hand was fixed so firmly upon 
 the magnet that the sensitive was not able alone to 
 loosen her hold. In the absence of her physician, she 
 was accustomed to make passes with a magnet 
 over herself, to bring on sleep. On one occasion, she 
 fell asleep with a single-leaved horseshoe magnet in her 
 hand. After a time, she awoke ; the hand clasping 
 the magnet was cold, white, and so rigid, that she could 
 not open it. This cramp was without pain or any pe- 
 culiar sensation, and extended half way up the arm. 
 When a horseshoe magnet was placed on the eyes of 
 Miss Nowotny, it forced her to close them, and she 
 could not open them until the cramp ceased. If the 
 magnet was placed on her teeth, her lips became rigid, 
 and her speech was obstructed. Perhaps this kind of 
 a lock might l>e of value to husbands. I requested 
 Miss Nowotny to lie down upon her back, with her 
 head to the north, on a sofa, I then laid a bar-magnet, 
 two feet long, over her stomach, with the northward 
 pole towards the east : and thus the od-negative pole 
 was on her od-positive side. The position was slightly 
 disagreeable, but she submitted and remained quiet. 
 I then turned the bar, end for end, so that the like hu-
 
 CRAMP. 41 
 
 man and magnetic poles were brought together ; she 
 could bear this for only a short time ; a disagreeable 
 lukewarm current began to flow to her head, and a cold 
 one to her feet ; followed by colic, swelling of the 
 stomach with a worm-like creeping sensation, burning 
 and watering of the eyes, headache, and cramping-like 
 pains. At this stage of the experiment, I stopped. I 
 laid the magnet, right-angle-wise, at her side, with one 
 pole pointing at her. When the negative northward 
 pole was turned towards her left, positive side, she felt 
 a cool, agreeable sensation ; but after a while, the 
 equalization became complete, and then the soretic re- 
 action of accumulating negative-od began, with luke- 
 warmness, colic, headache, and cramping pains. The 
 southward pole, directed at her right side, had the 
 same effect. Then, on the other hand, I directed the 
 northward pole towards her right side, she was soon 
 attacked by the known phenomena of severe cramp. 
 Finally, the southward y pole pointed at her left side, 
 caused heat, worm-like creeping and roaring in the 
 head, cold and twitchings in the feet, and soon cramp 
 had taken possession of all the limbs. I made similar 
 experiments, and obtained the same results, with Miss 
 Krueger. 
 
 Magnets exercised a similar influence upon Miss 
 Sturmann, even at a distance. While standing four 
 steps above her head, as she lay in bed, I took the 
 anchor from a nine-leaved horseshoe magnet, and im- 
 mediately she was seized by a tonic cramp. If I did 
 the same at the like distance below her feet, she fell 
 into clonic cramp. One evening, while Professor 
 Lippich was engaged with her, and Dr. Gaal was 
 standing with me at a distance of thirteen steps from
 
 42 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 her, Dr. G. accidentally and slightly removed the ar- 
 mature from a nine-leaved magnet which I held in my 
 hand ; and almost immediately she fell into clonic 
 cramps. I often saw Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Krue- 
 ger thrown into cramps by magnets, which I took into 
 their presence. These cramps began very soon, when 
 I turned like magnetic poles upon their sides, but im- 
 mediately when I made a slight upward pass with the 
 
 southward pole directed at their left sides. 
 
 
 
 34. By sitting with back to the west. During the 
 first days of the Catamenia, Miss Zinkel was thrown 
 into violent cramps by sitting down on a chair with 
 the back turned to the west. And even in the inter- 
 vals between the monthly periods, if her nerves were 
 in an excitable condition, sitting with her back to the 
 west brought on cramp of the stomach very speedily. 
 A turn of her chair with the back to the north was at 
 once followed by relief. Miss Nowotny was affected 
 in the same manner as Miss Zinkel by sitting with her 
 back to the west. 
 
 35. By crystals. Crystals have an influence si- 
 milar to that of magnets. When I held the od-positive 
 pole of a ten-inch long gypsum crystal towards the 
 left hand of Miss Atzmannsdorfer, her first sensation 
 was a disagreeable lukewarmness; her second sensation 
 was as of ants crawling over her skin ; the third, sto- 
 mach-ache ; the fourth, twiching and internal waving 
 motions of the arm to the shoulder, with headache; the 
 fifth was spasmodic yawning; the sixth, burning of the 
 eyes with flow of tears ; and the seventh was the be- 
 ginning of cramps, at which stage I put an end to the 
 experiment.
 
 CRAMP. 43 
 
 36. By Metals, Amorphous bodies of unipolar 
 character, when they have a strong odic capacity, have 
 much effect on persons disposed to cramps. In this 
 class all the heavier metals are included. When Miss 
 Atzmannsdorfer attempted to clean silver ware she 
 was invariably attacked by cramps, which lasted for 
 an hour, unless I was at hand to cure them. Frederick 
 Weidlich never opens a door-latch with his bare hands, 
 but always uses his coat-tail as a covering for his fin- 
 gers, knowing that otherwise he would haVe stomach- 
 ache, head-ache, and perhaps cramp. Misses Nowotny, 
 Sturmann, Maix, Reichel and Atzmannsdorfer, accord- 
 ing as they were in a more or less sensitive condition, 
 had to use great care how they touched metallic sub- 
 stances. The touch of door-locks, window-catches, 
 spoons, knives and forks, scissors, jewelry, kitchen- 
 ware, tin-plates, smoothing-irons, stoves, balusters, and 
 other metallic articles, more particularly if of copper 
 or brass, induced cramps. If Miss Atzmannsdorfer 
 ventured in her most excitable periods to eat with a 
 silver spoon, the muscles of her mouth soon became 
 rigid, the spoon .was sometimes fastened between the 
 teeth and bitten crooked, and could not be removed 
 until the cramp had exhausted itself. Miss Zinkel oc- 
 casionally made fire in a large chamber stove of sheet 
 iron; but she could seldom get her fire kindled before 
 she had stomach-cramps. A young Princess von Win- 
 disch-Graetz was exceedingly sensitive to odic in- 
 fluences. Miss Atzmannsdorfer was given to her as a 
 companion on account of her experience in a similar 
 sensitiveness ; and that position she held until the 
 death of the Princess. A silver spoon was sufficient 
 to throw the latter into a cramp. She could scarcely
 
 44 SOMNAMBOLISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 take silver coin into her hand before she had a cramp. 
 Once she wished to pay out one hundred gulden in 
 silver; but she was unable to count it, and directed 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfcr to undertake the task. The lat- 
 ter counted seventy gulden and fell into cramp. After 
 some time she recovered and succeeded in getting to 
 ninety gulden, where she was again arrested. After 
 another recovery she succeeded in finishing the count. 
 Princess von Windisch-Graetz could not bear the pre- 
 sence of an ordinary looking-glass ; it made her sick, 
 and gave her the headache ; and if she did not hurry 
 away she would have severe cramps. The influence 
 was nearly as strong on Miss Atzmannsdorfer. She 
 had to go before the glass and then retire ten times 
 before she could finish dressing ; an attempt to remain 
 near the glass until she was done, was always punished 
 by cramps. Quicksilver is peculiarly hurtful for sen- 
 sitives; but all metals by their unipolar odic character 
 came cramp. 
 
 37. By crowds* Human beings lying near one 
 another have the same influence as magnets and cry- 
 stals. If I lay down by the side of Misses Krueger 
 and Atzmannsdorfer with my head to their feet, they 
 at once cried out and sprang up ; and Miss Zinkel did 
 the same, when in the same position, like sides were 
 presented. The two former in these cases were thrown 
 into severe cramps. When fifty or sixty students 
 collected about the bed of Miss Atzmannsdorfer the 
 accumulation of od in her system, threw her into a 
 swoon, which ended in cramps. The presence of a 
 crowd may cause cramps in sensitive persons. 
 
 If I took the hands of Miss Weigand in my own,
 
 CRAMP. 45 
 
 mine being crossed, she soon swooned and then had 
 attacks of cramp. When she folded her hands, she 
 had stomach-ache, and head-ache and cramp-like pains. 
 All similar od-positive influences induced cramps. 
 
 38. By light. An assertion, that light alone may 
 cause cramps, may cause astonishment ; but the asser- 
 tion is nevertheless true. When Miss Krueger with 
 a glass rod touched the green rays of an iris formed 
 by sunlight passing a prism, she soon felt pain, and 
 cramps followed. A similar trial of the influence of 
 the green rays of moonlight was almost immediately 
 followed by severe cramps. She was attacked in like 
 manner when she stuck her forefinger into the green 
 rays of the moonlight. I placed one end of an iron 
 wire in Miss Atzmannsdorfer's hand and, upon the 
 other end which reached into another room, I threw 
 the green rays of sunlight. She did not know what 
 I was doing, but she soon complained of a disagreeable 
 feeling, became very faint, and then fell into cramp. 
 Even the clear sunlight, which at first caused agree- 
 able sensations, at last caused cramps. 
 
 I placed an iron rod in a north-and-south position, 
 laid a large gypsum crystal, from the mine of Saltz- 
 burg, at the southern end of the rod and requested 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer to touch its other end. She did 
 so, and felt disagreeable lukewarmness, stomach-ache, 
 and then attacks of spasmodic yawning and finally 
 cramps. 
 
 39. By upward passes. Upward passes with 
 hands are a certain means of inducing cramps in high 
 sensitives. But no person would ever intentionally
 
 46 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 subject another to the tortures of cramps for the mere 
 sake of experiment, and therefore there is little oppor- 
 tunity for observation except in such cases as occur 
 accidentally. The slightest upward motions of my 
 hands, near Miss Sturmann, Atzmannsdorfer, Reichel, 
 Girtler, Kynast, Nowotny, Blahusch, Mrs. Anschuetz, 
 Kienesberger, Kowats, Lederer, and others, sufficed to 
 induce cramp or its premonitory symptoms. Miss 
 Beyer could not put on her stockings without feeling 
 pains passing through her feet and back to her head, 
 and she could barely escape cramp, if she hurried her- 
 self. The cause of these sensations was evidently the 
 upward passes which she gave herself in pulling on 
 her stockings. On one occasion she was lying on the 
 sofa suffering with cramps which I cured by down- 
 ward passes, but whenever I moved my hands back- 
 ward, even at a greater distance so as to make other 
 downward passes, she was invariably drawn up in a 
 tonic cramp. 
 
 I accidently touched Miss Atzmannsdorfer near the 
 middle of the back with my right forefinger. In a few 
 minutes she had a severe headache, and soon after 
 cramp. The touch of the same finger on the vertex of 
 her head deprived her instantaneously of consciousness, 
 and brought on twitching and clonic cramps. That 
 place on the crown of the head called the vertex, 
 whence the hair naturally turns towards all sides, is 
 the most sensitive point in the frame. Misses Reichel, 
 Maix, Sturmann and others were always thrown into 
 cramps by my touching it. Its influence is explained 
 by the fact that the od-stream from the finger flows 
 upward-like upon the nerves known as the occipitalis 
 major and minor, the auricula temporalis of the Par
 
 CRAMP. 47 
 
 anserinus, the supratrochlearis, and tliefrontalis. Up- 
 ward passes over the toes of Misses Sebastian and 
 Zinkel brought on cramp in them. Some upward pas- 
 ses over Miss Beyer's thumbs and toes threw her into 
 cramp which came and went repeatedly during several 
 days. I tried the range of the sensitiveness of Mrs. 
 Kowats by making upward and downward passes at 
 her through the doors of three rooms which were 
 between us. When I went to see the effect of my 
 passes, I found her winking with drowsiness, and en- 
 deavoring to resist the approach of somnambulic sleep. 
 That same night she had a severe attack of cramps, 
 which were caused by my upward passes, made at a 
 distance of forty steps from her. I had not foreseen 
 this after-effect, but afterwards learned more of it by 
 experience. A clear light was thrown on these cramp- 
 inducing influences of upward passes by other experi- 
 ments. I made passes with my left hand over Miss 
 Zinkel's right arm from the elbow to the wrist but no 
 further. I will give the name of part-passes to such 
 motions. The effect was that the arm became cold, 
 the hand warm and clammy, and was pervaded by a 
 creeping and then by the sensation felt in the limbs 
 when asleep. I made a similar experiment on her left 
 hand with my right, making the passes from wrist to 
 the roots of her fingers. The consequence was that 
 the hand became cool, the fingers lukewarm, clammy 
 and uncomfortable in feeling. A pass made with my 
 thump and forefinger, one on each side of her hand, 
 from the wrist to the root of her middle finger, made 
 this finger warm, clammy and creeping in feeling, 
 while the other parts of the hand were cold. I made 
 passes with my left hand over her leg from the thigh
 
 48 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 to the ankle ; and the leg was made cool while the foot 
 was warm, clammy and pervaded with a sensation of 
 creeping. I then made double passes over her breast 
 and body to the thighs ; the body became cool, and the 
 legs and feet warm, and clammy and felt a creeping 
 sensation. I then added four or five more passes of 
 the same kind, and within a minute cramps began in 
 the calves and feet and soon became painful. These 
 cramps could be cured as easily as they were caused. 
 A few downward passes, over the cramped portion of 
 the body, sufficed to restore the normal temperature 
 and easy position of the muscles. Upward passes of 
 every kind cause tonic and atonic cramps in aU high 
 sensitives. 
 
 Even like downward passes cause cramp. Miss 
 Beyer's physician made downward passes over her 
 with crossed arms, and the consequences were colic, 
 headache, and cramps in her fingers and arms. While 
 the same lady was in menstruation, I made downward 
 passes with my right hand over her left arm, after 
 three or four passes it was rigid, with the fingers 
 thrown back in tonic spasms. When I made similar 
 passes over her toes, her legs became rigid. Down- 
 ward passes, when continued too long, have the in- 
 fluence of upward passes, and cause cramps in Miss 
 Beyer's arms. 
 
 Wet feet have a very hurtful effect on Miss Zinkel, 
 and gives her headache ; in Miss Beyer, who is more 
 excitable, they cause stomach-ache and then cramps in 
 the abdomen ; in Mrs. Kowats, they cause colic. 
 
 41. By the peculiar odic influence of individuals. 
 
 The peculiar odic atmosphere of some persons, may
 
 CRAMP. 49 
 
 cause cramp in high sensitives. Once when Miss 
 Nowotny was in her most sensitive condition, she 
 begged me to take away a gentleman, who was in the 
 room, and whose presence made her feel heat, then 
 stomach-ache, headache, and cramping pains. This 
 gentleman was a polite, good-looking, elderly man, 
 such as many others who went to see her about that 
 time, and there was nothing disagreeable about him 
 that I could perceive. He came afterwards and re- 
 mained for a time in the room. The consequence was 
 that she fell into a swoon, and then into severe cramp. 
 A gentleman, who had been a benefactor to her, had the 
 same influence upon her, and it required her greatest 
 efforts to enable her to endure his presence. She 
 could give no explanation of her sensations further 
 than that the whole atmosphere About these gentlemen 
 was a torture to her. I imagined that both had suf- 
 fered severely from disease, which had permanently 
 injured some of their internal organs and therefore 
 gave out an unwholesome odic influence. This in- 
 fluence is od-positive, and thus disposes sensitives to 
 cramp. Miss Maix told me that a certain visitor of 
 her's, had more than once caused her to faint ; and 
 Miss Reichel told me of many persons whose company 
 was intolerable to her. 
 
 I often heard Misses Reichel, Beyer and Atzmanns- 
 dorfer, Mrs. Kienesberger, and Mr. Frederick Weidlich 
 complain that they were full of cramps which would 
 soon break out. This was an anticipation taught by 
 experience that certain peculiar sensations were the 
 forerunners of cramp. They described these sensations 
 as a general uneasiness, a dull pressure towards the 
 
 head, sleepiness, anxious dreams, and total inability to 
 
 3
 
 50 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 sleep. While Miss Reichel was in my house, she often 
 did not sleep for several successive nights, and on one 
 occasion not for three weeks. Miss Karban often suf- 
 fered from inability to sleep. Frederick Weidlich had, 
 from time to time, periods of sleeplessness, which ended 
 with attacks of cramp. In these cases there was 
 always a feeling of pressure towards the head a sen- 
 sation very different from that which precedes som- 
 nambulism. Miss Zinkel often discovered in the morn- 
 ings that she would have cramp in the evening or night 
 by a certain sensation of heaviness which gradually 
 extended from the feet through the legs, and then 
 disappeared in a loss of feeling. All these are the 
 symptoms of od-positive, accumulative influences. 
 When she thus lay down, the death-like loss of feeling 
 extended gradually through the abdomen, then into 
 the chest and ended in somnambulism. Mrs. Anschuetz 
 generally had cramps on the days succeeding those on 
 which I visited her. Miss Zinkel could take part in 
 table-tipping parties at the cost of some disagreable 
 feeling, oppressive sensations in the breast, a.nd stom- 
 ach-ache ; but in the succeeding night, she was always 
 attacked by shooting cramps, passing through the 
 hands, feet, arms, nose, knees, temples, thighs, gums 
 and so forth. 
 
 41. By mental excitement. Miss Zinkel gave 
 me the best description of the forefeelings of approach- 
 ing cramp and its companion, somnambulism. They 
 seldom attacked her without having been invited by 
 some mental excitement. But these mental causes or 
 occasions were often so insignificant that she took no no-
 
 CRAMP. 51 
 
 tice of them at the time. And she was the more likely 
 to overlook them, as the attacks usually did not come 
 on until hours, half a day or a whole day later. If 
 the mental excitement was great, such as a great fright, 
 the cramp came on immediately ; but weak moral sen- 
 sations left impressions on the mind which, separate or 
 acting together, were the causes of later cramps. The 
 first sign of approaching [latitirender] cramps was 
 always an irresistible stretching in all her limbs. 
 This stretching is in itself a kind of antecedent weak 
 cramp ; for whenever I made some dispersive passes, 
 over her, the stretching ceased and general rest began. 
 Hiccoughs were also a sign that she would have the 
 cramp, and were frequently its forerunners. Indeed they 
 are a kind of cramp, and I curexl them by dispersive 
 passes, by placing the points of my fingers on the pit 
 of the stomach, or most certainly by a glass of water 
 charged with od, when uncharged water would have no 
 effect. If, however, the hiccoughs were not arrested, a 
 peculiar yawning soon set in, and this too was a species 
 of cramp. Up to this time, I remained master of the 
 cramps, and could cure them at will by dispersive 
 methods ; but if the disease was neglected in this stage, 
 a sensation of creeping in the stomach followed, the 
 stomach swelled, palpitation of the heart set in, there 
 were internal twitchings in all directions, and then 
 the sufferer was certain of the near approach of spasms, 
 which soon seized, and raged through, her bowels, 
 breast, neck and back, arms and legs. 
 
 These examples show that soretic influences may 
 induce a condition in which cramps are latent. These 
 cramps, and the power which sets them a going, are 
 stored away somewhere in the body, probably in the
 
 52 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 brain, and afterwards, when circumstances are favor- 
 able, they break out in violent activity. 
 
 42. By obstructions to the flow of oil, Obstruc- 
 tions are the most powerful causes of cramp. Among 
 the most singular of these phenomena are the facts, that 
 little pieces of wood, crystal, metal, or even of paper 
 laid on the finger-points of highly sensitive persons, 
 cause cramp. I have had examples of this in Mrs. 
 Preinreich, Misses Fleischer, Beyer, Zinkel and many 
 others. There are also practical cases, worthy of no- 
 tice ; no moderate sensitive can wear a thimble. And 
 this is true not only of metal thimbles, which are dis- 
 agreeable because of the od-positive character, but of 
 all kinds, because they obstruct the flow of od from the 
 finger. Leather gloves are also uncomfortable to sen- 
 sitives ; but silk gloves, with thin meshes, are less dis- 
 agreeable. Leather shoes cause the same sensations 
 as leather gloves. High sensitives long to put off their 
 leather shoes, and put on cloth slippers, that permit 
 the circulation of air. When unusually excitable Miss 
 Zinkel was not able to put on laced boots, which were 
 not unpleasant to her on ordinary occasions. But in 
 her more sensitive periods they caused cramp, which 
 began in the smaller toes and extended thence to the 
 whole foot. Then she had to hurry to take them off ; 
 and soon after that the cramps ceased. These pheno- 
 mena are the pure effects of obstructions, where the 
 odic emanations from the fingers and toes are more or 
 less intercepted. For this reason, sandals are much 
 better than shoes for sensitive persons. 
 
 These experiments and experiences were highly in- 
 structive to me. They showed, in the plainest manner,
 
 CRAMP. 53 
 
 how cramps arise, as the immediate result of od-accu- 
 mulative influences ; they give the key to a multitude 
 of phenomena, extending throughout the domain of 
 somnambulism and sensitiveness ; explain a great 
 number of facts hitherto unexplained, and give rational 
 means of avoiding and preventing evils, the remedies 
 for which have been heretofore hidden in uncertainty 
 and darkness. 
 
 43. By like odic pairings. A not unimportant 
 example of the principles just brought to light appears 
 in a process of daily occurence the approach of the 
 physician to the sick-bed, and the feeling of the pulse. 
 It appears at first sight, absurd to assert that the pa- 
 tient can care which side of the physician is nearer to 
 him, or whether he feels his pulse with the right or 
 left hand. And yet Misses Maix, Sturmann, Atzmanns- 
 dorfer and others, have repeatedly assured me that the 
 feeling of their pulse was particularly painful to them. 
 If I, without forethought, sought to feel Miss Zinkel's 
 pulse in her right wrist with my like hand, she imme- 
 diately jerked loose from me ; and it was the same if 
 I sought to feel the left pulse with my left fingers. A 
 like pulse-feeling on Miss Sturmann's left wrist caused 
 cramp in her whole arm. I have witnessed a multitude 
 of cases of the same kind, but have not noted them 
 down. The cause is plain. When the pulse of the 
 sensitive was felt with like fingers, a current of od be- 
 gan to run up to her brain and soon overpowered her. 
 But unlike pulse-feeling was at first cooling and agree- 
 able. In the former case, where the wrist and fingers 
 were alike, tbo natural effect upon a high sensitive 
 would be cramp ; and this effect' I observed several
 
 54 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 times in Miss Beyer. At her most excitable times she 
 would fall into cramp after her hand had been held in 
 another's like hand for only a quarter of a minute. 
 The approach of the physician to the sick bed has the 
 same influence and, when the patient is very low, be- 
 comes a matter of importance. If he presents his un- 
 like side to the patient, there is no danger ; but if he 
 offers a like side, his left for instance to the patient's 
 left, and feels the left pulse with his left fingers, he 
 need not be astonished if the sick man soon becomes 
 red in the face, and restless, or has a fit of cramp or 
 opisthotonus. The physician should never approach 
 with a like side to the sick-bed, and if he does not 
 know this his presence will call forth diseases, of which 
 he is himself the cause. It is clear from these subor- 
 dinate facts how important a thorough knowledge 
 of the odic phenomena and sensitiveness is to every 
 physician phenomena which, nevertheless, highly 
 scientific men of the present day, declare to belong 
 among the fables. The only fable-like fact in the af- 
 fair is their own ignorance. 
 
 44. By all od-positive soretic influences, If we 
 
 glance over the cited cases of the origin of cramps, we 
 discover a certain general characteristic. The seat 
 with the back to the west is nothing else than a so- 
 retic reaction of the od-negative southward pole of the 
 earth upon our right side, and of the positive north- 
 ward pole upon our like left ; and this influence is 
 precisely similar to that of like poles of magnets upon 
 our sides, whether the magnets be merely pointed at 
 us or used in making passes over us. Crystals used 
 in the same way, immediately or through conductors,
 
 CRAMP. 55 
 
 have similar accumulative effects. So also od-positive, 
 amorphous bodies, taken in the left hand, have a pure- 
 ly accumulative influence. The influences of men, 
 when lying near each other with like sides ; or with 
 unlike sides for a longer period ; or when making up- 
 ward passes over the body, or over separate limbs, all 
 have the accumulative character. Finally the experi- 
 ments with Miss Zinkel show in the plainest manner 
 how downward and upward passes, both lead imme- 
 diately to cramp, where they have the effect of accu- 
 mulation, but prevent or drive away cramp whenever 
 they have the dispersive influence. We thus arrive at 
 the conclusion that while upward passes never induce 
 somnambulism, soretic influences always induce cramps 
 particularly through the means of like and od-positive 
 agencies. 
 
 45. Cramps cured by nemetic oil-negative influ- 
 ences, If now the question be asked how the cramps 
 caused by soretic influences may be removed, the reply 
 is indicated in the experiments made with part-passes, 
 upon Miss Zinkel, as before mentioned; and that reply 
 is, " with downward passes over the cramped limbs." 
 Wherever soretic influences have been at work, whether 
 in driving the odic fluid from the outside of the body 
 to the nervous centres, or from the nervous centres to 
 the extremities, thus causing cramps, those cramps may 
 be cured by a few downward passes. I have frequently 
 cured cramps permanently in less than a minute by un- 
 like downward passes over Misses Nather, Weigand, 
 Krueger, Kynast, Reichel, Nowotny, Wonter, Stur- 
 manu, Rupp, Girtler, Beyer, Martha Leopolder, Wei- 
 gelsberg, Atzmannsdorfer, Blahusch, Mrs. Lederer, Kie-
 
 56 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 nesberger, Anschuetz, and many others. I have wrought 
 such cures on Miss Zinkel frequently of late. When 
 she has fallen into tetanic cramps with or without som- 
 nambulism, I have invariably relieved her by some ne- 
 metic passes over her breast, fore-arms and hands, feet 
 and toes ; when I took her unlike hands in mine and 
 placed the ends of my fingers as near as possible to 
 hers, or placed my unlike fingers on her toes, the 
 cramps would frequently go in less than a minute. 
 Sometimes, and the fact is remarkable enough, I suc- 
 ceeded when I came early enough in arresting and 
 preventing the cramps by merely placing the points of 
 my fingers on hers, and bringing my toes, though cov- 
 ered with boots, as near as possible to hers. There 
 were cramps which attacked her every day and ex- 
 tended over her arms, legs, breast and neck, and were 
 accompanied by opisthotonus. The struggle of the so- 
 retic cramp-attack against the nemetic influence from 
 the extremities was shown by a multitude of signs. 
 The cramps disappeared in twitchings of the muscles 
 of the back, of the Rectus Abdominis and the Biceps. 
 On one occasion when I sought to prevent the ap- 
 proaching cramps on Miss Zinkel, besides placing my 
 fingers upon hers, I breathed upon the pit of her stom- 
 ach. This breathing had a strongly dispersive influ- 
 ence, and caused a piercing cold and negative sensa- 
 tion. By this means I was still more emphatically and 
 speedily master of the cramp, which was so subjected, 
 that Miss Zinkel passed an easy and cramp-free night. 
 I am convinced that if intelligent aid were at hand in 
 time, most cramps, particularly those of the hysterical 
 kind might be mastered and cured. In the cases cited, 
 the sufferers had a sensation as though a fluid was
 
 CRAMP. 57 
 
 passing from their head downward through the breast, 
 back, arms and feet, and when I placed my fingers and 
 toes against theirs they felt as if the downflowing cur- 
 rent were arrested in its course and turned backwards. 
 These may all have heen mere secondary sensations to 
 which no value is to be attached ; but I mention them 
 here for the completeness of the view of the interesting 
 facts, where the most violent cramps are conquered 
 when in the full force of their approach by purely odic 
 means, applied in the nemetic way. 
 
 46. Somnambulism and cramps, opposite odic con- 
 ditions of the nervous system. Then we have a result 
 precisely opposite to that arrived at in regard to the 
 origin of cramps, namely : that cramps are arrested 
 and cured by nemetic influences working upon the 
 limbs attacked. 
 
 Uniting the two results that accumulative treatment 
 of the limbs causes cramp, and nemetic treatment cures 
 it, and we arrive at the second main principle that 
 cramps are, in their general character, od-positive con- 
 ditions of the nervous system. 
 
 We have already seen that somnambulism is caused 
 by nemetic treatment, is destroyed by soretic and there- 
 fore is to be considered as a want of odic fluid, an 
 od-negative state of the nervous^tructure. 
 
 And on the other hand, we find that cramps are 
 caused by soretic, and are cured by nemetic treatment, 
 and therefore are to be considered as od-overcharged 
 conditions of portions of the nerves, which are in an 
 od-positivc state. 
 
 And thus after carefully distinguishing the various 
 natural phenomena in this tangled field, we arrive at 
 
 3*
 
 58 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 the clear recognition of the conclusion that somnam- 
 bulism and cramp are two opposite odic conditions of 
 the nervous system ; the condition being negative in som- 
 nambulism, and positive in cramp.
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 59 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 
 
 47. The two occurring together in the human body. 
 
 If somnambulism and cramp are two opposite od- 
 polar conditions, each being caused by such passes as 
 cure the others, it would be but reasonable to sup- 
 pose that if they were to meet in the same body they 
 would mutually destroy each other. Yet, in fact, 
 we see that this is not the case, but that they often 
 exist together, and that sensitives are frequently affect- 
 ed by both at once. In such cases, they are mingled 
 together in the most confused manner. And precisely 
 in these facts may be found one of the causes why their 
 mutual relationship has heretofore been so inexplicable 
 to pathologists. 
 
 To avoid being lost in the labyrinth which has been 
 building since the time of Puysegur, we must hold 
 fast to the guiding line offered in the fact that od may 
 exist in both conditions, negative and positive, in one 
 body at the same time, and that both conditions may 
 exercise an influence outwards. A bit of wood which 
 I whirled round between the fingers of both hands and 
 thus charged at the same time with positive and nega- 
 tive od, and then placed in Miss Zinkel's hands, caused 
 her to feel two sensations, one lukewarm, the other
 
 60 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 cool. If I placed the ten fingers of both my hands at 
 the end of a stick of wood or glass, a sensitive person 
 could feel at the other end the currents of warm and 
 cool od. This peculiarity of the od, may also be 
 traced in the light phenomena, where the blue flames 
 of the right fingers, and the red flames of the 
 left fingers, were both purple when the current of 
 one hand was discharged upon the other. When I 
 grasped one end of a glass rod in both hands, it emit- 
 ted a blue-red flame from its other end. Similar phe- 
 nomena were noted with magnets and crystals. Enough, 
 I have observed a vast number of facts, showing that 
 when the odic currents of opposite poles flow together, 
 they do not destroy each other, as do positive and 
 negative electricity, or bind each other fast as magne- 
 tism does, or neutralize each other as affinity does, 
 but that the two forms of od may exist near each 
 other and with each other for a time of unknown dura- 
 tion, and that each may, in the mean time, exercise its 
 peculiar influences. 
 
 This is the Ariadne's thread which must lead us 
 through the tangled passages of the labyrinth of som- 
 nambulism and cramp. If the plus and minus od may 
 exist together for a measurable length of time, without 
 neutralizing each other, in inorganic bodies, they must 
 be found in still more intricate relations in organic 
 living beings, where there are so many different mate- 
 rials to fasten upon. It is now my task to produce 
 facts showing that such intricate relations of the two 
 odic conditions really do exist in animate bodies. 
 
 It is not an uncommon occurrence, known to nearly 
 every physician, that the usual cramps of highly sen- 
 sitive persons are, as a general rule, accompanied by
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP IN CONJUNCTION, 61 
 
 somnambulic sleep. This was the case, innumerable 
 times, with Misses Nowotny, Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, 
 Krueger, Beyer, Kynast, Winter, Zinkel, Sturmann, 
 Krebs, Dorfer, Mrs. Kienesberger, Mr. Weidlich and 
 many others. Most of the ordinary cramps took place 
 with simultaneous somnambulism, the exciting causes 
 of which were known in only a few cases. But these 
 causes were often clearly discoverable in cases brought 
 on by artificial means. 
 
 48. Both caused by touch, It happened that once 
 I placed the point of my forefinger exactly on the 
 vertex of Miss Atzmannsdorfer 's head ; and immedia- 
 tely she lost her consciousness and fell over in som- 
 nambulism, and in less than a minute clonic arm-cramps 
 began. At that focus all the recurrent sub-cutaneous 
 nerves of the head meet ; those on the left being od- 
 positive, and those on the right od-uegative. My 
 strongly od-negative right forefinger took possession 
 at once in so sensitive a person, of the left nerves 
 nemetically, and of the right soretically, the former 
 influence made her a somnambulist ; the latter threw 
 her into cramp : and at the end of half an hour both 
 influences had exhausted themselves, and. she was again 
 in her normal condition, and at ease. On another oc- 
 casion, I placed both my forefingers on her head in the 
 same place. The effect was so severe that she at once 
 cried out, fell into somnambulism, and at the same time 
 had a violent attack of cramp, which lasted for half an 
 hour. The cause was the same as in the first case, but 
 stronger on account of the application of both fingers, 
 which operating alternately and in opposite directions 
 upon the cutaneous nerves of the head, caused K
 
 62 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 nambulism and cramp. In this case, currents of posi- 
 tive and negative-od were, at the same time, thrown 
 upon each class of nerves, and yet they did not neutra- 
 lize each other, but the sensitive was mastered by their 
 four-fold influences, all in operation at the same time. 
 I witnessed similar cases in Misses Maix, Reichel and 
 Sturmann. 
 
 49. By passes, Professor Lippich induced a si- 
 milar case, but in a reverse direction : that is, from 
 the feet upwards. He visited Miss Atzmannsdorfer, 
 then lying ill in my house, treated her with magnetic 
 passes, which were very agreeable and beneficial to 
 her. He ended these passes by placing his right hand 
 under the soles of her feet, so that two fingers rested 
 upon the left foot and three upon the right, and he 
 held his hand in this position for some time. The 
 passes threw her into somnambulism ; but the holding 
 of his right fingers under her soles brought on cramps. 
 The skillful physician told me that these were nemetic 
 cramps, which brought the disease from the. head to 
 the extremities so far was he from a proper under- 
 standing of the effect of his own operations 1 His 
 influence on the left positive foot was nemetic and 
 cooling for one minute ; but he maintained the position 
 too long ; an overcharge resulted ; and the effect then 
 became soretic. His influence upon the right foot was 
 still worse ; his negative fingers were strongly soretic 
 upon the negative foot. The consequence was, that 
 the patient's wholesome sleep was broken by violent 
 cramps, and then he justified himself, after therapeu- 
 tical fashion, by a combination of words without mean- 
 ing. In this example I could follow the precise course
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 63 
 
 of the nemetic and soretic influences step by step, as 
 they developed themselves in the body of the sensi- 
 tive. 
 
 If Miss Beyer was suffering under very painful head- 
 ache, threatening to go over into cramp every minute, 
 and I made two or three unlike passes over her toes, 
 the pain ceased ; but at the same time she fell into 
 somnambulism. When Miss Zinkel was attacked with 
 cramp, no other remedy was necessary than that I 
 should place the points of my unlike fingers or toes 
 against her's. The cramp ceased, and the young lady 
 became somnambule and slept for quarter of an hour 
 in quiet. 
 
 If I placed the finger-points of both my unlike hands 
 on the two sides of the solar plexus, she soon became 
 somnambulic, and began to talk. If I crossed my 
 hands and moved them over the stomach on like sides, 
 she soon fell into cramps, which disappeared with the 
 somnambulism. 
 
 Whenever this young lady attempted to wash any 
 linen, and rubbed up and down with the right arm 
 crossed over the left, she always felt great inconven- 
 ience, and soon had to quit her work, or submit to 
 attacks of somnambulism and cramp. The cause of 
 these attacks lay in the, numerous upward and down- 
 ward passes which she made over her own arms, work- 
 ing soretically, nemetically and dispersively upon her- 
 self at the same time, and thus induce both somnam- 
 bulism and cramp. Miss Zinkel had frequent attacks 
 of stomach-aches in the dark chamber and elsewhere. 
 In these cases I would give her three or four passes 
 over the body and down past the feet, and the sickness 
 was removed. While I was making the passes, she
 
 64 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 already began to feel drowsy, and as soon as the cramp 
 was cured she found great difficulty in remaining 
 awake. This sleepiness was the effect of my nemetic 
 treatment, and it commenced before cramp, brought 
 on by other influences, had ceased. I once made a 
 couple of passes with the negative pole of a gypsum 
 crystal held in my right hand held over the right 
 hand of Lady Elise von Seckendorf at Carlsbad in the 
 presence of Berzelius, and the consequence was that 
 she became somnambulic at once, and her arm was 
 stiffened with a cramp. So ignorant were we at that 
 time, the great natural philosopher and my insignifi- 
 cance, that we both supposed the phenomenon to be a 
 trick, and with the most beautiful experiment in our 
 hands, we would investigate the subject no further ! 
 Years passed by before I discovered the whole extent 
 of my error, and Berzelius died without having ob- 
 tained the explanation. The strongly negative in- 
 fluence upon the negative hand of the highly sensitive 
 lady was instantaneously soretic, and before I could 
 move my hand, cramp ensued. The pass, however, ren- 
 dered this more mild, and she went over into somnam- 
 bulism. Both conditions passed away within half an 
 hour and the lady was again wide awake. Thus things 
 have gone on ever since there have been somnambulists 
 in the world ; the clearest thinkers have misunderstood 
 the entangled phenomena and were even ready to 
 denounce them as tricks. It was the same with myself 
 and my numberless enemies will long continue the 
 same course. I afterwards made the same experiment 
 with the same crystal upon Miss Weigand, and saw 
 the same phenomena again developed.
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 65 
 
 50. By magnetSi I have seldom seen passes 
 made with the poles of a horse-shoe magnet over high 
 sensitives without their being attacked at the same 
 time by somnambulism and cramps. Both came upon 
 Miss Sturmann after one such pass had been made over 
 her. Misses Nather and Reichel, Frederick Weidlich, 
 Alois Bayer, and many others were afraid of the mag- 
 net and would have nothing to do with it, because they 
 had learned its good and evil effects from a long expe- 
 rience. A few passes with such a magnet made across 
 a room at Miss Atzmannsdorfer caused watering of the 
 eyes and yawning, as forerunners of cramp and som- 
 nambulism. There is no worse instrument for mag- 
 netizing than a horse-shoe magnet in the hands of 
 ignorant persons, and nearly all who use it are igno- 
 rant, for no one considers that the opposite poles have 
 opposite influences, and that the human body has its 
 opposite poles which are differently affected by the 
 same powers. I have always seen the magnet used 
 without any regard to the distinct natures of the two 
 poles, one of which causes effects directly the reverse 
 of those produced by the other. The consequences of 
 simultaneous soretic and nemetic influences are som- 
 nambulism and cramps existing together. The metal 
 as distinct from the magnet, is strongly od-positive and 
 works soretically on the positive pole of the body, and 
 the hand which holds the magnet adds its influence 
 which pours through the metal. Thus the horse-shoe 
 is a combination of all possible od-influences, which 
 might be expected to produce the confused effect ob- 
 served to follow its use. And therefore all high-sen- 
 sitives abhor it, and with abundant reason.
 
 66 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP 
 
 51. By green lighti All highly sensitive persons 
 find the influence of the green rays of the spectrum 
 disagreeable, avoid them, and suffer when subjected to 
 them. Miss Krueger repeatedly fell into somnambu- 
 lism and cramps when she nllowed the green rays of 
 the moon-spectrum to fall upon her forefinger. I shall 
 find fault with no one who may laugh at this assertion, 
 and imagine that the affection was merely imaginary ; 
 for so long as I did not understand the matter I treat- 
 ed it in the same way. But now I understand the con- 
 nection of cause and effect in these phenomena. Green 
 is not a simple color ; it is not even a compound but 
 only a mixed light. If we mingle fine yellow powder 
 and fine blue powder together, the result will be a 
 powder which appears green ; but there is nothing 
 green there. The whole mass remains a mixture of 
 fine blue and yellow particles. The red and yellow 
 rays in the spectrum are od-positive, and the blue, ne- 
 gative ; and they effect sensitives accordingly. If blue 
 is cool to the left finger, and yellow lukewarm ; then 
 a mixture of blue and yellow should exercise nemetic 
 and soretic influences at the same time ; and if the per- 
 son experimented upon the highly sensitive, the result 
 should be somnambulism and cramp at the same time. 
 Such are precisely the effects of the green rays upon 
 the sensitive organization, as I had repeated opportun- 
 ities for observing in Miss Krueger. It is scarcely 
 possible to desire a pure, more conclusive, or more 
 beautiful example of instantaneous production of these 
 two opposing states of the nervous system. 
 
 Mrs. Kienesberger was affected so much by a crowd 
 of persons near her, that on returning from a ball or 
 theatre, she has often fallen into somnambulism or
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP IN CONJUNCTION. 07 
 
 cramp, just as happened to Miss Atzmannsdorfer when 
 surrounded by students at the Clinical Institute. 
 
 It has repeatedly occurred that after I had made a 
 variety of odic experiments on highly sensitive persons, 
 they have had attacks of*somnambulism and cramp an 
 hour or two later. Of this I had examples in Mrs. Jo- 
 anna Anschuetz, Mrs. Kowats, Misses Beyer, Martha 
 Leopolder, and many others. These results were more 
 likely to occur if I followed up a particular experiment; 
 that, namely, of trying the range of the influence of my 
 double passes. The sensitive subject was then usually 
 placed three or four rooms distant from where I was, 
 and I made passes at various distances till my influence 
 could no longer be felt. Thus I learned the range of 
 my passes and the degree of the subject's sensitiveness. 
 In these experiments my influence, though weak, was 
 necessarily both soretic and nemetic ; and it sufficed 
 to throw high sensitives into somnambulism and cramps. 
 Mrs. Kowats felt this effect so plainly that no pleading 
 could induce her to take part in any more odic expe- 
 riments. 
 
 These examples suffice to establish the fact that som- 
 nambulism and cramps may, and often do, exist together 
 in the human body; and that such states of joint-occupa- 
 tion occur when soretic and nemetic influences of sufficient 
 strength are exercised at the same time.
 
 68 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 :ER vi. 
 
 THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 52. Their influence on each other* Sensitive per- 
 sons who are subject to somnambulism, are rarely at- 
 tacked by cramps alone. The cramp is usually accom- 
 panied or followed by somnambulic sleep. When a 
 severe cramp was about to attack Miss Reichel she, as 
 a general rule, fell sometime previously into somnam- 
 bulism, remained in that state as long as the cramps 
 lasted, and for several hours afterwards. Before the 
 attack came on she was low-spirited and weak ; after 
 it had passed, she was lively and good humored while 
 in somnambulism, as though she had been refreshed. 
 The cramp had evidently relieved her from a pain, from 
 an oppressive feeling which had weighed upon her. 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Girtler, Weigand and Krueger, 
 when I observed them, always became somnambulic 
 before falling into cramps, and remained in that con- 
 dition for sometime after the spasms had passed. Mrs. 
 Kienesberger frequently slept ten or twelve hours 
 quietly but talkative, after her attacks of cramp. Fred- 
 erick Weidlich remains somnambulic for seven days 
 after an attack of cramp. Mrs. Krebs, while somnam- 
 bulic for weeks together at a time, had tonic cramps 
 in her arms and legs, every morning for about an hour
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 69 
 
 beginning at ten o'clock. The numerous cramps of 
 Miss Beyer always ended in somnambulism, so far as 
 my observation went. Miss Zinkel, who has become 
 a somnambulist only of late, often told me that when 
 cramps of the stomach, caused by handling metallic 
 substances or by sitting for a long time with her back 
 to the west, had left her, they were succeeded by a 
 coolness that changed to a peculiar drowsiness. This 
 last sensation was very strong, and if she submitted to 
 it, she fell' asleep and slept for an hour, at the end of 
 which time, warmth began, then a light sweat came on 
 and with this she awoke. All these phenomena are of 
 a purely somnambulic character. Of late Miss Zinkel 
 has suffered much from illness, and her sensitiveness 
 has become much more acute. She has often fallen into 
 somnambulism and the most violent cramps at the same 
 time. If she became somnambulic, the cramps began 
 half an hour afterwards, then ceased, after an hour or 
 half an hour again came on, and again ceased ; the 
 sleep being unbroken. Thus whole nights were passed 
 in constant change. In most cases, the cramp began 
 in the bowels, and passed as rigid spasms into the 
 limbs, and then changed to somnambulism, or the two 
 states began at the same time. However, there were 
 cases wherein mild cramps came on alone, and passed 
 off without the appearance of somnambulism; but these 
 cases were comparatively few. 
 
 The causes of this kind of reflex-movement may be 
 different in the various cases ; but it is certain that 
 they usually lie in the odic dualism of the human body 
 and in its threefold odic axes. The influence which is 
 soretic upon one pole is nemetic upon another, and 
 thus may induce cramp and somnambulism at the same
 
 70 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 time. Great caution is necessary in forming an opin- 
 ion upon particular cases to take into account all the 
 various influences and to give to each one of them its 
 proper importance. It is possible and not improbable 
 that the exertion of an influence upon one pole itself 
 creates a counterbalancing action at the opposite pole, 
 as has been observed in magnetism and electricity ; 
 but I have made no satisfactory observations on this 
 point, and therefore content myself with merely sug- 
 gesting it as a matter not to be overlooked. 
 
 53. Cramps caused by slight soretic influences, 
 
 High sensitives may be thrown into cramp by causes 
 so slight, that physicians cannot be too careful. There 
 is a great difference in the odic influences of the 
 methods in which the hands may be grasped, of the 
 modes in which passes may be made over the various 
 limbs ; and variations which are scarcely perceptible 
 and which are not thought of, may produce very dissi- 
 milar effects on sensitives. For instance, when I gave 
 my hand in the most favorable position to Misses 
 Beyer and Zinkel, that is my right in their left, finger 
 on finger, and inside to inside, crossing downwards, I 
 supposed that all must be well, and that all the condi- 
 tions necessary for a comfortable position were observ- 
 ed. But there was something wrong. If the points 
 of the sensitive's fingers extended beyond mine, even 
 for the length of but half the last joint, though the 
 whole hand felt the nemetic influence, yet the little pro- 
 jecting finger points were affected soretically ; they 
 became warm and felt uncomfortable, and if the sensi- 
 tive was unusually sensitive, my continuing to hold the
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 71 
 
 hand was followed by cramps which commenced in the 
 fingers and afterwards extended to the hand and arm. 
 
 54. By surcharge of od. Here we must turn to 
 the phenomenon of the surcharge of od. When by 
 passes I cured Miss Zinkel of cramps of the stomach 
 and breast, or Miss Atzmannsdorfer of breast and neck 
 cramps, or Miss Beyer of arm-cramps or opisthotonus, 
 or when I threw Miss Beyer and Miss Reichel into a 
 deeper sleep, a certain number of passes cured the ill- 
 ness, and then the sensitive bade me stop. If I made 
 more passes I again brought on the evil which had 
 been driven away by previous passes, and it became 
 worse than before, ror now further passes would not 
 cure it but only make it more acute. When Miss 
 Zinkel was lately attacked by a disease of the abdomen 
 and suffered much by various cramps, she would often 
 grasp my hands and set the points of her fingers against 
 the points of mine, but she would endure this position 
 only half a minute, and then let me go. Sometimes 
 she would request me to take hold of her toes with 
 my unlike hand, and then a minute after I had done so 
 she would draw her feet back. The first influence was 
 highly agreeable, refreshing, cramp-curing, and causing 
 cold sensations reaching up through the whole arm or 
 foot. This coolness rapidly disappeared, and at the 
 end of a minute it was entirely gone, and a state of 
 nervous indifference had taken its place. If she did 
 not then immediately draw back from touching me, or 
 if I did not take away my hand from her breast, pit 
 of the stomach or neck, an overcharge immediately 
 followed ; warmth succeeded the coolness and increased 
 so rapidly that in another minute the cramps came on
 
 72 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 again. Breathing and blowing upon Miss Zinkel had 
 the same effect. While she had cramps of the breast, 
 she felt the greatest relief from my breathing, but this 
 durst not last more than a quarter of a minute ; so far 
 it was exceeding refreshing, very cool and cramp-heal- 
 ing, and all rigidity loosed itself at once ; but now it 
 was necessary that I should stop, otherwise warmth 
 would follow the coolness, an oppressive feeling came 
 over the brain and the cramps broke out again more 
 severely than before, having been called back by im- 
 proper treatment. To understand all these relations 
 accurately is clearly a matter of the first importance 
 to therapeutics. 
 
 55. By part-passes. I witnessed similar results 
 with Misses Beyer, Zinkel and other when I made 
 passes over their arms and legs during cramp and care- 
 lessly stopped the passes at the wrists or ankles in the 
 haste to make new passes. The scarcely subdued 
 cramps broke out again immediately, without my being 
 able to comprehend the cause. This was the influence 
 of " part-passes," which I did not learn to understand 
 until later. The incomplete passes' exercised a soretic 
 influence on the extremities of the limbs, and this reac- 
 tionary influence increased with every pass, until it 
 became as strong as the nemetic influence higher up, 
 and then threatened to weigh it down. 
 
 Another striking example is the following : While 
 Miss Zinkel allowed her hands to hang down, I placed 
 my unlike finger points against her's, touching them. 
 At first the influence was cool and pleasant on both 
 hands : afterwards this sensation disappeared and ner- 
 vous indifference set in. Still later, lukewarmness,
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 73 
 
 discomfort, a worm-like creeping sensation followed ; 
 then pains in the stomach, threatening to change into 
 cramp, and I abandoned the experiment. For the 
 correctness of these observations, I found a counter- 
 proof with odic light. I placed my right hand in 
 Miss Zinkel's left, in the dark chamber. Both imme- 
 diately became more luminous than before, and the 
 sensation was agreeable. But the light soon grew 
 dull, and, in half a minute, both hands, became invis- 
 ible ; the coolness disappeared, and disagreeable luke- 
 warmness succeeded. If the hand-grasp continued, 
 her hand felt the worm-like creeping, and pains of the 
 stomach and incipient cramp followed. In all these 
 cases there was an overcharge, or, rather, there was an 
 opposite mischarge, whereby positive od was laden 
 upon the negative fingers and negative od on the po- 
 sitive fingers, thus creating an artificial likeness of 
 odic polarity in the opposite limbs, and inducing sec- 
 ondary soretic reactions with incipient cramps. 
 
 While Miss Beyer was in her most impressible con- 
 dition, in my house, it often happened that when I 
 gave her a good nemetic pass down over either the 
 right or left arm, she felt an agreeably cool sensation, 
 and yet the arm became cramped. For a long time I 
 could not understand this. At last, when I had inves- 
 tigated the part passes and learned to know their mean- 
 ing, the matter was clear to me, and I could divide 
 the phenomena into their elements. I had never made 
 the pass with pedantic exactness out beyond the outer- 
 most points of the fingers, but I had only gone to the 
 hand, or partly over it. When we examine the in- 
 fluence of the part-passes, we see that, as nearly all the 
 mesmeric physicians do, I created an agreeable neme-
 
 71 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 tic influence over the whole arm, but charged the hand 
 and fingers soretically by allowing my pass to stop 
 when it reached them. My operation was therefore 
 incomplete and partial, and while I supposed that I 
 was bringing the greatest quiet over the sensitive per- 
 son, I heaped upon the hands the material that would 
 excite cramps, which would then break out, to my 
 great astonishment, and take possession of the whole 
 arm. It happened to me in the same manner with 
 part-passes over the thighs and feet and brought me to 
 start back in fear from my own defective art. When 
 in later experiments, I carefully lead the passes out 
 beyond the points of the fingers and toes, the cramp 
 ceased to appear in this manner. 
 
 56. By passes over the recurrent nerves. A fourth 
 noteworthy case of this kind happened with Miss Beyer. 
 One day I made downward passes over her arm; some- 
 times she felt them agreeable and cool, and afterwards 
 disagreeable, and finally she felt cramp in her arm. 
 On a close investigation, it appeared that the passes 
 were always agreeable and of a nemetic character, when 
 I led them down over the large nervous trunk on the 
 inner arm. When I deviated from that the influence 
 was disagreeable in places. When I closely examined 
 these places and the formation of the nerves in them, 
 I found that invariably there were recurrent subcuta- 
 neous nerves there in unusual strength- and with numer- 
 ous branches. This was particularly the case upon 
 the back of the arm, especially of the upper arm. And 
 if I continued to make passes over her, the girl fell 
 into somnambulism, with tetanus in the arms. Thus it 
 appears that apparently regular downward passes over
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 75 
 
 the arm, in unlike pairing, may throw a sick person into 
 cramp, if the pass does not carefully turn out of the 
 way of the subcutaneous recurrent nerves, with a more 
 exact knowledge of their position than is to be found 
 now in our elementary books. 
 
 57. By slow passes* It even happened when my 
 passes were too swift or too slow, that Miss Beyer was 
 thrown into cramp. The slow passes had this effect, 
 because they delayed too long before arriving at the 
 finger points, and exercised a soretic influence on the 
 hand and lower part of the arm, before the nemetic in- 
 fluence was felt there. 
 
 All these thousand-fold complex fine relations must 
 be accurately known and considered, if the application 
 of the odic force to therapeutic purposes is not to lead 
 every moment to the greatest mistakes, and the produc- 
 tion of effects precisely contrary to those intended. 
 But where is such knowledge to be found now in the 
 present state of magnetic therapeutics? And could 
 any one have such knowledge, since these relations 
 were completely concealed until the present time ? And 
 what right has any one to take offence when, in my 
 Odic-Letters, I styled the present conduct of physicians 
 a "blind groping"? And is not the correctness of my 
 statement vindicated that the results of magnetic cures 
 rest upon the most unsteady and insecure foundation 
 and, in fact, on no scientific base at all ? 
 
 58. Soundness of somnambulic sleep, Somnam- 
 bulic sleep is, in itself, when undisturbed by soretic in- 
 fluence, as quiet as any other sleep. Misses Atzmanns- 
 dorfer, Kynast, Reichel, Beyer, Nather, Dorfer, Krue-
 
 76 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 ger, Zinkel, Mrs. Kfienesberger and Frederick Weidlich 
 slept quietly in my house, some of them for long pe- 
 riods, and never was there any sleep-walking unless 
 there were peculiar irritations. Such irritations, how- 
 ever, are numerous, internal and external. They always 
 operate soretically, some of them od-negatively, others 
 od-positively. 
 
 Somnambulic sleep is usually pleasant and refreshing 
 like other sound sleep. When the sleepers are spoken 
 to, they reply cheerfully, in a friendly, happy mood 
 which is apt to change to the playful and jokose. Miss 
 Atzmannsdorfer was always much more cheerful and 
 friendly in somnambulism than when awake. Miss 
 Reichel, usually grave when awake, was always fond 
 of fun in somnambulism. I never saw Mrs. Lederer 
 otherwise than very serious or sad when awake ; but, 
 as soon as the magic stroke has passed over her and 
 thrown her into sleep, she was freed from all her cares; 
 the burdens and bonds of life were cast off and she was 
 a changed person, lively, romping, laughing and full of 
 play. When her physician awakened her, the sadness 
 caused by her condition in life, returned. Misses Atz- 
 mannsdorfer and Amelia Krueger while in somnambu- 
 lism described their condition to me minutely ; they 
 often said that the moment when their sleep began they 
 felt sensations in their brains as if they were made 
 lighter, and as a consequence of this, their mood became 
 more cheerful, yes even such bodily pains, as they might 
 have, were either much relieved or driven entirely 
 away. Miss Krueger described the condition of ordi- 
 nary dreaming as very different from that of somnam- 
 bulic dream ; the former she said was filled with 
 worldly griefs and cares and was often more painful
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CHAMP. 77 
 
 for poor people than real life ; somnambulism was a 
 care-free, happy state, where everything appeared in 
 rose-colored light ; all sorrows, all injustice suffered, 
 and other cares were there taken very lightly, and if 
 she happened to remember anything, the thought of 
 which could pain her, she passed laughingly over it, 
 always turning towards cheerfulness and jollity. These 
 are her own words, as she spoke them to me while in 
 the somnambulic sleep which she was describing. It 
 is well known that the somnambulists often sing and 
 that they give themselves up to amusing remarks, if 
 they are not disturbed. I found, however, that this 
 condition of good humor is different from sound, good 
 sleep, only in degree. I know from much experience, 
 that I myself, far removed from all somnambulism, when 
 in deep sleep see everything in rose-colored light, am 
 friendly towards my bitterest enemies, and have the 
 kindest feelings towards them. These good humored 
 moods must therefore belong to sound sleep of which 
 somnambulism is only an exaltation. 
 
 59. Somnambulism under active odic influences. 
 
 The course of somnambulism is different however when 
 it is influenced by od. It gains depth and strength, 
 and therefore comfort, when it is supported and assist- 
 ed by nemetic treatment. Many ill sensitives were 
 unable to sleep unless they were aided by downward 
 passes. Miss Sturmann has to be served every evening 
 at nine or ten o'clock with some passes by her physi- 
 cian, Professor Lippich, at a distance of arm's length, 
 before she can go to sleep. I have often been present 
 on these occasions, and saw how lively she was as 
 though she did not think of sleep ; but after the right
 
 78 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 hand of her physician had made three or four passes 
 over her, she was fast asleep in somnambulism. In- 
 numerable times by one or two passes I threw Miss 
 Atzmannsdorfer into sleep in the evening, and she sank 
 in somnambulism upon her couch; and I might say the 
 same of Mrs. Krebs, Miss Girtler and Catharine Rupp. 
 Miss Nowotny was always made to sleep by passes 
 with magnets, and she learned the use of those instru- 
 ments so well that she used to go to sleep by making 
 passes over herself with them. 
 
 60. Change from waking to somnambulism. The 
 
 change from the waking condition to somnambulic 
 sleep was never a long and gradual one, but a sudden 
 leap, in an immeasurably brief time. I have often 
 seen sensitives break off in the midst of a sentence, 
 having changed from waking to sleep. This was the 
 case with Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Sturmann, Weigand, 
 Nowotny, Reichel, Beyer and Kynast. I have hereto- 
 fore told how Misses Reichel, Beyer, Atzmannsdorfer, 
 Sturmann and Krebs praised the comfort of having a 
 few passes made over them after they had fallen asleep, 
 particularly just before one left them ; and often 
 when I was about to go they would say: "Do give me on- 
 ly a few passes, I beg, so that I may sleep soundly." Much 
 more complex are the influences of soretic treatment on 
 persons in somnambulic sleep. I have already spoken of 
 the cases where sensitives have been thrown into cramp 
 in this manner ; and now I am to speak of the weaker 
 effects, causing slight disturbances of the sleep. 
 
 61. Influence of position in sleep, One of the 
 
 lowest effects of this class is that felt by the somnam- 
 bulist when he lies on his right side, with liis back
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 79 
 
 towards a near stone or brick wall. Another case is 
 when his head is turned towards the west or south. 
 A third case is that of a person sleeping on the other 
 side of the wall, in a reversed position. In all these 
 and similar cases, where soretic influences are at work 
 upon the somnambulist, he will not rest well. He will 
 thrown himself about on his bed and will soon lose 
 his covering. He will then sit up and commence to 
 speak ; then he will get up and go about his room in 
 somnambulism, and if he can, he will open the door 
 and go out. From such and similar causes I innumer- 
 able times saw Misses Clementine Girtler, Atzmanns- 
 dorfer, Reichel, Kynast, Blahusch, Sturmann, Dorfer, 
 Rupp and Beyer, and Mrs. Lederer, and many others, 
 walking about freely, with closed eyes and asleep. 
 
 62. Moonshine* A similar cause, and one of 
 about equal influence, is the moon. The moon's rays 
 are chiefly od-positive. They are not so strong with 
 light as to cause cramps, but just strong enough when 
 operating upon the od-negative side of man to keep 
 him in somnambulic sleep, and when operating upon 
 his od-positive side to rob him of his rest and make 
 him lively. These two contemporaneous influences 
 acting upon sleepwalkers, are the causes of their activ- 
 ity in moonshine. The soretic irritation is not strong, 
 but just so tempered as to enliven and cheer ; the ne- 
 metic influence is just suited to render the sleep deep 
 and agreeable. Thus the somnambulist is solicited by 
 two attractions, and walks about in the moonshine. 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer found that moonshine enlivened 
 and cheered her, excited a love of fun when she was 
 asleep, but sunshine made her sleep more soundly.
 
 80 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 This agrees with the influence which might be expected 
 from the od-positive rays of the moon and the od-ne- 
 gative rays of the sun. If she was, however, in som- 
 nambulism when she was exposed to the moonlight, it 
 irritated her, deprived her of her good humor and 
 made her quick to get angry. 
 
 Miss Angelica Sturmann, at a time of full moon, 
 was in the habit of getting up every night, tearing 
 open her fastened windows, and clambering along the 
 side of the house, on a narrow projection of the wall, 
 whence a fall to the pavement below would have cer- 
 tainly killed her ; and one evening an attempt was 
 made, while she was somnambule, to compel her to 
 promise not to get out of the window that night ; but 
 she positively and stubbornly refused to make such a 
 promise. She asserted confidently that she would not 
 fall down ; and she added, with an expression of de- 
 light, that the moon was a source of such pleasure to 
 her she could not deny it to herself; she must be al- 
 lowed to enjoy it. A watch was set upon her and the 
 window was tied fast. The moon rose at two o'clock, 
 and she then, in her sleep and while the watchman 
 slept, tore the curtains and bands away, opened the 
 window, and went out in her night-gown, upon the 
 cornice, where her neckerchief was found the next 
 morning, and on which she must have clambered round 
 the house. 
 
 Lady Baroness Yon Natorp did not know that she 
 was restless at night. One morning she could not 
 comprehend what had become of the night-gown 
 which she had put on the evening before, and she WHS 
 told it had been found in the hall down stairs. This 
 happened during a night of beautiful moonshine. Slie
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 81 
 
 watched herself, and observed that many little changes 
 were made in her household changes which nobody 
 save herself could have made and of which she had 
 yet no recollection. Finally it was discovered that 
 all these things were done while she was sleep-walking, 
 and always when the moon was full. 
 
 Miss Nowotny often assured me that the moon exer- 
 cised no influence on her. Once she lay for a long 
 time in bed, and when she at last got up and opened 
 her writing desk, she found a half finished purse 
 and several half finished letters in her hand, but she 
 knew nothing of their commencement. The letters 
 were dated the 3rd, 4th, and 5th March, days which 
 had passed several weeks previously. I looked back 
 in the almanac and found that the moon was full on 
 the 4th March. She had therefore undertaken all 
 these things while walking in her sleep, and she was 
 not a little astonished at the discovery. Misses Atz- 
 mannsdorfer and Reichel were always very uneasy at 
 full moon, walked about in their sleep, clambered about 
 upon roofs and did other dangerous things. A sleep- 
 waking baroness whose name I am not permitted to 
 use, wrote from the neighborhood of Vienna to her 
 physician in the city, urgently requesting him to come 
 to see her. He went, but she knew nothing of the let- 
 ter, and she was struck with terror when she saw her 
 own hand-writing, without being able to comprehend 
 how such a thing could have happened. It was discov- 
 ered that she fell into somnambulism every night 
 about two o'clock, and in that state, while the moon 
 happened to be full, wrote the letters as stated. Max 
 Krueger created disturbances in the Orphan Asylum 
 
 where he was bred, by getting up in moonlight nights 
 
 4*
 
 82 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 and walking in his sleep. Mrs. Krebs rose from her 
 bed in the moonlight, walked about, jumped over ta- 
 bles, clambered up upon doors and so forth. Miss 
 Krueger was strongly affected by moonshine ; she 
 always went in her sleep to enjoy it at the window, 
 and would attempt to go out, but if she was not per- 
 mitted to do this by her servant, she would for the 
 purpose of obtaining the consent of the latter, assure 
 her that she would not fall. Miss Girtler had to be 
 closely watched during full moon, for she was very 
 restless at night and would undertake the most daring 
 things. On such a night I saw her in a singular excite- 
 ment, which if not carefully watched would have led 
 to very dangerous adventures, and she did everything 
 with such activity that her movements could scarcely 
 be followed. Miss Winter in her most susceptible time 
 happened to be in Graetz. The communications which 
 I received from various other persons about her con- 
 duct in the moonlight at this time affrighted me. Her 
 restless and violent actions caused an uproar not only 
 at the home where she was stopping, but the whole 
 street. If she was resisted she seized her maid watch- 
 er, struck her, and in her paroxysms showed such an 
 extraordinary strength that she threw down the strong- 
 est men, who finally were struck with fear at tluve 
 apparently supernatural things. Many of my sensi- 
 tives, who were not somnambulists had brothers or 
 sisters who were sleepwalkers, and uneasy at times of 
 full moon ; thus Professor Roesner had a brother and 
 Chevalier Hubert von Rainer was one of seven child- 
 ren of whom four, two of each sex, as well as their 
 father, were all somnambulists and caused much bother 
 on that account in their house.
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 83 
 
 
 
 63. Duration of soninainbiilic sleep, Somnambu- 
 lic sleeps are of very unequal duration. Sometimes 
 they pass away within five minutes, or they may last 
 an hour, a day, a night, a week, a month, and even a 
 much longer period, but I have witnessed none lasting 
 more than a month. Miss Atzmannsdorfer often lay 
 five or . six days at a time in unbroken sleep in my 
 house. Friedrich Weidlich's fits of somnambulism 
 usually continue about a week. Miss Kynast slept 
 from four to six weeks at a time. Mrs. Krebs had 
 lain in uninterrupted somnambulism several months 
 when I first saw her, and continued in the same state 
 as long as I could visit her. 
 
 64. Somnambulism for women and cramps for men. 
 
 This somnambulic sleep becomes sometimes a dis- 
 eased drowsiness. Mrs. Reichel in her most suscep- 
 tible periods would fall asleep in any place, and went 
 in her sleep through the streets of Vienna. Miss 
 Beyer also fell asleep in the streets. She was for a 
 time so subject to the attacks of somnambulism that 
 she would go to sleep in any place, and she was found 
 sleeping in all corners ; once when she was cleaning 
 some knives, she suddenly went to sleep, and her head 
 falling, her. face was cut on the point of a knife which 
 she had in her hand. She would at times become som- 
 nambulic when in conversation. The same happened 
 to Miss Atzmannsdorfer. If Professor Lippich, my- 
 self, my daughter, or servants approached her at cer- 
 tain periods, she would fall asleep in less than a mi- 
 nute. Misses Kynast, Blahusch, Krueger, Dorfer, 
 Karhan, Mrs. Kowats, Mrs. Kienesberger, Friedrich 
 Weidlich, and Alois Beyer had all similar periods, when
 
 84 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 the approach of myself or others caused an immediate 
 drowsiness which soon changed to an irresistible sleep. 
 There are also on the other side sensitives, who are 
 equally susceptible to stomach-ache, stomach-cramp, 
 fits of megrim head-ache, and cramps of all kinds, and 
 to a similar degree. These are chiefly demi-sensitives, 
 such as Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz, Mrs. Mueller, Mrs. 
 Preinreich, Lady Baroness von Natorp, Misses von 
 Weigelsberg, Glaser, Zinkel, Messrs. Gustav Anschuetz, 
 Fichtner, Tirka, Joseph Czabek, Klein, Kollar, Kots- 
 chy, Dr. Loew, Mr. Delhez, Dr. Machold, Dr. Mie- 
 lichhofer, Barons Henry and August von Oberlaender, 
 Councillor Pauer, Chevalier von Sidorowicz, Mr. 
 Sturm, and many others. There appears here to be a 
 kind of opposition among sensitives, some being more 
 inclined to somnambulism and others to cramp-like 
 affections. The women seem to be more subject to 
 somnambulism, and men to pains of the head and stom- 
 ach ; and from this we may infer that the female sex 
 is more easily affected by negative and nemetic in- 
 fluences, and the male by positive and soretic. Such 
 at least is the general deduction from the statistics of 
 my sensitives. This influence is, however, not suffi- 
 ciently established to be relied upon, and I mention it 
 here only as an aid to further investigation. 
 
 65. Periodicity. Somnambulism and cramps seem,, 
 when observed superficially, to commence without reg- 
 ularity, as to time. This seeming, however, is due 
 altogether to the fact that at every moment there are 
 unexpected and accidental external irritations, which 
 cause violent attacks of somnambulism and cramp out 
 of season. But, if we carefully observe the facts, and
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OP SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 85 
 
 exclude the accidental and strong attacks upon the 
 free development* of nature, we shall see an unmis- 
 takeable and regular periodicity revealed. Miss 
 Nowotny had her attacks of cramp every day, at 6 
 P. M., and the hour changed gradually as the days 
 grew longer, in the spring, to 7 o'clock, so long as 
 everything was quiet in the house. But when disturb- 
 ance and mental excitement was brought in from 
 without, the attacks came out of season, at midday and 
 in the afternoon. When everything was quiet, Miss 
 Krueger fell asleep every day at noon. The same was 
 the case with Mrs. Kienesberger. Miss Beyer went 
 to sleep every evening, between 6 and 7 o'clock. I 
 found Miss Weigand in somnambulism every evening 
 at 5 o'clock. 
 
 These irritations often followed a certain rhythm 
 through the course of the day. Thus Miss Beyer reg- 
 ularly felt cool in the morning ; this disappeared in 
 the middle of the day, and towards evening her whole 
 body was warm, and then the attacks of cramp and 
 somnambulism came on. 
 
 66. Temperature of the body, The commence- 
 ment of cramp, as well as of somnambulism, were 
 always preceded, so far as I observed, by cold in the 
 feet and hands, and warmth in the head. This was 
 the rule with Miss Nowotny, and her gradual cure kept 
 pace with the restoration of warmth in the feet, by 
 means of magnets. Friedrich Weidlich often com- 
 plained about the constant coldness of his feet and 
 warmth of his head, before his periodical attacks. The 
 deeper the sleep of Miss Atzmannsdorfer, the colder 
 her upper and lower extremeties ; but after she awoke
 
 86 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 she became perceptibly warmer. Miss Beyer's hands 
 and feet were always cold when she fell into somnam- 
 bulism, in my house, and then tetanus soon followed. 
 I observed that with Miss Zinkel cold limbs and a 
 warm head always were the forerunners of cramps, 
 and while they lasted, a perspiration broke out upon 
 the head. This was what might have been expected 
 from the soretic condition in which she was. But, at 
 the same time, she was somnambule, and consequently 
 nemetic. When at last the cramps passed off, and she 
 awoke, there was a frostiness and goose-flesh over her 
 whole body. These did not disappear for some time, 
 and were caused by the nemetic influence which had 
 exclusive control after the disappearance of the cramp. 
 
 67. Swellings. A peculiar but universal pheno- 
 menon in highly sensitive women, during fits of som- 
 nambulic cramp, is a swelling over the stomach, imme- 
 diately under the girdle. People think it a protrusion 
 of the stomach, and physicians expressed the same 
 opinion to me. They believed that the pilorus and 
 the cardia had been drawn together by cramp, and 
 then gas developed in the stomach, which was thus 
 protruded, there being no exit for the gas. I give the 
 explanation for what it may be worth, but I have often 
 observed the fact of a swelling over the place of the 
 stomach. Miss Zinkel confessed that this phenomenon 
 always ended with belching, and that soon after air 
 escaped. But a more singular fact came to confirm 
 the opinion of the physicians. If this swelling existed 
 at a time when Miss Zinkel attempted to drink water, 
 the liquid could not get down into the stomach. If I 
 now placed the points of the right fingers on the swell-
 
 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 87 
 
 ing, the passage seemed to be opened and she could 
 feel the water running down into her stomach. The 
 cardia was therefore in fact drawn together by cramp ; 
 my fingers loosened it, and the passage was opened to 
 the water. The commencement of the swelling, as I 
 observed innumerable times, was always attended by 
 a wOrm-like movement of the flesh over the stomach, 
 as if it were alive seemingly a kind of peristaltic 
 motion. While this was in progress I could cure the 
 evil, which had been caused by soretic influences. If 
 I now worked nemetically, by making some double 
 passes from the neck to the thigs, with short delays 
 over the pit of the stomach, which now began to swell, 
 the worm-like movement decreased and within one or 
 two minutes ceased, and the pain disappeared. If I 
 was not present to stop the evil, the pain in the stom- 
 ach changed into a cramp, then into a cramp of the 
 breast, then into neck-cramps, and the region of the 
 stomach swelled up to a frightful size. My slightly 
 sensitive daughter Hermine was the first non-somnam- 
 bulic sensitive in whom I observed the incipient stages 
 of the worm-like motion over the stomach, with pains 
 of that organ. In the secondary stages I observed it 
 accompanied by slight swellings, in Misses Geraldini, 
 Schwartz, Martha Leopolder, Armida Geraldini, Mrs. 
 Margaret Kowats, and Mrs. Mueller, (the last of whom 
 always felt very nervous at such times,) Mr. Leopolder, 
 Joseph Zinkelbaier, and innumerable times in Miss 
 Zinkel, whom I could always cure by downward passes. 
 It was the most violent in Misses Reichel and Beyer, 
 in whom the swelling was larger than the breasts, and 
 became a deformity. The worm-like movement could 
 always be felt inside of the swelling. The evil is
 
 88 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 increased in Miss Beyer when any one stands or sits 
 behind her for a long time, when she eats onions, or 
 when upward passes are made over her. It is caused 
 by soretic influences. The phenomenon was so frequent 
 in Miss Atzmannsdorfer that little attention was paid 
 to it at last. I observed its medium stages in many 
 sensitives, but it was always accompanied by cramps 
 of the breast and stomach, which I could create by 
 soretic treatment with upward passes, and so long as 
 they had not got the upper hand, I could dispel it at 
 will. The further explanation of the pathology and 
 therapeutics of the matter I must leave to the physi- 
 cians.
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 89 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CONDITION OP THE SENSES. 
 
 68. Touch* It is well known that in somnam- 
 bulism the external nerves have lost more or less of 
 their acuteness, a condition which resembles that of 
 swoon, narcosis, numbness in extreme cold, and the 
 state of a man whose nerves are cut or tied up. I 
 have collected many examples of this insensibility, but 
 as this quality of somnambulists is well known, I shall 
 give but a few of them here, for the purpose of show- 
 ing how completely sensation is dormant. Miss Rei- 
 chel, while somnambulic, stuck pins into her flesh, even 
 in her hands, to satisfy me how little feeling she had. 
 I saw Miss Nowotny severely pinched and pricked by 
 physicians, without her moving a muscle. I myself 
 pricked Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Sturmann in the 
 arms with a penknife, and they did not wince. While 
 Miss Zinkel lay somnambulic in bed, I took hair-pins 
 from her head and pricked her with them in her arms, 
 at many places, and lacerated the flesh with them. 
 She had her eyes shut, and did not show the least sign 
 of pain, but finally asked me why I was pricking her. 
 In reply to my question, whether she felt any pain, she 
 said " No." I continued to prick her, and now she
 
 90 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 was offended, not at any bodily pain, but at the insult. 
 It was evident from this that though she felt what I 
 was doing, the feeling was not accompanied by pain. 
 The sensory nerves were deprived of their functions, 
 but she had other means of perception, notwithstand- 
 ing her closed eyes. Miss Beyer was pricked deeply 
 in her hands with needles, in my presence, and pinched 
 till the blood came, but her sleep was not disturbed. 
 After several weeks had passed, I often tried the same 
 experiments upon her, and always found that the 
 nerves of touch were inactive in the places which I 
 wounded. 
 
 69. Smell. Many cases have been observed of the 
 temporary loss of smell during somnambulism. I have 
 tried Miss Atzmansdorfer in that condition with spir- 
 its of ammonia and substances of similar pungent 
 odor, and they had no effect on her. But I found an 
 opposite case when, without saying a word, I placed 
 formichlorode under Miss Beyer's nose. Although she 
 did not feel the prick of a needle, she recognized the 
 pleasant odor of the chloroform, and praised it and said 
 it made her sleep deeper. I think it probable that all 
 somnambulists can by their smell distinguish between 
 the positive and negative poles of the magnets, even 
 when they can smell nothing else ; but I have not yet 
 made the experiment. Attention must be paid to the 
 like and unlike sides of the nostrils in this matter, for 
 they have poles, as well as the magnets. 
 
 70. Hearing. When Miss Nowotny lay in her 
 attacks, she heard nothing so long as they lasted. Miss 
 Krueirer, while in somnambulism, usually could not
 
 T"F CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 91 
 
 hear, but there were intervening periods in which she 
 could hear for a few minutes, and then deafness ensued 
 again. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz often became somnam- 
 bulic and then hearing ceased. On such occasions she 
 could not hear the loud voice or even the screaming 
 of her husband, though her ordinary sleep was very 
 light, and subject to disturbance by the slightest noise. 
 But with all other high-sensitives in somnambulism, I 
 could converse very well, and in most of them the 
 sense of hearing seemed to be but little changed from 
 its ordinary condition. When Misses Reichel, Stur- 
 inann, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer, Zinkel and others felt 
 no pain from pricking, I could conveniently converse 
 with them ; and they understood every word, con- 
 sequently there must be cases of somnambulism where 
 the hearing is lost for a time, and others where the 
 hearing is good as in the normal state, or even more 
 acute. 
 
 71. Hearing at the pit of the stomach. A singu- 
 lar fact to be stated in connection with this part of 
 our subject is the hearing through the pit of the stom- 
 ach or through the hands. It has long been known 
 that somnambulists, when they had entirely lost their 
 hearing and did not perceive the loudest noises made 
 at their ears, would yet suddenly move and give replies 
 if they were spoken to with the mouth close to the 
 pit of the stomach, or to the hand. A beautiful case 
 of this kind is reported by Mr. Purkinje, from his own 
 observation in Wagner's Handwoerterbuch der Phy- 
 siologie ( Vol. Ill, part 2, p. 448). Such cases occurred 
 with Misses Beyer and Zinkel. As an experiment I 
 spoke some words in a slight whisper in Miss Krueger's
 
 92 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 hand, and she was astonished to hear them plainly. 
 She said the words came through her arm as through 
 a speaking trumpet, and had struck her ear as if spoken 
 with a loud voice. The same was the case with Mrs. 
 Joanna Anschuetz. I then advised her husband to 
 speak in her hand the next time she should become deaf. 
 There was soon an opportunity for him to v try the 
 experiment, and he reported with joyful astonishment 
 that when his wife was in her deaf sleep so that she 
 could not hear his loudest outcries at her ear, he had 
 whispered lightly in the hollow of her hand and she 
 understood him at once and answered him, accompany- 
 ing her reply with expressive gesticulations. 
 
 72. Hearing in the handt I tried other high and 
 demi-sensitives, who could not hear through their ears, 
 by whispering in their hands. I whispered lightly in 
 the hand of Mrs. Lederer while somnambulic } she 
 heard me very plainly, and also used the expression 
 that the sound came up to her ear through her arm as 
 through a tube. Miss Kynast clearly heard the slight- 
 est sound running up through her arm to the head. I 
 whispered in the hands of Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz, in 
 her ordinary condition, Mrs. Kienesberger, Lady Ba- 
 roness von Natorp, Friedrich Bollman, Mr. Rabe and 
 Councillor Pauer, and all understood me although they 
 could not hear me when I spoke in the same tone at 
 the same distance from their ears and away from their 
 hands. Miss Dorfer heard better through her right 
 hand than through her left, her right side being the 
 more sensitive. Miss Beyer in her waking condition 
 heard very well through her hands ; when in somnam- 
 bulism she heard well with her ears but better through
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 93 
 
 her hands, and could even understand me when my 
 whispers were so low that I myself could not hear 
 them. Miss Atzmannsdorfer in somnambulism had 
 good hearing, but when I spoke in her hand she heard 
 in two ways ; quickly in the ordinary way ; more 
 plainly and perceptibly slower through the hand. She 
 felt the sound moving upwards through her arm to 
 her head in a brief but measurable space of time. She 
 thought the sound was caught up rather by the finger- 
 points than by the hollow of the hand. She observed 
 to me that she had long known this from her own 
 experience, and that it was her custom, when anxious 
 to hear distinctly, to hold out her hands and fingers 
 towards the point whence the sound came. Another 
 time she told me that in somnambulism she heard every- 
 thing less clearly, as though spoken in the distance, 
 except when I spoke in her hand, and then she heard 
 clearly. This is characteristic of the whole condition. 
 We see that an odic movement commences at the fin- 
 ger-points and moves with its peculiar slowness up the 
 nerves of the arm. 
 
 This fact appears still plainer from the experiments 
 with Miss Zinkel. I spoke in the hollows of her right 
 and left hands, and then spoke the same words upon 
 the united finger-points of both hands together, and she 
 heard the words spoken there more clearly than those 
 spoken in the palms of her hands. The seat of the 
 perception for sound is therefore in the finger-points. 
 
 I then by turns spoke upon the right and the left 
 finger-points, she perceived that she heard much clearer 
 on the right than on the left side. The sound was there- 
 fore perceived more strongly on the like than on the 
 unlike pole, and thus proved itself to belong to one pole.
 
 94 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 Finally I spoke to her alternately upon the finger 
 points and away from them, in every case holding my 
 mouth at the same distance from the sensitive's ear and 
 speaking in the same direction. The result was that 
 when I spoke upon her right fingers she understood 
 me better than when I spoke in the air and better 
 when I spoke in the air than when I spoke on the 
 left finger points. All these facts go to show the 
 odic nature of these phenomena of hearing. 
 
 Here a phenomenon accompanying those hitherto 
 mentioned deserves a place. When I spoke upon the 
 finger-points of some sensitive women, they felt a sen- 
 sation similar to that of an upward pass going up 
 through the whole arm, under the shoulder, across to 
 the nipple of the breast, where it concentrated and 
 passed out ; and immediately afterwards a similar 
 sensation passed downward through the legs, following, 
 as described to me, the course of the sciatic nerve. On 
 the left side the sensation was disagreeably lukewarm ; 
 on the right arm it was less unpleasant. The bare 
 breath did not produce the same effect, neither did low 
 speaking ; it required the voice. The peculiar sensa- 
 tion passing downwards through the feet and particu- 
 larly in the toes was felt by Miss Zinkel, and stronger 
 in the right toes than in the left. All this appears to 
 be in the highest degree noteworthy. 
 
 73. Odic hearing at the stomach, It was the 
 
 same with the pit of the stomach as with the hand. 
 All sensitives upon whom I experimented, whether in 
 somnambulism or in their waking condition Misses 
 Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Sturmann, Kynast, Maix, 
 Mrs. Anschuetz, Kienesberger, Friedrich, Weidlich, and
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 95 
 
 many others heard more plainly when I spoke close 
 to their stomach-pits. Councillor Pauer heard the 
 ticking of his watch always on the pit of his stomach ; 
 and when nervous he could hear at his stomach every 
 stroke of a violin played in his presence. At a time 
 when Miss Zinkel was peculiarly sensitive, I made the 
 following experiment with great care ; I spoke first on 
 the right and then on the left side of the pit of her 
 stomach. The effects were very strong but also very 
 different. On the right side she could hear my words 
 clearly, on the ' left indistinctly. But this apparently 
 unimportant experiment had such an influence on her 
 that she was immediately attacked by pain in the stom- 
 ach, which swelled up in a few minutes, and was soon 
 attacked by severe pains, and she had to hurry to sit 
 down to avoid falling. I took hold of her hands, 
 made some passes over her body, and placed my unlike 
 fingers under her toes. The pain was alleviated at the 
 end of one minute, and was entirely removed after the 
 lapse of three. Here also we see all the signs of odic 
 action. Where like poles came together the od-nega- 
 tive voice on the right hand or on the right side of the 
 solar plexus (the chief ganglion of the sympathetic 
 nerve) the influence was soretic and went upwards to 
 the brain, where it was felt. Where unlike poles 
 came together, the negative voice on the positive left, 
 the influence was nemetic, and went downwards away 
 from the brain, and the hearing was dull. These facts 
 are very important to sustain the theory. 
 
 Thus we see the susceptibility for odic movements 
 is so great in the hands and the pit of the stomach, that 
 is in the solar plexus and in the numberless nerves on 
 the finger-points, that they carry the influence of even
 
 96 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 low notes to the brain with such clearness that words 
 are better understood through them than through the 
 ear, and even understood when the ear entirely refuses 
 to perform its duty in somnambulism. That these phe- 
 nomena are odic in their nature is shown among other 
 things by the influence of the sounds on the breast- 
 nipples and feet, by the slowness of its conduction, and 
 the characteristics of polarity. 
 
 74. Taste. Similar observations have been made 
 in regard to taste, and a few examples will be given 
 here. When Miss Beyer had to handle vinegar or lye 
 and got her fingers wet with them, she tasted them in 
 her mouth, particularly if she is in a susceptible con- 
 dition for instance, during menstruation. Not long 
 before she told me this, she had used some ox-gall in 
 washing, and she could not finish her work, because of 
 the bitterness of the gall in her mouth. Although she 
 washed her hands off immediately with soap, the bitter 
 tnste in her mouth yet continued two days : the gall 
 had been rubbed into her skin, and so long as it re- 
 mained, so long she tasted its bitterness on her tongue. 
 When Mr. Fichtner passed his hand over dirty oxy- 
 dized brass, he felt the nauseating taste of verdigris in 
 his mouth, and he could not get rid- of this taste till 
 he had washed his hands with soap. When I put an- 
 timony in Miss Atzmannsdorfer's hand she tasted its 
 bitterness in her mouth. Misses Zinkelbaier and many 
 others had a coppery taste in their mouth whenever 
 they took copper money into their hands during men- 
 struation. Professor von Perger is like Mr. Fichtner 
 in regard to touching brass ; and if he takes a piece
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 97 
 
 of iron in his hand, he feels an iron-like taste in his 
 mouth. Similar phenomena are observed by all demi- 
 sensitives. 
 
 The physicians say tlis a consensuality of the nerves, 
 but that is as much as to say they do not understand 
 this phenomena. 
 
 75. Sight, Nearly all somnambulists keep their 
 eyes closed. I saw them sometimes open only in Miss 
 Winter,, and Mrs. Lederer, and Miss Girtler ; all oth- 
 ers kept them shut as in ordinary sleep. I often opened 
 their eyes by force for instance, in Misses Sturmann, 
 Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Nowotny ; the 
 pupils were in some turned upwards, in others down- 
 wards ; in all the cases I could touch the bare whites 
 of the eyes without their appearing to feel it. 
 
 Miss Beyer's eyes were turned downwards, and while 
 her physician held her lids open, I held a burning candle 
 as close as possible to her eyes. We could not perceive 
 that the enlarged pupil contracted in consequence of 
 the proximity of the light. She held perfectly still. 
 Afterwards, however, she complained, while still in the 
 somnambulic condition, about the light, which, as she 
 said, had got into head. Whether the disagreeable 
 sensations in her head thus complained of, were caused 
 by the light of the candle, or by the chemical od ema- 
 nations of the combustion is a question which must lie 
 over for further consideration. 
 
 It is evident that there could be no sight by the or- 
 dinary means under such circumstances. The sight of 
 the eye was lame and inactive in all these persons in 
 somnambulism, as has been long well known in similar 
 
 cases. 
 
 5
 
 98 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 76. Seeing with the eyes shot, Nevertheless, these 
 persons saw all the objects about them, more or less 
 clearly, as well by day as by night, and sometimes with 
 an astonishing exactness. In chapter first I mentioned 
 some examples, and like examples are in everybody's 
 mouth, as occurring without number in every land, so 
 that I can pass on without dwelling longer on this 
 point. I have only to say here that this perception of 
 the external world by somnambulists has come before 
 me so often, that there is no longer room for any doubt. 
 How it is the mind can receive impresssons of light and 
 of the form of the physical world, so that a picture re- 
 sembling an optical impress is painted in the soul 
 how this can be, is a problem for the present. 
 
 77. Explanation of seeing without eyeSi I do 
 
 not admit, however, that this problem is so entirely 
 beyond the power of solution as is asserted by our phy- 
 sicists and physiologists, who think they have the right 
 to straightway reject as untrue the thousand-times con- 
 firmed facts. I am satisfied that the odic laws which 
 I have discovered must furnish a solution to this prob- 
 lem, or at least supply hints which will point out the 
 road to the causes of the enigmatical seeing of som- 
 nambulists without using their eyes. How does it 
 happen that a piece of glass or mica, or crystal, water 
 or air appears transparent to us ? Certainly only be- 
 cause we perceive bodies, on which light falls, beyond 
 them. We agree that these bodies send out rays of 
 light to our eyes, through the transparent substances 
 which permit the rays to pass through them. It mat- 
 ters not what kind of a radiation this is, provided only 
 that we have a sense to perceive it. To be perceived
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 99 
 
 by the eyes, the radiating medium must be light. In 
 the eye is the retina, a web of nerves laid completely 
 bare to the light such as cannot be found in any other 
 part of our body. The light-rays by passing through 
 certain substances and then falling on the bare nerves 
 come to our perception, and then we call those sub- 
 stances transparent. If we had a distinct instead of an 
 indistinct apparatus for perceiving the rays of heat, we 
 should see through diathermanous bodies with our heat- 
 eyes, as we see through diaphanous with our light-eyes, 
 and we should look with tolerable ease through dark 
 glass, clouded topaz and black mica, and clearly recog- 
 nize everything sending out heat-rays behind them. 
 
 Let us now apply these ideas to od, which as we 
 know, emits rays as light and heat do, and pours down 
 from the planets and stars ; we have learned that it 
 passes through every thing walls, iron, copper, zinc 
 and lead, glass, wood, air, water and so forth similar 
 but not exactly like magnetism ; and we know finally 
 that it continually streams out, day and night, from all 
 substances, and communicates itself to the surroundings 
 of each. If now we had an organ, a sense for this 
 queer thing called od, and if that sense should catch 
 up the odic rays as our eye does the rays of light, and 
 if we should perceive in our mind the rays as they come 
 to us from every substance, the result would evidently 
 be that we should have a representation, according to 
 well-known psychological laws, of the position of the 
 body sending out the odic rays, and by means of the 
 odic light we would see od-luminous, and od-illuminated 
 substances. 
 
 78. High-sensitives have a sense for od. Now
 
 100 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 then, high-sensitives have such a sense. Why it is, and 
 how the sense is constituted, I know as little as other 
 learned people know about the constitution of the 
 senses of smell, taste and touch. But that such a 
 power of perception does exist in extraordinary con- 
 dition of health is proved by this entire book, in in- 
 numerable concurring experiences. Since od passes 
 unchanged and without interruptioa through the skin, 
 and since the numberless nooses, ends and ganglions of 
 the nerves must be considered as bare for od, as the 
 retina-nerves are for light, therefore the whole body, 
 or rather the whole nervous system may be called only 
 one eye, through and through, for radiating od. Low- 
 sensitives, when in the dark, use their eyes to assist 
 them in perceiving the odic rays ; but high-sensitives, 
 particularly in somnambulism, when the eye ceases to 
 perform its functions and the lids are closed, have the 
 entire nervous system as an organ of perception. All 
 sensitives recognize the perceptible effects of od, but 
 the high-sensitives chiefly the odic flame, the odic light 
 and its rays. Where the rays find clear passage 
 through other bodies, the result is about the same as 
 when light rays fall on glass. A plate of metal for a 
 high-sensitive bears the same relation to od that a plate 
 of glass does for a common person in relation to light. 
 As in the latter case the rays of light go through, so in 
 the former case do the rays of od. Glass is permeable 
 for rays of light ; rock-salt for rays of heat ; metals 
 and other bodies are permeable for rays of od. Since 
 now a high-sensitive person obtains pictures and re- 
 presentations of objects by means of the odic rays wli irh 
 they emit or reflect, and these pictures and represen- 
 tations must be obtained when the rays have to pass
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 101 
 
 through intervening substances, which last may be 
 called diodanous, or permeable to od, [as we say "dia- 
 phanous," permeable to light, and " diathermanous," 
 permeable to heat.] Metals are particularly diodanous 
 bodies, and so are- all bodies of continuous substance, 
 such as crystals, but unconnected pieces such as paper, 
 powder, cotton, are diodanous in a low degree. There 
 is therefore in man a dormant power, which in certain 
 nervous diseased conditions is awakened and made ac- 
 tive, and is able to see with more or less clearness 
 through many bodies otherwise opaque, while on the 
 other hand some substances permit the passage of odic 
 rays with wonderful ease and exactness. 
 
 79. Vision clearest in darkness. One of the most 
 important features of somnambulism is that in that 
 state the sight is better in the dark than in the light. 
 The somnambulists therefore see not by means of the 
 light but of some other medium. 
 
 Miss Girtler described to me as well as she could 
 that her sight was good in proportion to the depth of 
 the darkness about her. All common light was a 
 burthen to her, pained her and dimmed the clearness 
 of her perception. When it was perfectly dark she 
 could see the forms and colors of the objects about her 
 almost as clearly as when awake in daylight. I in- 
 quired for further particulars but learned nothing 
 more. She declared that though she saw without using 
 her eyes, yet she did not know how. 
 
 Miss Weigand, when somnambulic, often told me 
 that she perceived surrounding objects with a distinct- 
 ness -that increased with the depth of the darkness. 
 Candle-light, and moonlight still more, caused her sight
 
 102 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 (with closed eyes) to be much less clear. When Miss 
 Reichel, in somnambulism, saw sandle-light at a dis- 
 tance she walked away ; and if an attempt was made 
 to detain her she became impatient and the light had 
 to be taken away. When I visited Miss Zinkel in 
 somnambulism at night, her first word was always to. 
 request that the light should be put out ; she said it 
 hurt her and prevented her seeing. But her eyes were 
 closed. When I had put out the light she expressed 
 satisfaction, and assured me that she could see me much 
 better. Mrs. Krebs, in her long periods of unbroken 
 somnambulism, could endure no light, and it was neces- 
 sary to keep her chamber in deep darkness day and 
 night. 
 
 80. Miss Atzmannsdorfer's statement. When Miss 
 Atzmannsdorfer was deeply somnambulic, she made 
 similar declarations. As the first condition for seeing 
 clearly, she demanded complete darkness. Whenever 
 the weakest glare of daylight or candlelight became 
 perceptible, her sight was less distinct. She could still 
 see in open daylight but much less clearly. When I 
 demanded of her a comparison between the clearness 
 of vision in somnambulism and darkness on one side, 
 and the normal state and daylight on the other, she 
 said she saw all the outlines much more clearly in the 
 latter. Nothing shows more satisfactorily that in 
 somnambulism is not the function of the eyes alone, 
 than the desire of sleep-walkers, as I heard it from 
 them on every occasjon, that the light should be re- 
 moved and the assertion that they could see best, when 
 it is darkest ; that is, they see best when the medium 
 through which the eyes see is most completely removed.
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 103 
 
 Consequently the sleep-walkers see through another 
 medium which, under all the circumstances, with their 
 high sensitiveness to od, can scarcely be anything 
 save od. 
 
 In the consideration of all these declarations it must 
 be remembered that all light falling on objects is re- 
 flected to the seeing eye. Yet the light, which the 
 somnambulist does not see, is not reflected alone to the 
 eye, but is accompanied by od which comes with the 
 rays of light, and which is perceived with closed eyes. 
 When he is in complete darkness he perceives objects 
 by means of their odic radiation, but when light comes 
 and mixes itself with the odic rays there is a two-fold 
 radiation, and the somnambulist unable to distinguish 
 clearly between them, has his vision obscured. 
 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer gave the further explanation 
 that she could see through many objects, so that she 
 could perceive second and third objects behind them. 
 If a number of glasses of different colors and shapes, 
 heated to a slight glow, were piled up in a box, the 
 non-sensitive eye could see some of those below through 
 those above ; and thus the sensitives in somnambulism 
 see many objects through and behind others. 
 
 81. Miss Krueger's statement. Miss Amelia Krue- 
 ger, when somnambulic, made a similar explanation to 
 me. She found it difficult to give me a clear descrip- 
 tion of how she did see. She had studied some modern 
 languages grammatically, and therefore was better able 
 to express her ideas than most of the other somnambu- 
 lists of my acquaintance. Like Miss Atzmannsdorfer, 
 she explained that she saw objects as translucent 
 seeing one through others ; the objects shining through
 
 104 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 each other somewhat as if they were colored glasses. 
 Yet, she added, the somnambulists view of things is 
 not so clearly defined, but they appear more as if they 
 were melted together, the outlines being less definite 
 than when seen by the normal eyes in daylight. All 
 this agrees accurately with the odic nature of bodies, 
 where one sends its odic rays through another and thus 
 makes the latter transparent. 
 
 82. Scientific explanation of ordinary vision, 
 
 I cannot explain how the somnambulic mind receives 
 an impression of the forms of the bodies within the 
 range of perception from the odic rays as perceived by 
 the nerves, but neither can the physiologist explain to 
 me how the light-pictures thrown by the crystalline 
 lena on the nerve-coat of the retina are carried to the 
 brain, and changed there into psychical conceptions of 
 the material objects which emit the rays of light. He 
 can trace his light-picture to the opaque retina where 
 it stops ; and thus he and I have made like progress, 
 and are puzzled by similar problems. The explanation 
 and the comprehension in both cases stop at the same 
 limit. 
 
 83. Clainoyancc brought under natural laws. 
 
 Now that we have reached the principal laws of the 
 matter, and based them on the foundations of exper- 
 ience, we perceive that, as the ghosts over the graves 
 of the dead, so also a large part of clairvoyance, horr- 
 ibly distorted as it has been, comes within the domain 
 of natural science. Every one will now understand 
 that there are men who can read writing shut up in 
 metallic boxes, not only by day but also in the dark- 
 ness of night, and not only with open but also with
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE SENSES. 105 
 
 closed or bandaged eyes. I have seen Miss Girtlcr 
 spontaneously take up a book and read to me with 
 closed eyes as readily as when she had her eyes open. 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer, less sensitive, has innumerable 
 times in my presence taken up objects and distinguished 
 them by placing them at the top of her forehead, ob- 
 jects which she could not otherwise distinguish, her 
 eyes being closed by disease. The sensitive perceptive 
 faculty was unequally distributed in her body; in some 
 places the perception was much more acute than in oth- 
 ers. And since this is true according to natural laws 
 and has been confirmed by my own experience, we can 
 comprehend and explain how a high-sensitive can per- 
 ceive what is going on in an adjoining closed room, in 
 a neighboring house, in a house across the street and 
 so forth. We now understand how it is that a high- 
 sensitive, sick abed with closed eyes, expecting the ar- 
 rival of his physician, suddenly cries out " Now he is 
 coming : he has just come into the house ; he is on the 
 stairs ; he is about to open the door," Such things 
 have often been observed ; and very lately by Dr. 
 Stainer. 
 
 84. Seeing into the human body, Again we can 
 now comprehend how a high-sensitive can see into his 
 own body, and perceive its interior as if in a looking- 
 glass ; as Misses Sturmann, Atzmannsdorfer, Girtler, 
 Krueger, Reichel, and many others have often assured 
 me that they have done ; and finally how they can see 
 into the bodies of other persons near them and perceive 
 organic defects, which no physician could discover, 
 such as putrefaction, tubercles and inflammations in 
 
 the lungs, liver and stomach. When I asked after the 
 
 5*
 
 106 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 manner of their perception, they told me the interior 
 of the body appeared rather as luminous than as illu- 
 minated ; the luminousness being different in color and 
 intensity; the stomach giving out a strong white light; 
 the liver and lungs weaker light, etc. Miss Atzmanns- 
 dorfer repeated to me the simile of the glowing hot 
 glasses in a box, but covered with a transparent liquid. 
 A non-sensitive eye looking down in daylight would 
 see all these glasses; and in a like manner the sensitive 
 eye sees and distinguishes the internal organs of the 
 human body, all slightly luminous. Thus Miss Zinkel, 
 with whom, when somnambulic, I often spoke about her 
 condition, always assured me that her left ovarian tube 
 was clear and clean, but the right one was dark and 
 diseased. Miss Girtler requested urgently, when, in 
 somnambulism, that the looking glass should be covered 
 so that she should not see her viscera in it, as the in- 
 sides of anatomical subjects are seen in the dissecting 
 rooms. Mrs. Krebs made a similar request and for 
 like reasons. Cloths, as I have shown, are the worst 
 conductors of od, and therefore are suitable to prevent 
 the odic rays from going to and coming from the look- 
 ing glass. Miss Krueger assured me that in the high- 
 est susceptibility of somnambulism, she had once seen 
 into the body of another person, perceiving the viscera 
 with tolerable clearness, the stomach most clearly; and 
 she had often seen the internal parts of her own body. 
 On such occasions she could distinguish the various 
 parts, and all appeared to be in a healthy condition 
 save the heart, which suffered from a malformation. 
 She said all the organs were luminous, as in an odic 
 sense, they must be, since chemical action and motion 
 of liquida are constantly going forward in them. It
 
 THE CONDITION OP THE SENSE. 107 
 
 is in this purely physical manner that somnambulists 
 are sometimes of service in the medical art, discovering 
 the nature of disease and foreseeing its future course, 
 and telling such things as whether there is a prospect 
 that a woman will become a mother, and what the sex 
 of her offspring will be, what is in a locked drawer, 
 what people have hidden in their hands or their pock- 
 ets, whether a certain card is a heart or a club, a king 
 or a knave, etc. To sick sensitives, walls, drawers, 
 pockets, and closed hands, are all diodanous, transpar- 
 ent for their sense, though opaque to us. For them a 
 metallic box is like a glass bottle ; a body or a closed 
 fist covers what is within like a veil. The odic ema- 
 nations continue night and day; the odic light is per- 
 ceived better in darkness than in daylight ; and since 
 in the highest phases of somnambulism the eye is in- 
 active and without vision, though the perceptive power 
 operates by other means, partly by the whole nervous 
 system, partly by particular places, for instance at the 
 top of the forehead, as in Miss Atzmannsdorfer, in oth- 
 ers at the pit of the stomach and at the ends of the 
 fingers, so it is quite indifferent to the high-sensitives, 
 whether their eyes are bandaged and glued over or 
 not ; it is for them about the same as it would be to 
 bandage the elbow of a non-sensitive, who has good 
 eyes, to keep him from seeing a camel. 
 
 85. Dangerous revelations by clairvoyance, It 
 
 will be observed how dangerous this condition is for 
 the surroundings of sick sensitives, and for themselves, 
 and on the other side how advantageously it may be 
 used, under certain circumstances, in learning the exist- 
 ence of good and evil. In my own house it happened
 
 108 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 that a somnambulist whom I introduced there denounc- 
 ed a servant girl for immoral conduct, in which nobody 
 believed, and the truth of her declaration was only 
 established after the lapse of months ; and other reve- 
 lations which she madfr caused a revolution in the 
 house, and resulted in the dismissal of several servants. 
 Miss Beyer was seen one still moonlight night to rise 
 from an apparently quiet sleep, which, however, was 
 somnambulic. She was silently observed. She lay 
 down on the floor, crawled with much difficulty under 
 the bedstead, and finally came forth, her eyes being 
 closed all the time, having in her hand a copper kreu- 
 zer, of which no one knew anything. She laid the 
 kreuzer down on the table and went again quietly to 
 bed. She had felt the radiation of the copper through 
 the bed. No secret act that is done in the house es- 
 capes the all-piercing eye of the acute sensitive, and 
 their Ordinary talkativeness tells everything without 
 selection. As agents of the police and the inquisition 
 somnambulists might render extraordinary services in 
 many cases, and in so far it is fortunate that high 
 clairvoyance lasts only through short stages of certain 
 diseases, ordinarily enduring only a few hours at a 
 time, often periods of only a half or a quarter of an 
 hour, which periods are repeated at irregular intervals 
 of two or more days. Wise physicians may use this 
 power with great benefit, to examine the doubtful con- 
 dition of diseased internal organs ; but ignorant and 
 foolish persons will commit mistakes and do evil 
 with it. 
 
 86. Summary about clairvoyance, I have given 
 thus what I have found to be true in regard to clair-
 
 THE CONDITIONS OP THE SENSES. 10& 
 
 voyance. It is just enough to be misused by ignorant 
 and conscienceless men. To one view of this sad side 
 I shall give no attention. But I cannot conceal a deep 
 regret that men of high worth and physicists of com- 
 prehensive learning are often so weak as to convince 
 themselves that they may undervalue matters of the 
 highest scientific importance, -because ignorance or 
 meanness may misuse them for wicked purposes. There 
 is nothing mean in nature, and least of all in those ob- 
 jects which grasp deep into the spiritual nature and 
 innermost essence of humanity, as do the subjects of 
 this treatise. Such a short-sighted prejudice is as ab- 
 surd as the folly of others who worship clairvoyants 
 like idols, and make laws of their inconsiderate ex- 
 pressions. Clairvoyance has some phases which must 
 excite the highest interest in all thinking men, who 
 have sufficient capacity to break through the spell of 
 outward appearance, and direct the probe towards the 
 grounds laying deep beneath. I believe that I have 
 reached and uncovered those grounds from two points 
 of view : from the direct and reflex odic phenomena, 
 which healthy persons, with rare exceptions, do not 
 see, and from the diodanous nature of bodies, which 
 offers the key to solve the singular enigmas of sensi- 
 tiveness, and enables us to comprehend things hereto- 
 fore included within the domain of insanity. 
 
 With this every one will be in a position to draw 
 the dividing line between the true and the false, be- 
 tween the trustworthy and untrustworthy, between 
 honesty and dishonesty, in the field of clairvoyance. 
 Predictions about the fate of men, assertions about 
 events occurring at a great distance, statements of the 
 condition of affairs beyond the limits f our world, or
 
 110 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 beyond the range of our existence, etc., find no expla- 
 nation in physics, certainly not now, and belong to the 
 territory of diseased fancies, and a little observation 
 will always show that they are entirely wanting in lo- 
 gical connection. 
 
 I have not as yet collected further observations in 
 regard to clairvoyance this very important phase of 
 the somnambulic phenomena, which should be studied 
 very carefully and conscientiously and I shall post- 
 pone till another time the more thorough study of it, 
 because I consider the physical bases of the odic phe- 
 nomena as the most important, and as necessary for 
 the foundation of every investigation of the other high 
 psychical branches. 
 
 But from the little heretofore communicated, the sig- 
 nificant facts are established in regard to most high- 
 sensitives in the somnambulic condition, that 
 
 1. They have their eyes closed. 
 
 2. Nevertheless, they perceive the forms and colors of 
 the external world. 
 
 3. Their perception is better and stronger in darkness 
 than in light. 
 
 4. They perceive bodies as, in a certain manner, trans- 
 lucent and visible through each other. 
 
 5. In the same manner they can look into the human 
 body. 
 
 6. This perception is not so clear as our ordinary 
 vision in daylight. 
 
 7. This perception finds the beginning of its explana- 
 tion in the diodancity, in the permeability of aU bodies, 
 metals, glasses, the human body and the nervous sy*t< m 
 to the odic rays, aU the nervous gaughings being consid- 
 ered as eyes for od.
 
 THE MUSCLES IN CHAMP. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MUSCLES IN CRAMP. 
 
 87. Cramp an unroliintary contraction! Cramp, 
 as is well known, is an involuntary contraction of the 
 muscles, and therefore a violent exertion of force which 
 passes over from the nerves to the muscles. Such at 
 least is the physiological theory at the present time. 
 This exertion of force may be involuntary and spon- 
 taneous, or intentional and developed by an exercise oi 
 the will. By what means the nervous system thus 
 accumulates power we do not know. When cramp is 
 spontaneously developed in high sensitives, its approach 
 is usually announced by certain premonitory symptoms. 
 The sensitives are restless, they feel timid, the blood 
 rushes to the upper part of the frame, the feet become 
 cold and the head hot ; the nights pass away without 
 sleep, the nerves become more impressible and irri- 
 table. The enemy is now at the door. 
 
 If the cramp is introduced by artificial means we 
 find all the phenomena to be odic. The power is ac- 
 cumulated by soretic treatment of the body, whether 
 by upward passes towards the brain, or by downward 
 part-passes, if their influence be soretic in places. 1 
 have shown that a hand, an arm, or a foot would be 
 cramped when I made passes over the arm, stopping
 
 112 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 at the wrigt or over the leg stopping at the ankle. 
 These cramps, of a purely voluntary creation, are the 
 immediate consequence of soretic influences, which may 
 be considered as an accumulation of od in the cramped 
 limb. The result is the same when upward passes are 
 made over the arm or over the body towards the head, 
 they throw the high-sensitive and even the demi-sensi- 
 tive into the most violent cramps of the arms, legs and 
 spine. Since they can be immediately cured at will 
 in the same manner as they were voluntarily created, 
 namely, by nemetic treatment, so I may assert that my 
 investigations have given a satisfactory explanation of 
 this kind of cramps, in so far as such an explanation 
 of a vital process of this nature is possible. 
 
 88. Severity of strain, The muscles are terribly 
 strained in cramp. I often saw Miss Reichel striking 
 her arms and hands with such force against the walls, 
 that I thought they must be crushed, at a time when 
 she was so suffocated during breast and neck cramps 
 as to turn blue ; opisthotonus bent her back upwards, 
 so that only her head and heels touched the bed, and 
 she tore her face cruelly with her hands. I had noth- 
 ing to say, and the physicians looked on, not knowing 
 what to do. I saw Miss Sturmann in similar furious 
 cramps. She would have bitten her own arm to pieces 
 had not Count Szapary, a very strong man, been pre- 
 sent, and held her so that she could not injure herself. 
 I saw Miss Atzmannsdorfer almost daily in tonic and 
 clonic cramps, with opisthotonus, wherein the strain of 
 the muscles was horrible. The worst case was that of 
 Miss Winter, who, as I have already stated, beat the 
 strongest men and threw them down, so that everybody
 
 THE MUSCLES IN CRAMP. 113 
 
 in Graetz was afraid of her when she was in her fits 
 of somnambulism and cramp. 
 
 89. Prevention of cramps. The phenomena of 
 cramp were the most instructive in Miss Beyer. When 
 she was attacked with it, she took hold of my hands, 
 so that the touch would be beneficial to her by its ne- 
 metic influence. While she struggled with tetanus, 
 she grasped my arms from time to time and shut her 
 hands upon them with all her force. Every such an 
 exertion of strength did her good, stopped her tears, 
 and relieved and arrested her cramps. It often hap- 
 pened that during somnambulism, accompanied by 
 cramp, she would beg permission to press me, and did 
 it then with all her might. Every such voluntary 
 exertion relieved her for a time from the involuntary 
 strain of cramp ; there was always an odic discharge 
 which took the place of the cramp. Miss Beyer was 
 present at a table-tipping soiree, which, as might have 
 been foreseen, exercised a strong influeoce on her. She 
 took the mixed odic influence received from the table 
 home with her, and that night she became somnambu- 
 lic. At midnight she awoke and found herself in her 
 night dress, trying to lift the largest and heaviest 
 chest in her room. At other times, when she was nei- 
 ther somnambulic nor attacked by cramp, she would 
 be restless, sleepless, she could not breathe freely 
 enough, her heart seemed oppressed and timid, she 
 wept involuntarily, and she was evidently in the con- 
 dition which precedes cramp, and in which sensitives 
 say that they are full of cramps a condition of sore- 
 tic overloading of the brain. At such times Miss 
 Beyer felt an irresistible desire to exercise her strength
 
 114 SOMMNABULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 in some manner. She would then seize the heaviest 
 boxes in the house and lift them up ; she would put 
 herself in a doorway and push with all her might 
 against the opposite posts ; she would challenge men 
 to wrestle, and notwithstanding her small size she 
 would throw down the strongest. After that she felt 
 well, the feeling of oppression passed away, the weep- 
 ing ceased, her heart was light, and she became weak 
 as in ordinary times. She always fell into this ex- 
 traordinary condition during full moon, that is at the 
 period when positive od is much accumulated in our 
 country. This positive od, by its influence on her 
 brain, led her to the verge of cramp, that is, of an in- 
 voluntary exertion of strength, which she prevented 
 by a voluntary exertion suggested by instinct. 
 
 Nothing could show more beautifully that cramps 
 consist in a superabundant accumulation of power in 
 the brain, which power is poured over the muscles, 
 particularly those of the extremities. The brain acts 
 in this matter like a wound-up watch-spring. 
 
 During their cramps, the somnambules, who had had 
 some experience, often requested that no influence 
 should be exercised on them from without, and that 
 their paroxysms should be left to exhaust themselves 
 in their natural course. Thus spoke Misses Reichel, 
 Sturmann, Girtler, Krueger, Atzmannsdorfer and Ky- 
 nast. Miss Reichel protested most urgently against 
 all influence with magnets, because the cramps, instead 
 of being bettered, were made to last longer ; arid after- 
 wards Miss Zinkel spoke to the same effect. I have 
 often shown that the magnet, as a mass of iron, is od- 
 positive, and therefore is not opposed to negative in- 
 fluences, but operates to excite cramps ; and for this
 
 THE MUSCLES IN CEAMP. 115 
 
 reason many somnambulists dislike it. Nevertheless 
 I have noticed, under unequivocal circumstances, that 
 not only cramps brought on voluntarily by soretic 
 treatment may be cured by nemetic downward passes, 
 extending over the whole body, but that severe attacks 
 of natural cramps have a remedy in downward passes, 
 managed with prudence, as may be understood from 
 the theory hitherto set forth. 
 
 I first proved this fact with Miss Krueger. While 
 somnambulic she has fallen into severe cramps. I 
 gave her no passes, but seized her unlike hands in 
 mine, and placed my unlike toes under hers. I soon 
 saw the spasms relax, her muscles became soft, the 
 cramps were allayed, and in less than a quarter of an 
 hour, complete rest was restored. I often applied this 
 knowledge upon Miss Atzmannsdorfer usually when 
 she fell into cramps, I took her hands in mine, in- 
 fluenced her thus nemetically and soon all was well 
 again. I once saw Mrs. Martha Leopolder, while in a 
 large company, attacked by cramps of the arms and 
 breast. I took hold of her hands and in two or three 
 minutes she was cured. Miss Beyer knowing from 
 much experience the influence of my hands to cure 
 cramps, when she was attacked by them, grasped my 
 fingers and held their points in the points of hers. 
 The influence to cure the cramps was strong in propor- 
 tion to my strength and vigor : and thus when I had 
 tired myself with a long walk, I could not cure her so 
 soon, as when I felt fresh and active. I cured Miss 
 Zinkel of all kinds of cramps innumerable times in 
 the same way. But in all these cases it was necessary 
 that the hands should be grasped in the right manner, 
 inside to inside, crossing downwards, with the finger-
 
 116 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 points projecting, to prevent any soretic influence. 
 Often the speediest relief is obtained by grasping the 
 toes with the unlike fingers. If I used passes in such 
 cases, the influence was always perceptibly weaker. 
 The causes of this may be easily explained. Down- 
 ward passes operate nemetically, it is true, upon all 
 descending nerves, but they also meet a multitude 
 of ascending cutaneous nerves, especially if not made 
 carefully over the inner side of the arm, and thus 
 they may exercise a soretic influence. The result 
 is that the cramp-haling effect on one side is spoiled 
 by the cramp-exciting influence on the other. In 
 this way it is, that patients in a very susceptible con- 
 dition cannot be cured of cramps by passes, but must 
 "be left to themselves. I tried with passes to cure 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer and Beyer of cramps, at the 
 distance of a step and more. The effect was good, and 
 relieved the cramps ; but if after making the passes, 
 I went backwards, even with my arms bent sidewards, 
 Miss Beyer always shuddered ; and single upward pass 
 made at a distance of two steps threw her into all of 
 the scarcely arrested cramps. 
 
 90. Summary. From all this it appears clearly 
 that soretic and nemetic influences are universally the 
 cause and cure of cramps, and consequently that the 
 contractions and extensions of the muscles in cramp 
 are entirely dependent on the upward and downward 
 streams of od in them. 
 
 I reviewing the relations of the senses in somnam- 
 bulism and the accompanying cramp we find that the 
 senses sometimes remain in full activity, sometimes 
 are partly and sometimes entirely inactive ; that at
 
 THE MUSCLES IN CRAMP. 117 
 
 times some of the senses are active and others are 
 not ; that the circumstances determining these grades 
 of activity are yet far from being understood ; that 
 the place of the inactive organs of sense is sometimes 
 supplied by other means of perception which carry 
 similar impressions to the mind ; that the impressions 
 are only similar and not the same in kind with those 
 furnished through the organs of ordinary sense ; that 
 the new faculty of perception has the quality, pre- 
 viously unknown, of seeing through matter opaque to 
 light, and finally that in this way, the inside of or- 
 ganic substances and even of the' human body may be 
 perceived.
 
 118 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 91. No two cases of somnambulism alike, The 
 
 relations of the nerves in somnambulism offer a great, 
 an immeasurable field for physiology, over which I 
 have been able only to take a glance. I have been so 
 busy with the main principles and the physical rela- 
 tions of od, that I must leave this matter for my suc- 
 cessors: and my remarks in this chapter are based 
 merely on incidental observations which have fallen 
 into my way, without any set examination. 
 
 If we watch the condition of somnambulism through 
 its course from beginning to end, we. often have occa- 
 sion to notice that it is not always the same, that it 
 has different qualities in different individuals and in 
 the same individual at different times, and that it, 
 sometimes takes the appearance of phases, even in the 
 course of one fit. I saw Miss Girtler in ordinary 
 somnambulism with her eyes closed and then with 
 them open, her conduct being entirely different in the 
 two conditions ; and then I saw in the state called 
 " half awake." I observed similar changing condi- 
 tions in Mrs. Lederer, who sometimes had her eyes 
 open and yet could not see.
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 119 
 
 92. Cases of catalepsy, Misses Rupp, Reichel, 
 and Sturmann, often became cataleptic in my presence ; 
 and catalepsy is only a modified form of somnambu- 
 lism. Miss Nowotny remained for hours in catalepsy, 
 falling during its continuance into cramps which could 
 be cured by downward passes without changing the 
 condition of catalepsy. Friedrich Weidlich, while 
 cataleptic, suffered for weeks with cramps. Mrs. Kie- 
 nesberger fell into a similar condition with painful 
 visions in which she heard everything going on about 
 her, and yet lay for days unable to give the slightest 
 sign of life. Mr. Weidlich also had such fits occa- 
 sionally. Miss Winter in some attacks had her eyes 
 open and saw with them ; in others her eyes were 
 closed, but her hearing was good, and while she lay 
 motionless she heard her parents weeping over her 
 supposed death and speaking of her burial. Miss 
 Atzmannsdorfer became cataleptic only in quiet som- 
 nambulism with closed eyes, but she had various in- 
 termediate conditions of deep and half-awake sleep. 
 I never saw Miss Beyer in catalepsy ; her conditions 
 alternated only between quiet somnambulism with 
 closed eyes, and cramps. I shall not examine this 
 difference further : but I may add that I never saw 
 two cases of somnambulism precisely alike. This va- 
 riety shows that comprehensive studies are necessary 
 for a clear understanding of the various nervous con- 
 ditions in which somnambulism has its origin. 
 
 93. Influence of the two nervous systems. To 
 
 obtain a greater clearness of ideas, it will be necessa- 
 ry, first of all, to separate the great ones of pheno- 
 mena into two classes, one dependent on the sympa-
 
 120 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 thetic nerves and the other on the cerebro-spinal sys- 
 tem. [Note for the general reader : There are two 
 nervous system in the human body ; one called the 
 cerebro-spinal, consisting of the brain, spinal-marrow 
 and the nerves running from them ; the other the sym- 
 pathetic, which is only slightly connected with the 
 brain, and has its chief centres and branches in the 
 trunk near and below the stomach. TRANS.] A strict 
 regard for the facts, and a careful exclusion of such 
 imaginings as are always pushing themselves into such 
 investigations, would probably show the way how the 
 knot is to be untied ; but much cool judgment and close 
 observation are necessary to avoid over-estimating and 
 under-estimating solitary phenomena. The slightest 
 things often led me to the most important principles, 
 while the most splendid phenomena were often mere 
 insignificant variations of matters previously known. 
 
 When somnambulists are in deep refreshing sleep, 
 they are corporeally quiet ; they speak but they do 
 not act. Such is the pure nemetic condition, with 
 negative-od predominating, for instance in cool spring 
 sunshine, while lying with the head to the north, and 
 after drinking negatively odified water. But when 
 od-positive elements such as moonshine, soretic in- 
 fluences, and lying with the head to the west appear, 
 the sleep becomes restless ; the sleepers toss themselves 
 about, speak, get up, walk out on roofs, etc. We may 
 therefore draw an inference from the quietude or rest- 
 leesness of a somnambulist whether his sleep will have 
 a good or evil influence upon his health. 
 
 In this manner Miss Atzmannsdorfer judged of her 
 condition. When she fell asleep with difficulty and 
 awoke with o.nso. -ho considered herself worse ; when
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 121 
 
 she fell asleep readily, slept soundly was not easily 
 awakened, and when more upward passes were neces- 
 sary to dispel her somnambulism, she said she was re- 
 covering. 
 
 In Miss Kynast, somnambulism alternated with 
 swollen feet. When she had the latter, she would be 
 free from the former for several weeks ; when her fits 
 of abnormal somnolency came on, and they lasted from 
 three to six weeks, she was not troubled with the 
 swelling of the feet. 
 
 94. Cold water good for cramps. Mrs. Cecilia 
 Bauer, Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Girtler, Zinkel, 
 Beyer, and others have found out that cold, fresh 
 water, and ice are good remedies for cramps and for 
 light attacks of somnambulism. If they use either 
 remedy quickly before the nervous excitement has 
 gained the upper hand, the cure is complete. Cold 
 water and melting ice have an od-negative effect on 
 the stomach, and exercise their abductive influence 
 against cramps on the pneumo-gastric nerve in the 
 stomach. When cold water is not to be had, they find 
 relief by going out in winter into the cold air. Miss 
 Zinkel goes out into the snow. The inhalation of cold 
 air into the lungs also operate upon the pneumo-gastric 
 nerve od-negatively. 
 
 95. Weak acids also beneficial, The taste of weak 
 vegetable acids has a good effect on somnambulists, 
 but they must be in small quantity. Sourish fruit and 
 slightly sour salad are delicacies to the sensitive pa- 
 late. But strong acids are over-exciting and injurious. 
 Many sensitives, Mrs. Anschuetz among them, are 
 
 6
 
 122 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 thrown into severe cramps by a few drops of lemon 
 juice. The influence in this case, also, is exercised on 
 the pneumo-gastric nerve. The brain is the od-nega- 
 tive pole of the longitudinal axis ; and when a re- 
 action against it is caused by a strong acid, likewise 
 od-negative, the influence is soretic, and cramp in the 
 stomach is the necessary consequence. 
 
 96. Cramps in extremities painless. The cramps 
 which affect sensitives, though painful to look upon, 
 are not always so painful as might be supposed from 
 the severe contortions which accompany them. Indeed, 
 many of them are entirely painless and are not even 
 felt. When Miss Nowotny was once bringing on sleep 
 by making passes over herself with a magnet, she lost 
 her consciousness before laying down the magnet, and 
 when she awoke she found the horse-shoe still in hand, 
 fastened there with a grip so tight that she could not 
 open her fingers, and it was a severe task for her 
 friends to get the iron out ; and yet she did not feel 
 the slightest pain. It was the same with the tonic and 
 clonic cramps in the feet and arms of Misses Reichel, 
 Beyer, Atzmannsdorfer, Weigand, Rupp and many 
 others. A similar nervous condition appeared to pre- 
 vail here as in the skin, during somnambulism, where 
 no pain was felt from any pinching or pricking. 
 
 97. But painful in the trunk. When the cramps 
 penetrated to the viscera they first began to be felt, 
 and now with severe pain. If they arose through the 
 breast and neck into the brain, they became acute 
 tortures, and some sensitive? Misses Maix, Sturmann, 
 and Atzmannsdorfer, and Mrs. Kienesberger among
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 123 
 
 others declared, in my presence, that they would 
 prefer death to such suffering. It must, however, be 
 observed that the so-called cramps in the brain, where 
 there are no muscles, must be different from ordinary 
 cramps, which we understand to mean involuntary 
 contractions of the muscular fibres ; and the brain- 
 cramps described by sensitives as accompanied by 
 sensations as of screw-like turnings in the head brain, 
 must mean something else. 
 
 98. Nerves of sensation and motion. After thou- 
 sands of experiments and observations, we have at 
 last arrived at that point where we are enabled to 
 reply to some questions about the relations and parti- 
 cipation of the nerves of sensation and motion in 
 somnambulism. Both classes take part in it, and in 
 an opposition similar to that between somnambulism 
 and cramp ; in the former the sensory nerves are 
 active ; in the latter the motor nerves. We have seen 
 that Misses Sturmann, Nowotny, Beyer, Zinkel, Kynast, 
 Keichel and many others, could be pinched and wound- 
 ed, touched in the eyes, tried with ammonia under the 
 nose, and with loud, sudden, unexpected noises at the 
 ears, without their showing any sign that these things 
 had been perceived by the senses ; all the nerves of 
 sensation were therefore more or less downward. But 
 those somnambulists had a clear consciousness, walked 
 about, worked, carried burthens, and beat people ; the 
 motor nerves were therefore unaffected and completely 
 under the control of the will. It was the reverse in 
 cramps. Here the motor system was attacked, was no 
 longer free. The muscles were driven to violent and 
 unatural movements, and to involuntary cotortions and
 
 124 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 convulsions ; they were no longer under the control of 
 the will. And since somnambulism usually accompa- 
 nies cj#mp, so in the latter condition the sensory 
 nerves are also dormant. 
 
 We find, therefore, in the affection of the nervous 
 system, in so far as its minor branches are concerned, 
 again the important theoretic and practical opposition 
 which appeared between somnambulism and cramp ; 
 that the former arises under nemetic, the latter under 
 soretic influence ; and that, as a consequence, the 
 nerves of sensation are attacked and deprived of their 
 function in the nemetic condition, while the nerves of 
 motion are attacked and thrown into involuntary and 
 excessive contractions in the soretic condition. 
 
 99. The odic thrill. The beginning and the end 
 of somnambulism and cramp are marked by certain 
 sensations, which do not escape attentive observers. 
 When sensitives are awakening from abnormal sleep, 
 and when about to be attacked by, or relieved from, 
 cramp, they perceive peculiar rippling thrills, which 
 run through the body. Miss Atzniannsdorfer, when 
 somnambulic, often said to me, "I am about to awake 
 soon ; I feel it already in my stomach." About a min- 
 ute later she would say, "Now it is in my chest;" then, 
 " It is in my neck, and when it comes into my head I 
 shall awake." At the end of another minute she would 
 be awake. What is the "it" of which she spoke? She 
 described it as a peculiar sensation, a rippling current, 
 commencing in the feet, when waking was near, pac- 
 ing slowly upwards, running through organ after organ 
 of the body, and finally ending in the brain with wak- 
 ing. It resembles the sensations caused by an upward
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 125 
 
 pass, which runs through the body in the same way, 
 and when it arrives in the head also destroys the ab- 
 normal sleep ; it moves like a wave over the recumbent 
 body. 
 
 With this statement we may compare Miss Zinkel's 
 explanation of her feelings when I awoke her from 
 somnambulic sleep by upward passes. At the first 
 pass she felt a peculiar sensation running up from her 
 feet through her body. It was felt most strongly at 
 the pit of the stomach, where it stopped a few seconds, 
 and if the passes were continued, it moved forward to 
 the chest and the neck, which it cramped together ; 
 then it went into the head and awakening followed as 
 quick as lightning. 
 
 These two observations made at an interval of six 
 years exactly cover each other. In the one case the 
 sensation was of natural spontaneous development; in 
 the other it was developed by upward passes. The 
 effect wrought in the latter case by artificial means 
 was produced in the former by nature herself ; and in 
 both cases the influence in the depths of the nervous 
 system was the same. 
 
 I made a similar observation with Miss Atzmanns- 
 dorfer when I first began to study these matters. I 
 insert the experiment here, although it is irregular, and 
 does not properly come into this place. I wished to 
 try what influence a magnet, at her feet, would have, 
 and placed a strong bar magnet, with its north pole 
 turned towards her, at her feet. She felt a rippling 
 current accompanied by a cool sensation running up- 
 wards through her feet. She described to me how it 
 ascended through her legs ; now it reached her knee ; 
 then over the thighs to the hips, making the abdomen
 
 126 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 cold as ice; through the stomach into the chest, mount- 
 ing through the neck ; and she was curious to know 
 how it would feel in her head, but she did not feel it, 
 for when it arrived there she suddenly stopped speak- 
 ing, and had sprung across into somnambulic sleep, and 
 a very deep one. At that time I could not understand 
 the experiment, and did not know that I should have 
 observed the different sensations in the different feet. 
 But the main fact forms an excellent link in this chain 
 of phenomena, and shows how, by a nemetic agent 
 working from below, somnambulism may be induced 
 in a manner not otherwise observed. There was 
 plainly here a progressive advance of somnambulism, 
 which began in the feet from the near influence of the 
 magnet, while the body was in the normal condition ; 
 then taking possession of the abdomen while the chest 
 and neck were still free ; and finally mastering the 
 brain. How mechanical the whole process ! 
 But I return to the direct thread of my treatise. 
 
 100. The thrill of cramp, Let us compare what 
 we have just read with my notes upon the course and 
 end of cramp. Miss Zinkel asserted that every attack 
 of cramp passed upward from the feet towards the 
 head. It first became painful in the abdomen, below 
 the stomach, and afterwards in that organ, there was 
 a painful movement a worm-like creeping. When I 
 placed the points of my fingers on the spot I could 
 plainly feel this movement; it could be felt by any one. 
 After this came stomach-ache, and when the pain be- 
 came acute the wen-like swelling, described in chapter 
 VI, followed. The evil- passed upward to the breast, 
 where it caused oppressive cramps; then into the neck,
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 127 
 
 where it choked the windpipe impeded respiration and 
 excited keen pains. It did not go further in this sen- 
 sitive, but seemed to turn about, and retreated from 
 the neck to the breast, thence to the stomach, the ab- 
 domen, the thighs, the feet, and finally its departure 
 through the toes was felt. This was a description of 
 an attack of cramp in the non-somnambulic condition. 
 She- often spoke in a similar manner when I cured 
 stomach cramps for her, either by downward light pass- 
 es, or by sitting down near her so that our unlike poles 
 came opposite to each other In such cases she would 
 soon say, "It is better ; it is going off ;" she felt the 
 pain passing from the stomach downward to the thighs, 
 and so off through the feet. 
 
 At another time the cramps began in the toes, which 
 became cold and insensible as if asleep, but without 
 pain. v But as the influence ascended the legs, the pain 
 began ; and from the legs it passed upwards to the 
 stomach. When the affection had reached the body 
 the feet were free from it ; she could not stand up and 
 move her feet freely. When the cramps got into the 
 breast there was a secretion of a mouthful of clear, 
 colorless, tasteless water in the mouth, as happens in 
 other like cases. This filling of the mouth with water 
 was repeated eight or ten times, becoming gradually 
 less ; it had no resemblance to vomiting, and had none 
 of the symptoms accompanying that act. The cramp 
 then passed downwards as gradually as it ascended, 
 and in the same order. There was no somnambulism 
 in this case. After the attack had passed trickling 
 through her feet, she again became warm, very warm. 
 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer a^d Krueger also felt this 
 trickling through the feet. They confused the passage
 
 128 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 out from the feet and up into the head with each other, 
 as these two phenomena are often complicated with 
 each other in reality. The end of the cramps was al- 
 ways accompanied by this trickling current running 
 downwards through the legs and feet. At the same 
 time that Miss Kraeger felt this sensation in her lower 
 extremities she felt another similar current running 
 through her breast and neck towards the head ; but 
 just as she said she felt this latter current, she stopped 
 talking suddenly she awoke. 
 
 101. The odic waves of somnambulism and cramp 
 compared. Somnambulism and cramp, are therefore 
 accompanied, in their rise, progress and decline, by a 
 wave-like, trickling movement, which moves upwards 
 from the feet to the head or downwards from the head 
 to the feet through the body, the course being opposite 
 in these two abnormal states. There is a perceptible 
 attack, a kind of physical-mechanical course, which may 
 readily be followed and may be still further analyzed. 
 The beginning of spontaneous somnambulic sleep has 
 not yet been observed; such observation will probably 
 be made hereafter, but in regard to artificial somnam- 
 bulism, it is well known that downward passes are 
 accompanied by a cool trickling through the body, soon 
 followed by sleep. We have seen that in waking, this 
 trickling begins in the feet, passes through the body 
 and on reaching the head dispels the sleep, in the same 
 way as the upward passes do. On the other hand we 
 have seen that in cramps the affection begins at the 
 feet, and passing through the body reaches its acme of 
 pain in the head, and {Jien, in disappearing passes 
 downwards again. The wave of somnambulism falls
 
 THE NERVES IN SOMNAMBULISM. 129 
 
 therefore from the head to the feet, and then rises ; 
 while the wave of the cramp rises upwards from the 
 feet and then falls again. 
 
 We cannot explain with complete exactness what 
 this wave is, in what medium it moves, and in what 
 part of the body it has its channel ; and yet when we 
 see how all the five senses and the vital powers are 
 affected by the odic influences, we must infer that the 
 odic vision is not dependent on the eye, nor the odic 
 smell on the olfactory nerve, nor the odic taste on the 
 palate, nor the hearing of magnets and crystals on the 
 specific nerve of the ear, but on a peculiar condition 
 of the nervous system, with which all the senses are 
 connected and which is the deepest foundation of our 
 physical structure. And thus it appears from these 
 phenomena with some show of certitude, if I have 
 rightly comprehended them, that that wave is nothing 
 more than a cnange in the odic condition of the nerves ; 
 the change being nemetic in the beginning of somnam- 
 bulism and ending of cramp ; and soretic in the ending 
 of somnambulism and beginning of cramp. 
 
 Physiology teaches us that the seat of observation 
 and reflection is in the forward lobes of the brain ; 
 which are the instruments used by the spirit in the 
 development of those faculties. When Flourens cut 
 out the cerebrum of a dove, and Hartwig that of a 
 dog or a cock, these animals continued to live for weeks 
 and even months, but their condition was that of un- 
 broken sleep. The sleep was therefore caused not by 
 means of the removed cerebrum but by the remaining 
 part of the brain. An odic observation which belongs 
 here, was published by me ag early as 1845 (Dynam- 
 
 ide Band 1. Seite 199; 201,]: I found that the odic in- 
 
 6*
 
 130 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 tensity was stronger in the forward part of the brain 
 in the waking condition, and stronger in the back part 
 of the brain in sleep : so that the activity which deve- 
 lopes od is in the cerebrum during the day and in the 
 cerebellum at night. Since we have learned in these 
 investigations that upward passes, leading od into the 
 head, dispel sleep and enliven the sensitive, while 
 downward passes render the sensitive quiet and som- 
 nambule, we may infer that upward passes by bringing 
 od to the brain render its upper and forward lobes ac- 
 tive, and that downward passes deprive them of their 
 functional powers as though they were cut -away 
 and call the lower and backward parts of the brain to 
 exercise their function in sleep.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 131 
 
 PART II, 
 
 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP OF PSYCHOLOGICAL 
 ORIGIN, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 102. Explanatory remarks, When I laid out the 
 plan of this work, I determined to confine myself in it 
 entirely to the demands of physics and physiology, 
 and to exclude all psychical phenomena which might 
 attempt to intrude. I believed I should succeed in 
 keeping the two separate. I propose to examine and 
 set forth the phenomena here in their purely objective 
 light ; while the subjective side, which must be drawn 
 from the consciousness of the sensitive was to be re- 
 served for a special work of its own. But the pecu- 
 liar nature of the odic phenomena where the sensitive 
 acts at one moment as the object and the next as the 
 subject, first as the observer and then as the observed, 
 wipes out the dividing line so often, that it is impos- 
 sible to preserve the separation, and I am compelled 
 against my will to admit and set forth some of the 
 psychical phenomena of sensitiveness, for the purpose 
 of explaining and completing the physiological branch
 
 132 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 of the subject. I say " some," for I shall here insert 
 only so much of the psychical phenomena of sensitive- 
 ness as may be necessary to the better understand- 
 ing of what has gone before, and particularly in so far 
 as they serve to throw light on the origin of somnam- 
 bulism and cramp. But I shall avoid all further in- 
 vestigation of the mysteries of clairvoyance, predic- 
 tion, sympathy, and ecstacy. I have always said that 
 I consider it too soon to enter upon these matters 
 before the physical laws of od and the physiological 
 foundation of sensitiveness are fairly established. In 
 relation to these things therefore, about which others 
 have written so many books, I shall confine myself to 
 brief allusions. 
 
 103. Somnambulism and cramp caused by mental 
 excitement. I have heretofore shown that sensitiveness 
 is usually an inherited quality. It seems, so far as I 
 have examined my sensitives on the point, to have been 
 derived by all of them from their parents. But 
 single events, causing a great intellectual activity may 
 induce somnambulism. Thus Mrs. Leonore von Pei- 
 chich became somnambulic when she had an inflamma- 
 tion of the brain. A case happened in Stockholm 
 where a healthy lady, sixty years of age, companion 
 of Countess Loewenhjelm fell upon her head and 
 fractured her skull so that trepanning was necessary. 
 She became somnambulic immediately. For these 
 facts I am indebted to Berzelius and the Countess of 
 Loewenhjelm personally. Miss Zinkel was never 
 somnambulic, and I knew her for eight years, before 
 any sign of somnambulism was discovered in her. But 
 after a combination of events which happened to exer-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 133 
 
 cise a very depressing influence on her mind, and kept 
 her in low spirits for some time, I noticed that her 
 sensitiveness increased extraordinarily and she was 
 affected by the slightest excitations, which at other 
 times would have passed unnoticed. At this period 
 I observed occasional slight attacks of somnambulic 
 sleep lasting from a half to a whole hour. The agree- 
 able excitements of Sundays and holidays had the pe- 
 culiar influence on Miss Atzmannsdorfer that they 
 always made her more liable to somnambulism. The 
 mental exhiliration of such days re-acted on her ner- 
 vous condition. Similar observations have been made 
 in clinical institutes and hospitals. Every pleasant 
 surprise threw Miss Atzmannsdorfer into somnambu- 
 lism, but if the surprise was disagreeable or accompa- 
 nied with painful feelings it had the opposite influence, 
 to prevent somnambulism and induce cramps. The 
 general disposition of the mind in somnambulism, as 
 I have remarked, is joyous. Friendship and love in 
 their moderate stages, when they cause agreeable feel- 
 ings, promote the somnambulic sleep. Even the little 
 innocent offences against maiden modesty, such as 
 unintentionally occurred in making passes, often caused 
 sensitives to fall into somnambulism. "We now draw 
 the general inference that every increase of sensitive- 
 ness, whether temporary or permanent, and all mild 
 agreeable mental impressions have a tendency to in- 
 duce and strengthen somnambulic sleep. 
 
 The psychical influences upon cramps are still 
 stronger. Somnambulism comes stealing over the 
 human system, it soothes, comes with sleep, consists 
 in sleep, and often in its lower stages, comes and goes 
 undiscovered. Often it is called" speaking in dreams,"
 
 134 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 which has long been somnambulism. But with cramps 
 it is different. They announce themselves by pains, 
 head-aches and stomach-aches, colics, general irritation, 
 and insensible feet, and since they cannot be overlooked, 
 are much oftener observed. I shall adduce a number 
 of facts in which physiological effects have been pro- 
 duced on sensitives without any influence of physical 
 means, but solely by psychical causes, such as ideas 
 and feelings, the effects being precisely the same as we 
 produced by odic treatment as heretofore explained.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OP SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 1S5 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 
 
 104. Sensitive aversion to monotony, By a long 
 series of observations I have discovered that sensi- 
 tives are governed by a peculiar aversion for every- 
 thing which continues or is repeated with a certain 
 uniformity. I often heard, but learned only of late to 
 properly value, the statement that a large plain pre- 
 sents an unpleasant sight. When from the window 
 of my residence I showed to a . sensitive lady a wide 
 plain, an extensive plain dotted with numerous vil- 
 lages, she tunted away and looking in another direc- 
 tion, said " I caanot look at a plain ; it soon makes 
 me sick." Miss Karhan finds it very disagreeable to 
 look over a large flat ; and this feeling is so strong in 
 her that when possible she always avoids a large open 
 square in Vienna, preferring to go through alleys 
 rather than pass it : but when she must pass it, she 
 never crosses it but walks around it, keeping her eyes 
 directed toowards the houses on one side. Mr. Enter 
 and Dr. Koller spoke to the same effect ; they dislike 
 to look at large fields, meadows, wide roads, and ponds. 
 Miss Maix who first spoke to me on this subject in 
 July 1844, has a similar antipathy. Miss Gerald ini
 
 136 SOMNAMBULISM AXD CRAMP. 
 
 avoided looking at highways, plains, and particularly 
 level snow-fields. She and her brother Alfred Geral- 
 dini hated even to see a large out-spread cloth. Miss 
 Martha Leopolder, looking from a balcony of my 
 dwelling, said the extensive landscape was beautiful, 
 but would be still more beautiful if there were not so 
 much water ; (the whole width of the Danube being 
 visible several miles distant.) Professor von Perzer 
 though an artist, the painter Ranftl, Baron Sidorowicz, 
 Mr. Leopolder, Mr. von Hauer and Miss von Unck- 
 rechtsberg all thought the sight of every large plain 
 disagreeable. Miss Zinkel always turns her eyes away 
 from a quiet pond, and from all similar objects. In 
 my park, however, there is a pond which is always 
 covered with ripples by the wind and this gives her no 
 unpleasant feeling. I have seen persons who disliked 
 to look at the level floor of a large hall, and even at 
 a bare billiard table. Numerous things of this kind 
 are found among sensitives. 
 
 105. Waving grain-fields. I was astonished to 
 hear from Miss Zinkel that the sight of a waving 
 grain-fiejd, a source of; great pleasure to me, was dis- 
 agreeable to her. When I inquired farther, Messrs. 
 Schuler, Enter, Leopolder, and Schiller, Mrs. Heintl 
 and others said the same ; when Miss Beyer sees grain 
 waving in the wind, she feels as though she were being 
 rocked by it, and she is so much affected that she 
 would be compelled to vomit if she did not at once 
 turn away. Mr. Klein is affected in the same manner. 
 Miss Geraldini and Mrs. Mueller cannot endure the 
 gitrlit. Baron von Perger likes to see grain waving 
 the distance, but near to him the sight is intolerable.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OP SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 137 
 
 106. Revolving wagon wheels. I often heard 
 similar statements about the feelings caused by 
 seeing revolving wagon wheels. Miss Geraldini, 
 when in a very sensitive condition, complained that it 
 was extremely unpleasant to look at the wheels of the 
 wagon passing her house. Messrs. Leopolder, Klein, 
 and Schuler, Misses Karhan, Zinkel, Beyer, and Mar- 
 tha Leopolder, Mrs. Mueller and Mrs. Heintl expressed 
 themselves to the same effect. Before my writing 
 desk, is a round table the pot of which revolves easily 
 in a horizontal direction. Instead of drawers there 
 are number of pigeon holes in the edge of it and in 
 these pigeon holes are placed notes of my experiments 
 with all my sensitive friends in alphabetical order. 
 This table which turns at the slightest touch, is almost 
 constantly in motion. When I have sensitives whom 
 I wish to try, I give the table a twirl, and the eyes of 
 all the demi-sensitives and high-sensitives are at once 
 turned away. Miss Zinkel gets up and leaves as soon 
 as the table begins to turn. Misses Bernazke, Hek, 
 and Zinkelbaier and Professor von Perger all turn 
 their backs to it. 
 
 107. WaterfallSt Does it appear reasonable that 
 such a beautiful sight as a waterfall should displease 
 sensitives ? Miss Zinkel told me she could not com- 
 prehend how people could find delight in looking at 
 waterfalls : the sight for her was very unpleasant ; it 
 caused warm sensation to commence in her feet and 
 move upward through her legs, as though upward 
 passes were being made over her, and unless she should 
 turn away, she would soon faint Miss Karhan says 
 that, to look at the continual motion of waterfalls
 
 138 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 makes her ill. Misses Leopolder and Klein and Miss 
 Beyer feel sickish when they fix their eyes on the wa- 
 ter flowing over a waste-weir. Mr. Schuler got sick 
 and almost vomited when he saw the fall of the Rhine 
 at Schaffhausen, and he had to turn away. Mrs. Heintl 
 and Zinkelbaier would swoon if they should look long 
 at a waterfall. 
 
 108. Hopping of a caged bird, How singular 
 that the movements of a bird in a cage should be an 
 object of aversion for any one! And yet Baroness 
 von Natorp told me, in October, 1846, that she found 
 nothing more intolerable than the continual monoto- 
 nous hopping of a bird in a cage from one stick to 
 another. This might be a mere accidental dislike and 
 without importance. But, as it appeared to belong to 
 the same class with the aversion for waving grain- 
 fields, waterfalls, and revolving wheels, I made further 
 inquiries and heard similar statements from Miss 
 Beyer, Lady Isabella von Tessedik, Madame von Rivo, 
 Misses Bernazke and Zinkel, Messrs. Klein, Schuler, 
 Leopolder, von Offenheim, Schiller, Dr. Rabel, Joseph 
 Zinkelbaier, and others. Mr. Leopolder cannot endure 
 even to hear the continuous hopping of a caged canary 
 bird, much less to see it. Mr. von Siemianovski un- 
 dertook to oblige a friend by keeping his monkey for 
 a short time ; but the constant jumping of the animal 
 was intolerable. 
 
 109. Swing of a pendulum. The monotonous 
 swing of the pendulum of a clock is unpleasant 
 to demi-sensitives, and high-sensitives. Mrs. Muel- 
 ler. Baroness von Tessedik, Mr. Fichtner, Dr. Koel-
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 139 
 
 ler, Mr. Sartorius, Alois Zinkel, Messrs. Klein, Schil- 
 ler. Baron von Sidorowicz, Professor linger, Mr. 
 von Offenheim, Misses Geraldini, Rupp, Matilda von 
 Unckrechtsberg, Zinkelbaier, Mrs. von Hauer, Mrs. 
 Heintl, and Mrs. Augusta von Littrow all described 
 the moving of the pendulum as disagreeable. Miss 
 Zinkel dislikes to see the motion of the leaves of a 
 book slipping through the fingers. Twirling of the 
 thumbs, drumming with the fingers and feet, and 
 swinging the feet when they endure for a little time, 
 even for a minute, in the immediate vicinity of sensi- 
 tives, are intolerable to them. Misses Sophia Pauer, 
 Hek, Bernazke, Geraldini, Beyer, Rupp, Miss von 
 Unckrechtsberg, Baroness von Tessedik, Baroness von 
 Natorp, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Leopolder, Dr. Natterer, 
 Dr. Machold, Professor linger, Chevalier von Perger, 
 Mr. Sartorius, Embassador Steiger, Alois Zinkel, 
 Messrs. Schuler, Klein, Girtler, and Professor Schroet- 
 ter, expressed themselves as out of patience with 
 these things; Dr. Koeller could not even bear the 
 ticking of a watch. Mrs. Fentl, Mrs. Kienesberger, 
 Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Zinkel complained about 
 the painful monotony of the bell ringing on the tower 
 of the castle Reisenberg, while they were staying with 
 me ; they would stop their ears rather than listen to 
 it long. Miss Zinkel did not like to look at persons 
 dancing, because of the repetition of the regular mo- 
 tions. Miss Karhan said such sights were intolerable 
 to her. Mr. Fichtner finds the motions of machinery 
 almost unendurable. Mrs. von Peichich cannot bear 
 to listen to the rattle of plates, knives, etc., at the 
 setting of the table or the change of courses. Misses 
 Beyer and Zinkel cannot endure to have any one walk
 
 140 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 to and fro before them in a small room. I should 
 never make an end if I should enumerate all the cases 
 of sensitive persons more or less irritated by monoto- 
 nous and repeating phenomena, the irritating influence 
 being exercised sometimes on the stomach, sometimes 
 on the head, and always creating a feeling like that 
 produced by upward passes. However, let us examine 
 a few more cases of this kind. 
 
 110. Change of work, When I visited Miss 
 Atzmannsdorfer and found her engaged in any work, 
 I observed that she did not continue at her work 
 steadily like other young ladies, but that she seldom 
 kept at one thing more than half an hour, at the end 
 of which time she would commence something else. 
 When I said to her that she would not finish much in 
 this way, she replied that she could not continue long 
 at one thing ; she must have a change. I said nothing 
 more, but thought she had not been very well trained. 
 Not long after this Miss von Weigelsberg complained 
 to me that nothing caused her so much inconvenience 
 as her inability to stick persistently at any one piece 
 of work. When she undertook any task, she could 
 not work at it more than an hour at a time, and then 
 she felt an irresistible impulse to leave it and go at 
 something else. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz spoke to me 
 in the same manner. Any kind of occupation soon 
 became painful and finally intolerable. Miss Geral- 
 dini confessed to me that it required the grc;it<'~t 
 mental exertion to sustain herself in completing any- 
 thing. She described the change from fondnc 
 work to aversion as sudden and not gradual. Mr. 
 Leopolder, as mechanic, had to do much fili l>ut to
 
 THE INFLUENCE OP SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 141 
 
 file long at one piece was a severe trial for him. Pro- 
 fessors Endlicher and linger, Dr. Diesing, and many 
 others, who have attained great learning by long and 
 severe studies, are counter-evidences against the unstea- 
 diness, perhaps merely capricious, of sensitive women. 
 Those three gentlemen, just named, confessed to me 
 that it is by strict moral compulsion that they are 
 enabled to stick to their work and that they feel a 
 great desire for change of occupation, which desire 
 often plagues them greatly. I inquired about this 
 matter of many sensitives and always received the 
 same reply. Mr. Constantino Delhez cannot work 
 steadily forward at any literary task ; if he cannot 
 change he must at least stop frequently and attend to 
 something else for a few minutes. Dr. Nied, Dr. 
 Mielichhofer, Dr. Machold, Dr. Koeller, and Mr. Ficht- 
 ner told me that they have times when they cannot 
 finish a letter at a sitting, but must rise at least once, 
 while writing, and look after some trifle. This im- 
 pulse to constantly change occupation is very strong 
 in Mr. Gustav Anschuetz, who cannot finish any part 
 of a painting at one sitting, but must always make 
 several jobs of it. Dr. Natterer, Chevalier von Per- 
 ger, Baron von Oberlaender, Engineer-Major Philippi, 
 Chevalier von Sidorowicz, Stephen, Kollar, Mr. Kra- 
 tochwila, Mr. Klein, Dr. Loew, Mr. Sturm, Mr. Schue- 
 ler, Mr. von Offenheim, Mr. Sartorius, Chevalier von 
 Siemianovski, Dr. Rabel, Mrs. Heintl, Mrs. Augusta von 
 Littrow, Martha Leopolder, Baroness von Natorp, 
 Madame von Hauer, Misses Hek, Rupp, and Zinkel- 
 baier all assured me that they could not persist long 
 in any work, and that they felt an irrepressible im- 
 pulse to change their occupation. Miss Zinkel cannot
 
 142 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 do any sedentary work without soon getting headache, 
 and, before long, very sick. Miss Beyer, when she 
 persists in any monotonous work, feels a heat in her 
 head and an oppressive feeling in the stomach and 
 brain, as if upward passes had been made over her. 
 Embassador Steiger can overcome the impulse to 
 change occupation only when he feels a strong intel- 
 lectual interest in the matter in hand. It is the same 
 with Miss Beyer ; however disagreeable persistance in 
 a task may be, she yet conquers her aversion when she 
 expects to learn something new and useful : in such 
 cases, she can assume an inexhaustible patience and 
 endurance. The higher spiritual excitation in this 
 matter overbore the lower physical one. Mr. Peichich 
 and Dr. Pfretschner cannot read long in one volume, 
 but must have several books about them, and change 
 from one to another. Professor Roesner cannot hold 
 out long at any one kind of work ; he must have a 
 change. In the course of his writing, he must often 
 get up and do something else, even if only to make a 
 few scratches over a violin. This love of change fol- 
 lows him everywhere ; he cannot remain long in the 
 company of his dearest friends, but must get up occa- 
 sionally and seek solitude for a few minutes. 
 
 The strong impulse for change of work and burning 
 aversion for everything that last long is therefore uni- 
 versal in sensitives, and renders high-sensitives inca- 
 pable of steady labor. 
 
 I have often bitterly complained that just I, who 
 have devoted myself with thorough zeal to the study 
 of sensitiveness, am entirely wanting in the faculty of 
 perceiving the odic sensitives. But as I wrote the 
 last paragraph it occurred to me that it is yet well
 
 THE INFLUENCE OP SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 143 
 
 ordered that I am not sensitive ; for if I were so, this 
 history and tiresome task to which I have given my- 
 self exclusively for ten years of my life, would never 
 have been completed, but would have been abandoned 
 before a quarter of the work had been done. Only 
 the endurance of a non-sensitive could have sufficed to 
 creep patiently through this magnetic mesmeric laby- 
 rinth, to untangle its tanglements, and follow thread 
 after thread of it to the daylight. We have therefore 
 a counterpiece here from non-sensitiveness to streng- 
 then the theory heretofore explained. 
 
 111. Standing and kneeling. In connection with 
 " work " we must consider standing and kneeling, 
 which require physical and mental labor. Count 
 Charles von' Coronini, Messrs. Fernolendt, Rabe, Dr. 
 Machold, Mr. Leopolder, Baron August von Oberlaen- 
 der, Dr. Diesing, Professor Schabus, Mr. von Oflen- 
 heim, Dr. Mielichhofer, Dr. Pfretschner, Mr. Kratoch- 
 wila, Professor Roesner, Mr. Sturm, Mr. Sartorius, Dr. 
 Koeller, Chevalier von Sidorowicz, Mr. von Siemian- 
 owski, Dr. Natterer, Major Philippi, Professor Unger, 
 Mr. Schuler,Dr. Loew,Mrs. Josephine Fenzl, Mrs. von 
 Peichich, Lady von Augustin, Mrs. Mueller, Misses 
 Bernazke, Dorfcr, Zinkelbaier, Caroline Eberman, 
 Martha Leopolder, Geraldini, Karhan, Glaser and 
 Caroline von Oberlaender, all, cannot bear to stand 
 or kneel for a long time. Some who dislike standing 
 almost as much, find a great relief when they can touch 
 some firm object, if with but a single finger : thus 
 spoke Mr. Gustave Anschuetz, Superintendent Pauer, 
 Professor Endlieher and Mr. Fichtner. Professor
 
 144 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 Hass, physician to the King of Sweden, finds nothing 
 so trying as the standing at Court ; if he can find a 
 place to support himself on a finger, it is a great relief 
 to him. Dr. Neid, a passionate hunter, finds only one 
 discomfort in hunting, that he has to stand still so 
 long ; this effects him so much that he is often near to 
 fainting. But if he can find the least support upon 
 \vhich to lean, it is a great relief to him. The Swiss 
 ambassador, Mr. Steiger, carries a cane for this cause 
 only. The mother of Lady Sylvia von Varady could 
 not bear to stand still, and she herself has the same 
 aversion, but she feels much better if she can find a 
 resting point for one of her fingers. Without such a 
 support she gets a pain in the stomach. In the morn- 
 ing she can endure standing and kneeling much better 
 than in the afternoon. Mr. Delhez can neither kneel 
 nor stand still ; kneeling soon gives him a pain in the 
 stomach. Miss Reichel is affected in the same way by 
 standing. Miss Zinkel gets a stomach-ache from 
 standing, and if she persists without finding something 
 to lean upon, she swoons away ; the same may bejaid 
 of Catharine Rupp. Lady Baroness von Tessedik 
 and Joseph Czapek get>ick at the stomach when they 
 have to stand long. Professor Endlicher could only 
 endure the kneeling necessary in church ceremonies 
 when he is able to rest upon his heels. Miss Reichel 
 belongs to a religious order, and being required to go 
 through numerous religious exercises with kneeling, 
 was pained so much thereby, that she was attacked by 
 severe stomach-cramps and often almost lost her con- 
 sciousness. Mrs. Kionesberger, standing too long in 
 my dark chamber, while I was experimenting with 
 her, fell down in a swoon, but soon after awoke ; lying
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 145 
 
 down itself being a remedy for her illness. Such 
 falls often happened to her. 
 
 112. Music. The impressions made upon sensi- 
 tives by music are very different according to the de- 
 gree of their sensitiveness. Sensitives like other 
 men, are ordinarily fond-ef harmonious tones, and 
 even more fond than most others, because they are 
 peculiarly susceptible and all the feelings have a 
 greater influence upon them. I shall not dilate upon 
 this point, but merely mention a few relations which 
 deserve a place here. 
 
 Mrs. Kienesberger liked the piano-music, which she 
 found in my house, but not always. It was pleasant 
 to her when her nerves were in a quiet condition, but 
 unpleasant when her nerves were unusually sensitive. 
 It was the same with Miss Beyer. This however may 
 be said also of other diseases. But a hint is supplied 
 by another observation. Mr. Klein told me that he 
 was a great friend of music, but it must not last more 
 than a quarter of an hour, then it gave him the head- 
 ache. Mr. Schuler spoke to the same effect. And 
 then all music in the high notes is disagreeable to 
 many sensitives, for example Dr. Koeller, Miss Geral- 
 dini, etc. However I found some sensitives who dis- 
 like all music, of these Mr. Leopolder is one. 
 
 113. Summary. If we now take a general view 
 of all these phenomena relating to the influence of 
 sensuous impressions, and seek for general character- 
 istics, we do not readily find them on the surface. 
 Where is the common bond between a broad plain, 
 waving grain-field, revolving wheels, waterfalls, hop-
 
 146 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 ping birds in cages, swinging pendulums, monotonous 
 thumping, steady occupation, long standing and kneel- 
 ing, and the duration of music ? The picture of a wide 
 plain seems to l>e just the opposite of that of a waving 
 grain-field, and so also the swinging of the foot as 
 compared with standing still ; and of drumming with the 
 fingers as compared with a lengthy piece of music, well 
 executed. Since the influence of these things did not 
 depend on their remoteness, but was sometimes exer- 
 cised at considerable distances the cause cannot lie 
 immediately in the odic radiation, whose power as 
 that of a radiating principle, must be considered to 
 decrease with the square of the distance. The cause, 
 must then, be sought elsewhere, and it is to be found, 
 I think, in subjective influences, which operate first, 
 not upon the body, but upon the mind of the sensitive, 
 and from there are sent out to the material organs. 
 In future chapters we shall see the power exercised 
 by mental impressions in the domain of od ; and in 
 the phenomena just enumerated we .have probably 
 seen the lowest manifestations of this power. All 
 these things have the common feature that they fix the 
 attention, and excite it over and over again, but never 
 satisfy it fairly, with one strong impression of pleasure 
 or displeasure. The eye moves over a wide plain, and 
 finds no resting place ; while a waving grain-field, 
 revolving wheels, waterfalls, a hopping bird, a pendu- 
 lum, and a thumb-mill begin their work anew every 
 moment, and make no end of it, because the motion 
 goes on uninterruptedly, and as the looker-on finds no 
 rest, he becomes uneasy. Monotonous continuation 
 in space as in time, without rest or the attain- 
 ment of the end, is the infernal torture suffered
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SENSUOUS IMPRESSIONS. 147 
 
 by Tantalus and Sysyphus. It strains the attention, 
 like long music, long monotonous labor, long quiet 
 standing. This strain brings on sickness, stomach- 
 aches, head-aches, numbness of the nerves, and swoons, 
 as we have seen ; and in some sensitives it causes such 
 a lukewarmness as is produced by upward passes, and 
 indeed all these results belong to the same class with 
 those caused by weak soretic influences acting on the 
 brain. The correctness of this statement will appear 
 more evident hereafter.
 
 148 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 INFLUENCES OF MENTAL ACTIVITY. 
 
 114. Mental exertion^ Severe exertion of the 
 thinking power is much less frequent than is generally 
 believed. Modern philosophy has shown that much 
 of that supposed by the ancients, to be mental labor, 
 is the spontaneous association of like with like in our 
 thoughts, proceeding without any exertion on our part. 
 The reduction of our ideas to judgments and conclu- 
 sions is done often without the least effort, and takes 
 place frequently as a matter necessary to our nature 
 and against our will. In those cases, however, where 
 thinking and the laborious combination of thought for 
 the formation of new conceptions, commence, the sen- 
 sitives are strongly affected. Professor Endlicher suf- 
 fered from almost constant headaches in consequence 
 of his intellectual labors. Superintendent Pauer 
 struggles continually with pains in the head and stom- 
 ach. I was led to discover the sensitiveness of Mr. 
 Tirka by his frequent fits of megrim. Mr. Gustos 
 Roller, when he exerts his mind, is always the victim 
 of megrim. The same may be said of Mr. Fichtner, 
 Dr. Natterer, Dr. Leow, Dr. Nied, Mr. von Offenheim, 
 Mr. Kratochwila and all sensitive men who are re-
 
 INFLUENCES OF MENTAL ACTIVITY. 149 
 
 quired by their occupation to engage in much men- 
 tal labor. I then put questions to Miss Girtler in 
 somnambulism demanding some reflection, she almost 
 lost her wits, and her condition which always ended 
 with a flood of tears showed that she was so strongly 
 affected that she could not endure it long. Similar 
 questions put to Miss Nowotny caused the breaking 
 out of clonic cramps in her arms. Mrs. Joanna 'An- 
 schuetz often fell into cramps several hours after I had 
 made visits to her and plied her with questions which 
 set her to thinking. I have witnessed but neglected 
 to note down many other similar cases wherein the 
 exertion of the thinking power was always followed 
 by cramp, the development of which was precisely si- 
 milar to that observed where soretic influences are at 
 work. If Dr. Machold, Constantino Delhez, Miss Zin- 
 kel and many others exerted themselves in the dark 
 chamber to see odic lights which appeared faint to 
 them, and fixed their attention for a long time on a 
 single object, the effort caused warmth in the head, 
 (physicians call this a flow of blood to the brain) cold- 
 ness in the feet, headache, and other sensations like 
 those produced by upward passes, and such as are felt 
 when cramp and pains of the stomach are approaching. 
 One day I saw Miss Reichel fall into somnambulism. 
 Her physician wished to use this condition to get all 
 sorts of fortune telling from her. Among other things 
 he asked her what had become of certain missing state 
 bonds. This horrified me, but I could not prevent it 
 without a quarrel with the stupid physician, who was 
 extremely zealous to discover the thief by somnambulic 
 clairvoyance. The sensitive, urged by him, but unable 
 to satisfy him, sought to free herself of him by various
 
 150 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 pretexts, and at least attempted to satisfy the demands 
 made upon her. After every such vain attempt, she 
 invariably had an attack of cramp. In the course of 
 half an hour this passed away, and then the physician 
 began again with his foolish tortures, and cerebral 
 cramps followed. So it went through a whole after- 
 noon ; every effort in mental labor resulting in a fit 
 of cramp. Mr. Kollar suffered with alternating me- 
 grims and stomach aches the former being caused 
 by intellectual exertion. Even reading requires a 
 mental effort more severe than sensitives are able to 
 endure. When Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz and Miss Atz- 
 mannsdorfer were unusually sensitive they did not ven- 
 ture to take up a book without exposing themselves to 
 cramps. Princess Windischgraetz could not allow 
 herself the slightest pleasure in reading without having 
 to suffer with cramps for it. The least reflection, the 
 most unimportant intellectual effort induced cramps in 
 the highly susceptible sensitives.
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS. AC. 151 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS AND DESIRES. 
 
 115. Love and maternal lovet The Superinten- 
 dent of my estate at this place (castle Reisenberg near 
 Vienna,) Mr. Willvonseder, had a lively little girl, 
 somewhat over a year old, which a sensitive young lady 
 in my house used to go to see. She loved the child 
 almost passionately. When she begun to hug it, a 
 thrill ran over her body at the first kiss. This thrill 
 appeared to start with a lukewarm sensation from the 
 solar plexus, passing lukewarm to the ganglions in the 
 loins, spreading out in the abdomen, then turning round 
 running with a feeling of colness to the stomach, thence 
 to the cerebellum, then losing itself in the whole body 
 and finally passing out through the cheeks, finger-points 
 and toes. The plain course of this sensation she de- 
 scribed as somewhat painful, but she acknowledged that 
 she had experienced a similar feeling when kissed by 
 somebody for whom she had an affection. She thought 
 that had the child been a couple of years older she 
 would not have felt these sensations. These are the 
 sensuous movements of love and maternal love, to be 
 established and qualified by further observations, but 
 there is evidently an odic element in them, moving ac- 
 cording to fixed laws producing corresponding results.
 
 152 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 This odic movement is called forth by psychological 
 action. 
 
 I have often witnessed a sensitive woman hearti- 
 ly embrace and repeatedly kiss her husband, when 
 she was to be separated from him for half a day, and 
 then fall into violent cramps. After this had fre- 
 quently happened, she had to resign herself to sup- 
 press the manifestation of the tender feelings. This 
 lady told me that she had to be careful not to kiss her 
 own child as heartily as she wished, for fear that she 
 would have cramps in all her limbs. The mental 
 action was so deep and powerful that it produced a 
 soretic influence on the nervous system. 
 
 116. Sensitive women usually virtuous. What- 
 ever may have been my experience in regard to the 
 erotic movements in sensitives and somnambulists, I 
 must yet deny the assertion, so often made, that women 
 in this condition are more inclined than others to amo- 
 rous thoughts. I have not found it so. On the con- 
 trary, I have often found a peculiar chasteness. The 
 great majority of the sensitive misses known to me, 
 are modest and pure. And the cause may be readily 
 understood ; it lies in the cultivation of their finer 
 feelings, which were necessarily developed from their 
 susceptible constitutions, and from their custom of self 
 control in the innumerable little trials and vexations 
 consequent upon their sensitiveness. Sensitives have 
 a more delicate mental organization than non-sensi- 
 tives, and this superior delicacy is impressed in all 
 their feelings, thoughts, desires, and character. 
 
 117. Grief. When anything unpleasant hap-
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 153 
 
 pened to Mr. Gustav Anschuctz, he immediately felt 
 a strong headache, which last, before it had continued 
 long, was reflected in the body as a pain of the stomach. 
 When Dr. Machold lost a much beloved child he felt a 
 severe ache in the stomach, and then a difficulty in his 
 respiration. Lady Baroness Natorp knew little of her 
 sensitive susceptibility ; but when she was severely 
 smitten by misfortune, somnambulism was speedily de- 
 veloped in her. Time, which cures all sorrow, cured 
 hers also. Miss Krueger speedily feels the effect of 
 grief, in her stomach, and in disturbance of the pulsation 
 of her heart. Mrs. Joanna Anschuetz suffered from child- 
 hood up, with headaches ; but when in her seventeenth 
 year she lost both her parents, her health was severely 
 affected, headache changed to cramp in her stomach, 
 back, arms and feet, and these cramps continue to afflict 
 her to the present time. Miss Atzmannsdorfer, while 
 living in my house, with her lively temperament, con- 
 ducted herself sometimes in an impatient manner, and I 
 showed my dissatisfaction by not visiting her for several 
 days. This rendered her uneasy and soon brought on 
 cramps. At another time she received a letter from 
 her father, giving her a severe chiding. I immediately 
 saw her grow ill, with attacks of headache and cramp, 
 which often returned in the course of the day. Miss 
 Nowotny had almost recovered from her daily fits of 
 catalepsy, when unexpectedly, coldness of the feet, 
 stomach pains, headache, heat in the head, swoons, and 
 tetanus got the control of her. We did not know the 
 cause of the relapse. Finally, we learned that she had 
 received a letter with some painful news, which she 
 took sorely to heart. This purely intellectual impres- 
 sion, had thrown her back into the most violent cramps. 
 
 7
 
 154 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 Miss Zinkel, when in a sickly condition, became so 
 susceptible, that every little moral misfortune affected 
 her very deeply. A slight contradiction, or only the 
 fear that she might not have done everything that was 
 expected of her, rendered her so uneasy that she was 
 visited by severe fits of cramps which passed over into 
 somnambulism. 
 
 118. Mental depressions altering the ortic emana- 
 tions. But the sensitives feel these subjective occur- 
 rences of their own internal condition, not in this man- 
 ner only : they also feel them objectively, and in regard 
 to this point I have collected some noteworthy obser- 
 vations about myself. More than once, while I was 
 engaged in the present investigation, I was severely 
 smitten by fate. When Miss Reichel was living in my 
 house in 1844, I received a letter informing me of a 
 large loss of property by the dishonesty of a friend. 
 I said nothing to any one, but shut up the pain in my 
 breast, and tried to bear myself so that no one should 
 perceive what I felt. It was my custom, when I made 
 my daily visit to Miss Reichel in the morning, to give 
 her my hand and let her try what odic strength she 
 could perceive in it. Its strength as she felt and de- 
 scribed it, always accorded exactly with the course of 
 my sleep, so that when she said I was odically weak, I 
 had invariably passed a bad night : when she said I 
 was odically strong I had always slept well. The cor- 
 rectness of her perception was established by long con- 
 tinued experiments. A few hours after I had received 
 the letter with the bad news above mentioned. I went 
 to Miss Reichel and let her feel my hand. She had 
 felt it but a short time when she made an unusual ge-
 
 INFLUENCES OP THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, AC. 155 
 
 sticulation of impatience, her (manner ordinarily being 
 quiet and reserved) and let my hand fall. She said 
 there was something about it such as she had never 
 felt before. It caused a severe pain in her hand and 
 through her whole arm, and she would have had to cry 
 out had it lasted long. An hour later I repeated the 
 experiment with the same result. Six various trials 
 during the course of the day gave no different result. 
 The next day it was the same, except that the unplea- 
 sant effect was milder. On the third day it disap- 
 peared, and at this time I had regained my natural 
 'rest. My grief, therefore, had wrought an important 
 change in me, though I, being non-sensitive, did not feel 
 it ; my health did not perceptibly suffer, but the sensi- 
 tive felt strongly in my odic emanations what was pass- 
 ing in my mind during two days. The mental action 
 therefore influenced and altered the development of od. 
 
 My fate has, unluckily, never been free from such 
 blows. The gains which I had made by toil and care 
 were pitilessly swept away in the most foolish manner, 
 by the most absurd events. Thus is came that, from 
 time to time, I was thrown into unhappy moods similar 
 to that observed by Miss Reichel. In the following year, 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer repeatedly discovered a great 
 disturbance of my odic emanations at times of mental 
 depression, her statements being entirely accordant 
 with those of Miss Reichel. Unfortunately, however, 
 I have no notes in regard to Miss A.'s observations, 
 and therefore I can give no particulars. 
 
 In 1847, Miss Ziiikel came into my room, after I had 
 been subjected to a severe vexation which still kept 
 my soul tremulous. Scarcely had she stepped in, when 
 she asked me whether I was ill. I was not physically,
 
 156 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 but mentally ill, and this had so altered my odic at- 
 mosphere that she, a demi-sensitive, discovered it before 
 coming near to me. She could not explain to me how 
 she felt, but she said it was more unpleassant than the 
 worst upward pass. 
 
 At another time, I had been angered just before 
 going to the dark chamber, where Miss Zinkel was 
 awaiting me. I had scarcely set down beside her, when 
 she said I must be out of humor she could feel it in 
 my presence, which produced the same feeling in her 
 as a south-west wind. This was an od-positive lading. 
 My whole body was charged with od, wherein positive- 
 ness had the predominance, jknd streamed out in all 
 directions. 
 
 In November, 1851, 1 received another painful piece 
 of news. I endeavored in vain to conceal my grief, 
 for, though non-sensitives observed nothing, Miss 
 Zinkel discovered that something was wrong, immedi- 
 ately after entering my room. She said she felt it at 
 a distance, and that it filled the whole room. I let her 
 take my right hand in her left. She found me very 
 ill, not as in physical illness, but evidently in a dif- 
 ferent way. She recognizes corporeal illness by a luke- 
 warm and worm-like creeping sensation in her arm, 
 not extending to the stomach. Mental excitement 
 however, affected the stomach immediately, and so 
 strongly that she was not only attacked by cramp there, 
 but also by the painful, worm-like crawling over her 
 stomach. My passes were no longer beneficial, but 
 poisonous, if I may so style them ; the odic emanations 
 of my right hand were no longer cooling, but luke- 
 warm, od-positive and pestilential. I had no remedy 
 to cure the sensitive whom I had infected. My odic
 
 INFLUENCES OP THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, AC. 157 
 
 condition continued to grow weaker through the day, 
 and I had not recovered until the morrow. 
 
 119. Moral suffering causes an od-positive dis- 
 turbance of the odic equilibrium. From this we may 
 understand the condition of the sensitives when they 
 feel a moral suffering ; it is a disturbance of their odic 
 equilibrium, an abnormal excitation of odic-positrve- 
 ness at the cost of its negative counterweight. And 
 thus it becomes intelligible, why, under such circum- 
 stances, sensitives are afflicted by headache and stom- 
 achache, both effects of positive and soretic disturb- 
 ances of the odic equilibrium. 
 
 In treating here of the psychical side of the odic 
 phenomena we rub against the physical item of infec- 
 tion. The disorders by which I was affected passed 
 quickly, by bare touch to other persons, not that a pal- 
 pable poisonous matter was transferred into their 
 blood, but from much finer and much deeper grounds ; 
 because a mighty force, intimately connected with the 
 deepest vital powers, has been disturbed ; thrown from 
 its balance, and its whole influence on a healthy person 
 entirely changed. Here we find infection in a higher 
 sphere than has hitherto been dreamed of. In these 
 appearances we recognize the cause of the immense in- 
 fluence exerted by moral evils on the physical orga- 
 nization ; we knew, indeed, the fact, because it shows 
 itself so violently in all diseases, because it creates 
 diseases where none were before, and even because 
 mental afflictions, unless the causes be removed, may 
 lead to death : but we did not understand the cause 
 which is here brought to light and shown to be an od- 
 positive disturbance.
 
 158 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 120. Vexation and anger. Discontent and anger 
 work more rapidly than sorrow because they are more 
 powerful. The last cases related of my own experience 
 really belong under this head, but as they occurred 
 outside of the sphere of the sensitives, I have thought 
 best to keep them separate. 
 
 Whenever Mr. Gustave Anschuetz became angry or 
 vexed he is immediately attacked by headache and in 
 the stomach. Mr. Leopolder is attacked by stomach- 
 ache in such cases. The cabinet-maker Bollman has a 
 son who inherited sensitiveness and is affected with 
 St. Vitus dance. The two were once crossing the 
 street when they met a fellow-scholar of the boy who 
 described to the father the disorder caused in the 
 school by the son, whereat the latter was so vex- 
 ed that he had a fit of his convulsive dancing in the 
 street. 
 
 Mrs. Krebs withdrew into almost exclusive loneli- 
 ness ; and if she was spoken to in any manner, she be- 
 came impatient. If she was bothered with many 
 questions she grew angry and soon fell into cramp. 
 Contradiction caused a full outbreak of cramps. Mrs. 
 Joanna Anschuetz could be thrown into cramps at any 
 moment by an absurd question repeated several times, 
 as though the answer had not been understood. This 
 makes her angry and the cramps come upon her at 
 once, as though some upward passes had been made 
 over her. This were the effects of questions alone. 
 Mr. Kowats is often so busied with official duties that 
 he cannot get home till late at night. The continu- 
 ous expectation and mental strain, with which his wife 
 awaits his return, and the numerous deceptions caused 
 by other persons passing, gradually bring on an irri-
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, AC. 159 
 
 tated excitement, which then breaks out in violent 
 cramps of the stomach. 
 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer went one day from Castle 
 Reisenberg to Vienna. There somebody spoke ill to 
 her of me, and slandered me. Since she knew the 
 falsehood of the charges made against me, she took my 
 part and defended me against unjust attacks. With 
 her lively temperament, perhaps she did this too zea- 
 lously, and so she got into a quarrel and then became 
 angry. The consequence thereof was that after her 
 return she fell into a cramp-like fit of weeping and sob- 
 bing, which could with difficulty be cured. Swoons 
 and cramps followed each other through the next day 
 and night, accompanied by "sleeping" fingers and feet, 
 and ending in somnambulism. Every strong impres- 
 sion of anger, care and joy speedily caused headache 
 in Mr. Ebermann. Grief, anger and vexation affected 
 Mr. Steiger's stomach, and brought on cramp-like move- 
 ments, which are followed by peculiar attacks pro- 
 ceeding from the stomach, and producing cramp-like 
 manifestations lasting sometimes twenty-four hours. 
 These attacks are accompanied by abundant secretions 
 of saliva ; the affection then passes to the back part 
 of the head, where it creates a severe pain, which next 
 moves to the forehead. Every fit of vexation and 
 anger calls out pain of the stomach in Mr. Kollar. 
 An insignificant insult to Miss Reichel rendered her 
 sleepless, and then brought on cramp. Miss Beyer is 
 always severely affected in the stomach that is, in the 
 solar plexus by anger, vexation and quarreling. Her 
 arms become heavy as if lamed, her legs refuse to bear 
 her weight, and her head becomes hot. Then out 
 breaks of cramp, accompanied by somnambulism, fol-
 
 160 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 low and last till the next day. Her frequent cramps 
 after every vexation date from a certain occasion when 
 she fell out with a person who had previously enjoyed 
 her high esteem, the quarrel throwing her into violent 
 paroxysms of cramp. She is, like many sensitives, 
 easily angered, and this always produced evil effects 
 in her somnambulism and cramp. Anger produced in 
 Miss Beyer that other soretic odic effect of the swel- 
 ling over the stomach with the worm-like crawling in 
 it. Miss Kienesberger was thrown into cramp by 
 every fit of vexation or anger. When much offended, 
 long attacks of somnambulism, with alternating cramps, 
 follow, sometimes lasting weeks or months. Every 
 vexation had the same influence on Miss Zinkel as so- 
 retic treatment. Any loss in her domestic affairs caused 
 by the carelessness of the servants under her was fol- 
 lowed by an excitation of her sensitive susceptibility, 
 and by pain in the stomach. Once she was irritated 
 by a refusal of her servants to obey orders, and im- 
 mediately there was a pressing pain in the solar plexus, 
 which she called a stomachache. After such a fit she 
 could not eat for a whole day, nor sleep, and the pain 
 allowed her no rest. It she succeeded in going to 
 sleep, she was beset by painful dreams, which caused 
 her to weep, and when she woke up she found herself 
 bathed in tears, and she was so affected that these con- 
 tinued in an involuntary and cramp-like flow. Then 
 came a feeling of relief, such as follows the disap- 
 pearance of cramp. 
 
 121. Violent excitement weakening odic percep- 
 tion. A noteworthy feature of physical influence on
 
 INFLUENCES OP THE FEELINS, AFFECTIONGS, &C. 161 
 
 sensitiveness is the depressing effect often caused by 
 violent excitement. In the last paragraph I gave an 
 example of Miss Beyer, in whom a fit of anger caused 
 a loss of sensibility in the upper and lower extremities. 
 Something similar was observed in Miss Zinkel. I 
 wished one day to arrange some new chemical prepa- 
 rations that I had just received, in their od-chemical 
 order, which has been discovered by sensitives in simple 
 substances by the touch. To my astonishment her sen- 
 sations were inexact and unsteady, as I had never 
 found them. On inquiry I learned that she had been 
 cheated out of a gulden in a very offensive way. She 
 was compelled to swallow her indignation at the 
 rascality because the rascal, whom she knew, pretend- 
 ed to be very honest, and she could not get proof 
 against him. This suppression of her anger had such 
 a peculiarly intense effect on her nervous disposition 
 that the susceptibility for od was lost for a day, and 
 she could not distingnisch substances by it. This ap- 
 peared still plainer in another case. She was very 
 angry at something that had happened in the house, and 
 indeed, sensitives generally have irritable dispositions. 
 Soon after this fit of anger I wished to make some ex- 
 periments of feeling with her, but her perceptive power 
 was almost gone. At the same time, she showed me 
 that her hands were moist, clammy, and swollen, as 
 when subjected to soretic influences, such, for instance, 
 as holding copper in the hand, or a part-pass down the 
 arm, stopping at the wrist. Another fit of anger, at 
 the disobedience of a servant, rendered her almost 
 insensible to odic sensations ; she scarcely felt my pass- 
 es and hands; her feet became insensible, and her 
 legs heavy as lead. Anger, therefore, had an effect
 
 162 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 like a disease, and threw the whole body into an od- 
 positive soretic state. 
 
 122. Vc nthi? anger a relief for odic illness. It 
 
 has appeared on various occasions, that, when Miss 
 Zinkel can speak out her anger, and ggt an explanation 
 or satisfaction, and thus discharge herself of her pas- 
 sion, more or less pain and cramp in the stomach fol- 
 lows, and these go away soon, or can be readily driven 
 off by nemetic passes. In such cases, an outbreak of 
 tears is peculiarly beneficial to her, and sometimes it 
 completely cures the whole odic timorousness that op- 
 presses her. But when she cannot express herself, and 
 must swallow her wrath, the consequences are always 
 worse for the stomach ; that is, for the solar plexus, 
 probably the whole sympathetic nerve [Reichenbach 
 gives it the expressive name of Bauchgeldrn, the 
 brain of the belly], for then she might be certain 
 of a severe cramp of the stomach,* passing thence, 
 through the preumogastric nerve to the breast, dis- 
 turbing everything with a gainful, crawling motion, 
 and rising into the neck, where it cramped the throat, 
 and threatened suffocation. This was a progress 
 which I had often observed in greater or less strength 
 in high-sensitives, and which, when it entered ihe 
 brain, caused the most fearful cases of opisthoto- 
 nus and cramps of the spinal marrow. When I was 
 near, the attacks were not at all dangerous ; I 
 loosened the cramps by a few nemetic passes ; yes, it 
 was enough that I placed my right side to the sensi- 
 tive's left, and laid my hand on his stomach, and in less 
 than a minute the cramps gave way and all the fearful 
 violence of the attack was stilled. All these purely
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 163 
 
 odic phenomena are produced by mental influences 
 alone. In one case of this kind, induced by anger, I 
 gave Miss Zinkel some nemetic downward passes to 
 cure a commencing cramp of the stomach. She felt 
 the influence more strongly than usual ; my passes felt 
 like ice passing over her, her arms were covered with 
 goose-flesh* but the cramps were dispelled. In these 
 phenomena, and they cannot otherwise be conceived, 
 there are many phases of stronger and weaker excita- 
 bility, which rise and fall, above and below the ordi- 
 nary average condition, according to the psychical 
 moods, and their intensity ; such as the necessity of 
 smothering rage, or giving free course to it, and so 
 forth, the more minute calculations of which matters, 
 I refer to skilful physicians, for whom a special knowl- 
 edge of these things has a new interest. 
 
 123. Cramps caused by fright, Vexation and 
 anger are moods wherein the mind is directed towards 
 attack. Fright is a diiferent mood, wherein the 
 thoughts are turned towards self-protection ; and it 
 also shows a strongly marked odic influence upon the 
 physical organism. Miss Nather, a native of Basle, 
 was in that city with her parents when the place was 
 bombarded. The anxiety and destitution which she 
 saw around her, and the bombs exploding in her house, 
 threw her into such a fright and so shattered her 
 nerves that she never recovered. She became som- 
 nambulic, clambered as a child about on roofs in the 
 moonlight, and passed her whole life in struggles with 
 cramp and attacks of nervousness. When, in May, 
 1 844, I visited Miss Sturmann, it often happened that 
 storms passed across the sky. Not the lightning, but
 
 164 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 every thunder-clap, threw her into cramp and cata- 
 lepsy. Once she had just taken a little board into 
 her hand from mine, when a moderate thunder-clap 
 brought on such cramps that it was impossible for me 
 to take the board away, although I exerted all my 
 strength ; but at the end of a few minutes, her cramps 
 relaxed, and the board fell by its own weight. 
 
 On one occasion she was in somnambulism when a 
 storm was passing. At every thunder-clap she had 
 clonic cramps of the arms. At another time a distant 
 firing of cannon was heard in the house, and at every 
 shot her arms were cramped. Even any sudden noise, 
 such as the slamming of a window-shutter or a door, 
 caused cramps after a lapse of a few minutes. Miss 
 Catherine Rupp became cataleptic when she heard 
 thunder. The falling of a broom upon the floor was 
 sufficient to induce cramp and catalepsy ; so also the 
 slamming of a door, or an outcry, or an abrupt calling 
 of her own name ! Since the influence was the same 
 as when she handled copper kettles or brass mortars, 
 or a door-lock, or an iron pump-handle, it is plain 
 that the fright effected her in the same manner as 
 an od-positive reaction in a soretic direction. I \v;i> 
 often witness of similar occurrences in Miss Sturmann ; 
 a boy bawled out in an adjoining room, and she was 
 beset by clonic cramps and catalepsy. In her dwell- 
 ing, in Ferdinand street, in Vienna, the steam-whistle 
 of the distant locomotives on the Southern Railway, 
 may be heard ; but I had hardly noticed the sound 
 before the sensitive girl was in a clonic cramp and 
 unconscious with catalepsy. Miss Reichel often stum- 
 bles, and every fall causes a fright, resulting in som- 
 nambulism and cramp.
 
 INFLUENCES OP THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS AC. 1 65 
 
 124. By outcries. Mrs. Cecilia Bauer has all her 
 life been afflicted with stomach-ache caused by innu- 
 merable little frights. I saw such a case in my own 
 house. Misses Atzmannsdorfer and Amelia Krueger 
 were in two different rooms, when the former had an 
 attack of cramp, for some unknown cause, and she 
 uttered a cry. Miss Krueger heard it, and she was 
 overcome by cramps and somnambulism. Miss Atz- 
 mannsdorfer was for a time so sensitive to frights that 
 every loud noise, the moving of a chair, the closing of 
 a door, would induce cramps of her arms and legs. 
 The first time that Miss von Weigelsberg was afflicted 
 with cramps of the tongue, the attack was caused by 
 the sudden view of an unexpected conflagration ; after 
 that any little fright brought it on. Mr Lippich, the 
 regular professor [prdinarius] in the clonical depart- 
 ment of the University of Vienna, was the physician 
 of Miss Atzmannsdorfer, and was interested in her 
 sufferings. She had a great respect and liking for 
 him. While she was staying in my house, Lippich 
 died unexpectedly. The news of his death, though I 
 broke it to her gradually, struck her so violently that 
 she fell into cramps and somnambulism. The strange- 
 ness of my dark chamber rendered Miss Winter un- 
 easy and threw her into cramp. Miss Martha Leo- 
 polder was afflicted with megrim after every fright. 
 Mrs. Kienesberger, under similar circumstances, suf- 
 fers immediate attacks of severe head-ache, cramps 
 and other nervous afflictions. Every fright, affecting 
 Mr. Gustav Anschuetz, is felt by him in head and then 
 in his stomach. A fright always gives a severe head- 
 ache to Mrs. Ebermann ; Embassador Steiger and Mr. 
 Custos Kollar suffer stomach-ache after every fright.
 
 166 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 Baroness Pauline von Natorp knew nothing of her 
 sensitive condition until she was shocked by repeated 
 severe frights. From that time forward she became 
 a sleep-walker and suffered with cramps, and did not 
 recover until after the lapse of years. Miss Zinkel feels 
 every fright first in the pit of the stomach, on the left 
 side, that is, on the left lobe of the solar plexus. This 
 affection on the left is significant, because it indicates 
 that the fright reacts in an od-positive direction, where 
 it attacks. Thence the cramping movements spread 
 upwards to the breast and towards the head, thence 
 to the arms and feet, and finally to the toes and finger- 
 points, which last are afflicted with a peculiar pain. 
 
 At another time a bell was rung very near to Miss 
 Zinkel's ear, and as this was done rather violently it 
 was sufficient to give her such a fright that she was 
 soon beset with stomach cramps and then with breast 
 cramps. Some years later, when her sensitiveness had 
 increased to somnambulism, her impressibility for 
 fright was so great that she fell into clonic cramps 
 when the iron of her stove snapped at cooling ; yes, it 
 sometimes happened that when she was sitting near 
 me, she was startled by an unexpected movement of 
 my hand, by an accidental tone of a word in conversa- 
 tion, and soon she was the victim of general cramps, 
 which usually terminated in somnambulism. 
 
 125. Odic perception weakened by fright, A quick 
 awakening out of common sleep may be reckoned 
 among the feelings of fright, if only in the grade of 
 surprise. In Mrs. Kienesberger this was sufficient to 
 bring cramps upon her. To wake her quickly was to 
 awaken her sufferings also. I have already stated in
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 167 
 
 this chapter how Miss Zinkel by anger had lost her 
 odic susceptibility for a short time : and now I will 
 give a fact to go alongside of that. Miss Zinkel was 
 in my dark chamber bu-ied with experiments relating 
 to the odic light. Timid as she is, she was much 
 frightened by the fall of a bar-magnet to the ground. 
 Up to this time she had seen the odic light very well; 
 but after that she was od-blind, and saw no more 
 flames than I did. This lasted about a minute ; then 
 her faculty of vision returned to her again. The ex- 
 citement had neutralized her sensitiveness, for some 
 moments, in an unexplained manner. There are, there- 
 fore, conditions caused by mental excitement in which 
 the feeling as well as the vision of sensitives for od, is 
 destroyed. 
 
 126. Cramp caused by jealousy, This scourge of 
 human society plays its mean part also among sensi- 
 tives. Of many examples which I have witnessed I 
 can give only one here. Miss Beyer, who has a deep 
 character, had a bitter jealousy in regard to a love 
 aifair. She told me that the first developments of her 
 cramps was occasioned by the unfaithfulness of a lover, 
 which affected her so severely that when she made the 
 discovery she fell into the most painful cramps. These 
 moderated after some time, but broke out anew with 
 every new mental storm, and continue to afflict her to 
 the present day. 
 
 127. By lauuhin 1 ?. As often as Mrs. Kienesberger 
 laughed violently she could be certain of an attack of 
 cramp. The same cause always produced the same 
 effect in Miss Reichel. Miss Zinkel, after a hearty
 
 168 SOMMNABULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 laugh, gets cramps in the stomach. Once, while laugh- 
 ing violently, I saw ^ her attacked by cramps in the 
 calves of the legs. At another time I saw a lively, 
 healthy laugh pass over into a frightful laughing cramp, 
 wherein, though suffering severe pain, she had to laugh 
 on automatically, until I succeeded, by downward 
 passes, in subduing it. It is well known that laugh- 
 cramps are frequent among sensitives. An instructive 
 case happened with Miss Atzmannsdorfer. She lay 
 a-bed in somnambulism and was lively and talkative 
 as usual. She told me many amusing incidents in her 
 life, and made many gesticulations and laughed hear- 
 tily. In the midst of this lively scene I saw her 
 become serious, the word died on her lip, she lay down 
 on her side and in reply to my question she answered 
 only that she feared a cramp in her throat. After the 
 lapse of three minutes, cramps had broken out in her 
 arms, feet, back, body and neck. I made downward 
 passes over, but a painful quarter of an hour passed 
 away before I became master of the cramps. A deep 
 somnambulic sleep then followed and lasted several 
 hours. The only cause of this attack was her laugh- 
 ing and excitement in somnambulism. She knew well 
 from experience what the result would be. At another 
 time I shall return to this beautifully regular develop- 
 ment, which is seldom seen in its entire course. 
 
 128. By joy. Sensitive persons are not even per- 
 mitted to enjoy, undisturbed, a pleasant surprise. Miss 
 Zinkel received a letter informing her unexpectedly, 
 of a very agreeable piece of news. Immediately after- 
 ward, she was attacked by a severe stomach-ache, such 
 as she had often had on previous occasions when she
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, &C. 169 
 
 had received good news. Another time she was pre- 
 sent on Christmas eve, when a number of presents 
 were made to some children. She took such a lively 
 interest in the joy of the little ones, that she soon 
 afterward fell into cramp and somnambulism. Once 
 upon a time she heard some news which gave her great 
 joy, and she was then immediately attacked by cramp, 
 which did not attack her simultaneously in all her 
 limbs, as cramps usually do, but only in the left leg, 
 from the hip joint to the toes, which last were distorted. 
 This points to the od-positive, soretic influence of men- 
 tal excitements upon the organic functions, and is a 
 delicate hint in confirmation of the views heretofore 
 expressed. Misses Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Maix, 
 Sturmann and others also told me of cases wherein 
 joyous emotions brought on cramps. 
 
 129. By surprise. When I visited Miss Zinkel, 
 on her sick bed, in her most susceptible period, it often 
 happened that her whole body was attacked by 
 cramps. It often happened, that when she had passed 
 the whole night without cramps, and I came to her 
 bed in the morning, and greeted her, she forthwith 
 was beset by cramps in her breast and neck, with 
 opisthotonus, which changed to somnambulism. The 
 only cause of these attacks was the lively and not un- 
 pleasant emotion called forth by my entrance into the 
 room. Miss Beyer was afflicted in the same manner 
 when she was in her most sensitive periods. While 
 she was going through the streets, she would often fall 
 down suddenly as if she were epilepetic, which she was 
 not. The mere surprise given her by the unexpected 
 sight of a friend, or by the rapid approach of some
 
 170 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 one toward her, sufficed to fill her body with cramps. 
 She visited me first in the country, and found there a 
 large black dog not far from my dwelling. The sight 
 of him threw her into cramps, in which she fell down, 
 and then became somnambule. But the dog was only 
 of cast iron. 
 
 130. By mental excitement, Mrs. Kienesberger 
 loves the theatre, particularly tragedy. But when she 
 ventures to give herself up to this enjoyment, she has 
 to atone for it bitterly. When she gets home after 
 the play, she has cramp-attacks severe and lasting in 
 proportion to the liveliness of the emotions excited by 
 the performance. Miss Zinkel had fears for the safety 
 of an absent lady. One day when she was in a very 
 susceptible condition, she was speaking to me of this 
 person. While speaking with emotion, she fell into 
 somnambulism. I supposed this to be accidental, paid 
 no attention, and staid with her till she waked up. 
 The conversation again turned upon the same person 
 and she again became somnambulic. When she soon 
 again recovered to waking consciousness, I led the 
 conversation, a third time, upon that person, and som- 
 nambulism mastered her again. The condition of this 
 sleep was such that symptoms threatening cramps were 
 seen at every moment. 
 
 131. By emotions of memory. That simple pictures 
 of fancy, recollections, impressions of pleasure and dis- 
 pleasure, in healthy somnambulism as well as in the 
 ordinary consciousness, should so affect the sensitives, 
 susceptibility as to produce cramps and similar con- 
 ditions would scarcely be credible, if there were not
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, AC. 171 
 
 facts to prove it. Miss Zinkcl knows a person who 
 has treated her in a very ungrateful manner, and whom 
 she bitterly detests. Whenever I unexpectedly men- 
 tioned his name, she felt attacks of pain and cramp in 
 the stomach in less than half a minute. It happened 
 to her, that somebody enquired about relatives with 
 whom she was not on a friendly footing, and immedia- 
 tely she had a cramp in the stomach. Once she saw 
 a child in great danger ; she related the circumstance 
 to me a year later; and the mere recollection affected 
 her so much that she broke out into cramps, in her 
 breast, arms, and legs, with opisthotonus in her whole 
 back. In times of such a susceptible state of health, it 
 was necessary that every word used in conversation 
 with her should be weighed, lest a careless expression 
 should call forth cramps and somnambulism, which 
 would break out so violently that while lying on the 
 floor she would move about convulsively and make the 
 bystanders fear that she was about to die of suffoca- 
 tion. 
 
 132. By emotions in dreams. A case almost comic 
 in its nature, is sufficiently characteristic to deserve a 
 place here. Miss Zinkel had charge of the sale of the 
 ripe fruit of an orchard and was busied in having it 
 guarded, gathered, measured and taken to market. 
 While thus occupied she dreamed one night, while in 
 ordinary sleep, that she had gone out into the orchard 
 and caught a thief there ^tealing the fruit. She went 
 up to him, upbraided him, and in her anger became so 
 much excited, that while dreaming she felt the approach 
 of stomach-ache, and being awakened by it, she felt a 
 crawling moving and a swelling over her stomach, and
 
 172 POMXAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 cramp-like sensations in all her limbs. Such cases are 
 not rare with her ; they occur frequently. 
 
 133. Summary i All these influences produced by 
 the intellectual movements of love, grief, vexation, 
 anger, fright, jealousy, laughing, joy, surprise, emotion, 
 and the imagination, agree to a wonderful extent in 
 causing in low, demi and high sensitives, the same ef- 
 fects which are produced by soretic-odic treatment, 
 passes towards the head, lying with the head towards 
 the west and south, grasping of od-positive sub- 
 stances with the left hand, such effects namely as 
 head-aches, stomach-aches, swoons, cramps and the 
 phenomena of this class ; and these effects are pro- 
 duced in the same manner as by the generators of 
 positive-od. 
 
 And thus we arrive at the following conclusions in 
 regard to the influences of the sensuous impressions, 
 mental excitement, and the feelings, affections and de- 
 sires heretofore treated of: 
 
 All these psychical movements, which, according to 
 physiological views, are supposed to proceed outwards 
 from the nervous centre, when viewed on the odic side, 
 occur and express themselves in the conceptions and 
 actions of the sensitives in the same manner as when so- 
 retic and od-positive influences are brought to bear on 
 the brain. Inferring, that like effects under like circum- 
 stances must have had like causes, we have every reason 
 to assume that aU these intellectual movements were ac- 
 companied by an accumulation of positive od in the 
 brain ; probably so far as matter could participate in 
 them, were composed immediately of it. A development 
 of positive od in the brain then accompanies and is
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE FEELINGS, AFFECTIONS, AC. 173 
 
 caused by att these mental actions, and the activity of 
 the human mind appears to be immediately connected 
 with odic movements: and .the od which we have 
 hitherto seen active in the physical world steps for- 
 ward now also as a fellow-laborer in the workshop of 
 thought.
 
 174 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 134. Odic perception acute as sensitiveness is high. 
 
 I have shown and proved by a thousand facts that 
 sensitives are provided in their sensual organs with 
 faculties entirely wanting in non-sensitives. They see, 
 feel, hear, taste, smell, perceive through muscular and 
 vital senses, and in this way receive sensuous impres- 
 sions entirely denied to others, as light and color are 
 denied to the blind. I have further shown that these 
 perceptive faculties become more acute as the sen- 
 sitiveness rises, and that the higher a man's sensitive 
 susceptibility, the more numerous and plain his per- 
 ception of odic phenomena, so that a low sensitive may 
 be compared to a short-sighted person, and a high 
 sensitive to a long-sighted one ; where the one sees 
 only a gray mist or a light smoke, the other distin- 
 guishes a clear light, an odic flame and the colors of 
 the rainbow. Should not this perceptive power al^o 
 increase with the exaltation of sensitiveness ? Should 
 not the condition of somnambulism and cramps develop 
 still higher powers of perception ? After what wo 
 know already this would no longer be wonderful, but
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 175 
 
 on the contrary it would be surprising, and violative 
 of logical reasoning if this were not the case. He 
 who has studied the physical and psychical operations 
 of od must foresee, with tolerable confidence, and must 
 expect that the phenomena in somnambulism are not 
 merely physical, but that they also ascend psychically 
 higher than in the ordinary waking consciousness of 
 the sensitive. If, therefore, there be in somnambulism 
 some phenomena which people call miracles, because 
 their causes are not clearly understood, we must not 
 be surprised or offended if the physicist is sober and 
 cold-blooded but cautious and thoughtful. Berzelius 
 says : "The chain of knowledge always ends in some- 
 thing incomprehensible." Explanation and comprehen- 
 sion can nowhere enter the infinite ; every investiga- 
 tion must terminate when it reaches the incomprehen- 
 sible. Care must be taken not to mix the limits of the 
 comprehensible with those of the incomprehensible, 
 and to establish the facts precisely where the one ends 
 and the other begins. I shall now go tttfs road, and 
 lead the reader along these limits for a short time. 
 
 , 135. Somnambulic prophecy In the first place 
 let us hear two cases, the facts of which I myself wit- 
 nessed, and which I will set down here one after an- 
 other. Miss Nowotny had regularly, every evening, an 
 attack of catalepsy, to which somnambulism sometimes 
 joined itself. In such a condition she told me, on the 
 19th of March, that her cataleptic fits would continue 
 five weeks longer, and that she would have the last 
 one on the 27th of April ; till then they would grow 
 shorter every day, and on the last day the fit would 
 last only four minutes ; and then she would be free
 
 176 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 from them forever. Then she added that the headache, 
 with which she had been nuinterruptedly afflicted for 
 eight full years, would continue beyond that day, but 
 would end on the 8th of May, and then she would first 
 have the pleasure of feeling herself free from pain. In 
 fact, I soon saw, in the daily decrease of the duration 
 of the attacks, the fulfilment of the prediction, for 
 every day they became shorter. I had kept the 27th 
 of April in my mind, and on that evening I was at her 
 house early. The attack commenced and I looked at 
 the minute hand of my watch. When four minutes had 
 passed the catalepsy and cramps ended and she waked 
 up. I went the next and the following days, but the 
 attacks did not come. Nevertheless the headache re- 
 mained. I continued to visit her daily. With deep emo- 
 tion I learned on the 8th of May that the headache 
 had not visited her during the day ; and the joy over 
 it enlivened and rendered happy the whole house. It 
 might be said that Miss Nowotny had probably played 
 a little com&dy and duped me. But no one knowing 
 the circumstances would have said that ; though I 
 should still admit the validity of such an objection if 
 this fact stood alone. But it is corroborated and con- 
 firmed by hundreds and thousands of similar cases 
 which I have observed, and I have made special 
 mention of this single one only because of its well- 
 bounded clearness. In this case we have a striking 
 proof that somnambulists, under conditions unknown 
 to us, possess the faculty, entirely wanting in non-sen- 
 sitives, of foreknowing events many weeks before their 
 occurrence, and with a precision exact even to a mi- 
 nute. That was one case.
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 177 
 
 136. False somnambulic prediction. And now 
 
 for the other. Miss Kynast had suffered for years with 
 somnambulic attacks, and like Miss Nowotny, in. these 
 slumbers she told, always correctly, when she would 
 have her next attack and how long it would last. 
 These predictions were fulfilled so accurately that they 
 came to have a common character, and everybody in 
 her vicinity was satisfied that such a prediction was 
 almost equivalent to a certainty. When somnambulic, 
 she also possessed in a high degree the faculty of fore- 
 telling the phenomena of her disease. One day she 
 came to visit me, and as I was occupied at the time 
 she stopped among my servants, and there went into 
 the somnambulic sleep. The cook now got hold of her, 
 and put all sorts of questions to her. Among other 
 things she asked about a trip which she (the cook) 
 intended to make to Prague, whether it would be a 
 fortunate one and uninterrupted by accidents. The 
 sleeper said that all would go well, save that an acci- 
 dent would happen at the bridge of Prague, but she 
 would escape uninjured. She then asked further about 
 the fate of the child of one of the superintendents of 
 my estate which child was very ill whether it 
 would recover or die of that illness, and whether she 
 could not tell something that would cure it. The som- 
 nambulist replied that she saw the child (the superin- 
 tendent's dwelling was about 800 yards from Castle 
 Reisenberg, and separated from it by a park) ; it was 
 dangerously ill, but it would recover ; and then she 
 prescribed how it should be treated. It so happened 
 that the cook had not the remotest idea of going to 
 Prague, and so far from the superintendent's child 
 
 being ill. he did not even have a child and there was 
 
 8*
 
 178 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 not a child af>out the place. The somnambulist had 
 thus been entrapped by the ideas which the questioner 
 suggested ; she had blindly believed and had made 
 prophecies which were not only untrue, but for which 
 there was no foundation. She had merely dreamed, 
 and spoken her nonsense out as many persons do every 
 night. 
 
 In both these cases, to which I shall hereafter add 
 some others, we have astonishing and exact fore-knowl- 
 edge side by side with absurd baseless guesses both in 
 somnambulic sleep ; the true predictions being made 
 by the somnambulist about herself; the false ones 
 about other people. 
 
 Somnambulic sleep is not therefore in its very na- 
 ture a condition, wherein the human mind is able to 
 foreknow the future ; and all assertions to this effect 
 and extent, are evidently false. Nevertheless there 
 are special conditions of somnambulism wherein the 
 human mind can possess a foreknowledge wanting to 
 persons not somnambulic. Experience has not yet learn- 
 ed to distinguish this latter class of conditions, and 
 between this and the other. class lies the dividing line 
 of the comprehensible and the incomprehensible. 
 
 137. Od generated by muscular force, Let us 
 
 now consider some cases where the mental exaltation 
 of sensitive persons goes still further and extends 
 beyond the limits of our globe. 
 
 Mr. Dubois Reymond has proved by some beautiful 
 experiments that electricity is generated when our 
 muscular force is exerted and whenever I have found 
 that od is generated at the same time. If I placed the 
 end of a porcelain wand in Miss Beyer's left hand and
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 179 
 
 held the other end in my right, after a feV minutes she 
 felt only the common coolness of . unlike od. But if I 
 grasped the wand tightly with my hand the coolness 
 changed to cold, which shivered through her whole 
 frame : and if I took the wand in my left hand, the 
 ordinary lukewarmness of the like od changed to a 
 heat when I exerted myself by grasping the wand 
 with all my force. The same sensations were perceived 
 by a number of other sensitives. These facts, observed 
 on many different occasions, and in many different 
 ways furnished the proof that the exertion of muscular 
 power is accompanied by a development of od. 
 
 If instead of holding a wand between myself and 
 the sensitive, I stretched out my empty hands towards 
 him at a distance of four or five steps, he felt the odic 
 influence usually felt at that distance ; but if, while 
 thus holding out my arms and hands I put the utmost 
 tension possible on the muscles, the sensation produced 
 on the sensitive was entirely different. Chevalier 
 Sidorowicz found that my right arm which at first sent 
 out a cool stream of od towards him, sent out a cold 
 stream when the muscles were made rigid, and besides 
 exercised an irritating influence impelling him to strain 
 his muscles in the same way. Misses Zinkel and Beyer 
 spoke to the same effect. Miss Geraldini was so much 
 affected by rigid arms held out at her that she wanted 
 to relieve herself by gnashing her teeth. When I 
 stretched out my left arm alone at her, it cramped up 
 the extensor of her left hand and threw the hand 
 open : and when I pointed my right hand at her left 
 side, she felt the same feeling in the flexors, and the 
 fingers were doubled in together. The tension of my 
 muscles was involuntarily irritated by the sensitive.
 
 180 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 With Miss Beyer the same treatment produced the 
 same effect. When I suddenly strained to the utmost 
 the muscles of my arms, hands and fingers pointed 
 towards her, she immediately felt the cool odic emana- 
 tions of my right hand directed at her left side become 
 stronger and cooler than before. Though five steps 
 distant from me she felt an almost irresistible desire 
 to strain her muscles also, and to grasp or press some- 
 thing tightly, in short she felt a transfer of what was 
 passing in my mind and body to her own. It was the 
 same with Miss Zinkel. First I made a slight down- 
 ward pass with my right hand at a distance of four 
 steps, for the purpose of putting everything at rest. 
 Then I stretched the same hand out towards her with 
 a tension of all my muscles. She felt a cold sensation 
 accompanied by an irritation impelling her to exert 
 her strength. She felt as though she would like to 
 have a stick of wood and beat me with it. I then 
 pointed my left hand at her with the muscles all in 
 tension. She said the sensation was much more dis- 
 agreeable and irritating than from the other hand. 
 Finally I pointed both arms at her at once ; this ir- 
 ritated her so much that she felt a strong desire to 
 assault me, but at the same time she had pain in the 
 stomach. 
 
 138. Experiment with a mirror, I countertested 
 this experiment by another with a looking glass. It 
 was a large dressing mirror, and stood on rollers. I 
 moved it into the doorway, between two rooms, so that 
 when Mr. Klein and myself were one in ' room 
 and invisible to each other in a direct line, on account 
 of the wall, we could yet see each other in the glass,
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 181 
 
 at an angle of seventy degrees. Each stood four steps 
 distant from the glass. When I raised may arm to- 
 wards the image of Mr. Klein in the glass, he im- 
 mediately felt the influence of the odic emanations, 
 which are reflected from a mirror like light. When I 
 strained my muscles, the sensations created by my arm 
 became stronger, the prickling was sharper, and he 
 became so warm that the sweat-drops collected on his 
 forehead, though the temperature of the room was but 
 51 Fahrenheit. He did not, however, feel any desire 
 to strain his own muscles. I repeated the same ex- 
 periment with Miss Zinkel ; she felt the increased odic 
 influence of my muscular exertion, reflected from the 
 glass, but she felt no psychical impulse to imitate it. 
 
 In these experiments we can distinguish two influ- 
 ences: one immediately physical namely, the odic 
 emanation from my hands towards the sensitive, and 
 this is also felt under the laws of odic reflection ; the 
 other psychical, where a distinct mental operation, the 
 voluntary exertion of muscular power, flows ower into 
 another person, a sensitive, and excites in him a similar 
 mental operation, the will to exert the muscles, and 
 even gives him a disposition to assault me. The act 
 of my will, directed upon a tension of the muscles, 
 passes over into another person, four steps distant, and 
 excites a similar act of the will in him, his act being 
 called forth by no motive save my volition. The 
 physical and psychical influence are separated by the 
 use of the mirror ; the physical, the odic emanation, 
 the radiation, is reflected according to its laws ; but 
 the spiritual principle is not reflected, and therefore is 
 of another nature. Here we find a sharp line separat- 
 ing the comprehensible from the incomprehensible.
 
 182 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 I look upon the preceding facts as introductory to 
 the following higher phenomena of the psychical 
 class : 
 
 139. Dr, Blass' control over Miss Beyer, When I 
 first saw Miss Anna Beyer, in January, 1848, in the 
 house of Dr. Blass,- in Vienna, she was somnambulic. 
 Professor Ragsky was the only other person present. 
 When the physician spoke to her, she replied to him ; 
 but when I or Dr. Ragsky spoke to her, she did not 
 answer, and apparently did not hear, even when I spoke 
 in the palm of her hand. In this condition of so-styled 
 "connection" with her physician, she was by no means 
 insensible to odic reactions, upward passes, like pain- 
 ings etc., with which I tried her. I may incidentally 
 remark that, since she is a very obliging and affable 
 girl in her normal state, any suspicion that she know- 
 ingly and purposely gave me no answer, would be out 
 of place. The important point in this matter was the 
 statement of Dr. Blass that the girl, in her sleep, 
 obeyed his will in all things, and even when he ex- 
 ercised his volition in silence. To show the correct- 
 ness of this assertion, he requested us to put his power 
 over her to the test. We spoke alternately French 
 and Latin, so that she should not, by any possibility, 
 understand ; for she was the daughter of a poor potter 
 from Bohemia, and she had never entered a house 
 where any tougue save German or Bohemian was spo- 
 ken : and therefore there was no ground to suppose that 
 she understood either of the languages used by us. I 
 proposed that he should silently order her to demand 
 a glass of water and drink it. Dr. Ragsky and myself 
 placed ourselves on opposite sides of the physician
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 183 
 
 and the somnambulist, and watched them attentively. 
 The former stood with folded arms, all of us being 
 silent. In half a minute I saw the girl move her lips 
 as if with thirst ; she now asked for a glass of water, 
 and when it was given to her, she drank. It was then 
 proposed that the physician should dispose her to get 
 up from her chair and lie down on a sofa near at hand. 
 Not a German word was spoken, and we waited in 
 silence for the result. She soon arose, unsteadily, as 
 in sleep, went with closed eyes to the sofa, and laid 
 down upon it. Several such tasks were proposed, and 
 all were successfully performed. In the meantime, I 
 tried by efforts of my will to govern her, but she did 
 not obey me, as she had previously given me no 
 answer. Finally, the physician offered to awaken her 
 by his mere volition, without doing or saying anything 
 to her. Her sleep was so profound that Professor 
 Ragsky thrust needles into her hands, and pinched her 
 severely, and poked his finger into her eye, without 
 any manifestation of sensation from her. When Dr. 
 Blass placed himself opposite to her, with the silent 
 purpose to awaken her, she turned herself over upon 
 the sofa, and said in her sleep : " I am coming" [Ich 
 Tcomme schon gleieh, in the Viennese dialect]. She 
 then sat up, sighed, rubbed her eyes, and looked at us 
 with the air of one just awakened from a deep sleep. 
 
 140. Other experiments with Miss Beyer. Some 
 days after, I repeated my visit to Miss Beyer and Dr. 
 Blass. The experiment of the glass of water was re- 
 peated under the same circumstances and vith the 
 same result. At my request, he wished her to give her 
 left hand to him. and she did so. I suggested that he
 
 184 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 should put a pen in her hand and she should give it 
 back to him. She carried out this silent task exactly, 
 and I noticed an unmistakeable inward movement in 
 her, namely, that all this was done with the coopera- 
 tion of a certain soretic, od-positive influence. I then 
 wished her to take the pen from him again, and she 
 took it ; and in this motion too, I perceived the effects 
 of od-positive influences; the will of the physician 
 worked positive-soretically upon her, and I observed 
 some of the premonitory symptoms of cramp. 
 
 I wished now to know whether these influences 
 could be exercised at a distance. Dr. Blass placed 
 himself in the opposite corner of the room, and at my 
 request willed that she should come to him. At first 
 she became uneasy in her chair, then, still asleep and 
 with closed eyes, she got up as if with difficulty and 
 with the unsteady motion of a person half asleep, fell 
 back upon her chair several times, and at last moved 
 slowly across the room, evidently with much exertion, 
 to her physician. He laid her down upon a sofa and 
 went into another room, at my request. I wished to 
 try whether the influence would pass through the wall, 
 and, at the same time, subject the physician to an in- 
 dubitable test. When he was on the other side of the 
 wall, I suggested that he should wake her from her 
 sleep. I soon saw the consequences of od-positive so- 
 retic influence. She turned over, moved her limbs un- 
 easily, raised herself on the sofa, sat up, sighed, rub- 
 bed her eyes, awoke, opened her eyes, evidently just 
 awaking from a deep sleep. A week later Miss Beyer 
 was in my house, and Dr. Blass was with us. I re- 
 quested him to wake her from somnambulic sleep by a 
 mere silent, unexpressed act of his volition, and she
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 185 
 
 soon awoke. I repeated the experiment again of hav- 
 ing him will that she should want a glass of water 
 and drink it ; and again she showed the signs of thirst, 
 asked for water and drank it when given to her. 
 
 141. The author gets control of Miss Beyer, In 
 
 the meantime I came more and more in contact with 
 Miss Beyer. I am an old and gray headed man ; Dr. 
 Blass is young and vigorous, of about half my number 
 of years. The appearance and deportment of Miss 
 Beyer showed that she was a good and virtuous girl. 
 During our experiments I perceived that she gradually 
 became friendly to me and the strong spiritual bond 
 uniting her to her physician was weakened. She said 
 my method of making passes over her was cooler and 
 more beneficial. She now began to hear me and to 
 answer me. I often sent for her and busied myself 
 with her for a half a day or a whole day at a time. 
 Finally she became irritated at her physician on ac- 
 count of relapses which she had attributed to him, 
 though without reason, as I think ; but the result was 
 her inclination for me was strengthened at the cost of 
 him who had previously been her physician. I now 
 tried whether I. could not succeed too in awakening 
 her by the mere exertion of my will. The first attempts 
 all failed. When I asked her whether I should not 
 awaken her, and she said yes, I requested her to wake, 
 and she immediately did so. I made the same experi- 
 ment with the same result on Miss Atzmannsdorfer. I 
 went into her room and found her in somnambulic sleep. 
 The sun shone beautifully and I wished to make some 
 experiments with sunshine. I told her my desire and 
 requested her to wake up and arise. Soon after I said
 
 186 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 this I perceived some cramp-like motions, and at the 
 end of a minute she was awake. My words had 
 worked soretically upon her head. 
 
 The possibility of awakening Miss Beyer from som- 
 nambulic sleep, by simply ordering her to awake hav- 
 ing been thus established, I saw in that fact the tran- 
 sition to a higher possibility of awakening her by an 
 unexpressed effort of my will, as Dr. Blass had done. 
 As I saw her attachment for me increasing I again 
 tried to influence her by silent volition. When she 
 was sitting, somnambulic on the sofa, I sat down in 
 front of her, about a yard off, and willed that she 
 should awake, myself remaining silent and motionless. 
 I had scarcely began to exert my will before she said 
 " Only a little longer : I am sleeping so well." She 
 had evidently felt the influence of my will and as it 
 was not her wish to wake up, she sought to induce me 
 to desist from compelling her to awake. Encouraged 
 by this, I kept up my mental effort, and within a mi- 
 nute she stood up awake. Afterwards she again went 
 into the somnambulic sleep : I allowed her to sleep 
 awhile quietly and then sat down three steps distant 
 from her. It was in the dark chamber, perfectly dark- 
 ened. When I silently willed that she should awake, 
 she rose within a minute, sighed, rubbed her eyes, as 
 she had done when Dr. Blass experimented with her, 
 and awoke. Some weeks later she again went to sleep 
 in the obscurity of the dark chamber ; and when I 
 silently willed that she should awake, she did so and 
 as quickly as for her physician previously. Three 
 days later I repeated the experiment, and obtained 
 the same result. Five days later I awakened her 
 three times in one day in the same manner.
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 187 
 
 I considered further experiments with this sensitive 
 as superfluous. What I had seen in the house of Dr. 
 Blass was no longer subject to doubt about its truth 
 or exactness ; I had proved it myself. And thus the* 
 fact was undeniably established that by the mere exer- 
 tion of the wiU, unaccompanied by any word or sign, a 
 man may so work upon the mind of a somnambulic 
 sensitive friendly to him, as to govern the actions of the 
 latter and even to awaken her from somnambulism in 
 which she insensible to wounds and violent irritations. 
 
 142. The somnambulist does not confound her 
 conscientiousness with that of the operator. It must 
 not be overlooked that the spiritual communication 
 between the somnambulic and the non-somnambulic 
 person is not as has been often asserted, a kind of 
 mental union, wherein the somnambulist changes her 
 ideas for those of her physician and considers his 
 mental operations as her own. This is evidently an 
 error no matter how often such an explanation has 
 been given. It appears by the statements of Miss 
 Beyer that this was by no means the case. It was not 
 her physicians purpose to drink water or to go to this 
 or that place, but that she should do it. Neither did 
 she comprehend it as if she supposed the physician and 
 herself to be the same person. When she drank 
 water in accordance with his silent order she demanded 
 it from him ; she said " give me some water ;" " give 
 me the glass." She distinguished therefore her per- 
 sonality from his, and knew that he was a separate 
 individual. After he had taken her back to her seat 
 when she crossed the room to him, at his silent order,
 
 188 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 he asked her why she had come to him ; and she with 
 a tone of wonder and reproach, said " Why, you wished 
 it ; you called me ; you would have it so." From this 
 it is clear that she recognized his will with a compara- 
 tively clear conscientiousness, and knowingly in obe- 
 dience to that will, formed her own determinations 
 and acted independently upon them. The mental pro- 
 cess was perceptibly the same in Miss Atzmannsdorfer 
 when she awoke in accordance with my wish. It was 
 not she that wished to make odic experiments with 
 sunshine, but she was willing to give herself for the 
 experiments which I wished to make. There is there- 
 fore no confusion or change in the conception of per- 
 sonality. 
 
 This theory, then, can furnish no solution for the 
 problem, but on the contrary presents only a darker 
 problem than the fact itself, and would increase the 
 obscurity rather than throw light upon it. We must 
 not confuse and darken the unexplained problems of 
 nature by arbitrary and baseless suppositions, but ra- 
 ther we should hold ourselves to a strict account of 
 what we comprehend and of what we do not. 
 
 143. The established facts of clairvoyance. Let 
 
 us now hold fast to the exact result, fresh from expe- 
 rience as just stated, and we perceive therein three 
 points in regard to the power of somnambulists under 
 certain circumstances : 
 
 1 . They can foresee the condition of their own physical 
 health. 
 
 2. When other persons direct exertions of power at 
 them they can feel the odic influence, and can le affected 
 thereby psychically.
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 189 
 
 3. Tliey can perceive volitions of other persons tJiough 
 the volitions be not expressed. 
 
 For the first point there is, as yet, no trace of an 
 explanation ; we must accept the fact in its simple 
 character, and record it among the hundreds of others 
 unexplained problems in the world. 
 
 The third point is equally inexplicable to us. Like 
 the first it is psychical in its nature ; and psychology, 
 far from explaining its causes, elements and connec- 
 tion, has not yet undertaken to investigate it. So far 
 as we see, the non-sensitives' act of volition is commu- 
 nicated to the somnambulist. But we know of no other 
 means of communicating a volition save by symbols, 
 such as the conventional ones of sounds, gestures and 
 writing. But none of these means are here used ; not 
 only air and darkness, but walls may separate the per- 
 sons between whom the communication is passing, and 
 yet the purpose in one brain is transferred to the 
 other. The whole science of psychology shows noth- 
 ing analogous, even in the least point, to this commu- 
 nication. So long as these extraordinary things are 
 not thoroughly investigated and taken to pieces, and 
 then philosophically studied, every theory about them 
 must be withheld. 
 
 The second point, which holds an intermediate posi- 
 tion between the first and third, is somewhat related 
 to odic radiation. The stream of ordinary od flowing 
 from the upraised arm is strongest at the point of the 
 outstretched fingers. If then the muscles of the arm 
 be made rigid, and the muscular power be thus exer- 
 ted, the odic stream becomes stronger ; at the same 
 time a psychological influence is felt by the sensitive 
 accompanying the physiological occurrence ; he feels
 
 190 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 a solicitation to exercise his muscles though he was 
 not somnambulic, and, indeed, was only a sensitive. 
 This first influence on the will comes from the strength- 
 ened odic emanation of the non-sensitive. A transfer 
 of the volition takes place here, undoubtedly, contem- 
 poraneously and in connection with the transfer of 
 the od. 
 
 A superficial glance at these matters might tempt 
 us to consider'the odic and mental emanations to be 
 the same, and, perhaps, as differing only in degree ; 
 and men disposed to favor materialism might adhere 
 to this view. But near as they may be to each other, 
 these experiments yet show their essential difference. 
 Od, as we know, is always reflected from the glass ; 
 its psychical companion was not. "While Miss Beyer 
 was connected with her physician by so strong a spir- 
 itual bond that she heard him alone, and not me or 
 Professor Ragsky, while she obeyed his volitions only 
 and not mine, she yet readily perceived my purely odic 
 influences, and was delicately sensitive to all the re- 
 actions which I attempted by like and unlike pairings 
 of my hands with hers, and perceived quite as strong- 
 ly and just in the same way as when her physician did 
 the same things. Among other experiments I had him 
 to cross his hands and take hold of hers, and she found 
 this to have a very lukewarm effect. I also had him 
 to hold her unlike hands a short time ; at first she 
 found the sensation pleasant, but soon she drew away 
 when, after the equilibrium had been established, a 
 surcharge and luke-warmness followed. In the pure- 
 ly odic respect, then the influence of her physician did 
 not differ from that of other persons ; his soretic re- 
 actions were as disagreeable to the somnambulist as
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 191 
 
 mine ; and hence we may infer, that the spiritual rela- 
 tionship, the so-called rapport or connection, and the 
 dark mental communication between the physician and 
 the somnambulist, must be some place else than in od, 
 to which it may be related as it is to mineral magnet- 
 ism ; it may accompany od or not, but it always pre- 
 serves its independence. The two appear together in 
 their influences, but there is no identity in their na- 
 ture. 
 
 144. Some general remarks on clairvoyance. 
 
 I cannot close this chapter without saying a few words 
 about clairvoyance generally, although I do it unwil- 
 lingly, for I think the time has not yet come for a sat- 
 isfactory explanation. We must divide clairvoyance 
 into two kinds : first, such as is subjective, occupying 
 itself with the internal, corporeal and mental condition 
 of the somnambulist ; and secondly, objective clairvoy- 
 ance, which occupies itself with the external world, or 
 persons and things outside of the personality of the 
 clairvoyant. Each of these two kinds must again be 
 divided into the clairvoyance relating to the present 
 and that relating to the future. These divisions are 
 important, if we are to distinguish the comprehensible 
 from the incomprehensible, the probable from the im- 
 probable, and the possible from the impossible. We 
 have seen that subjective clairvoyance, of the present, 
 wherein the somnambulist sees into his own body, 
 where the eyes could not penetrate by the assistance 
 of ordinary light, is possible according to odic laws, 
 and finds its explanation in diodaneity. The subjec- 
 tive clairvoyance, of the future, wherein the somnam- 
 bulists predict the changes of their diseases, is astou-
 
 192 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 ishing and entirely inexplicable under our present 
 knowledge of od and sensitiveness. That part of ob- 
 jective clairvoyance relating to the present, is partly 
 explained by diodaneity and odic radiation. In regard 
 to such objective clairvoyance as spreads out without 
 limit of space or time, I have already stated that, so 
 far as my observation goes, the prophecies of somnam- 
 bulists are false and the mere vagaries of wild dream- 
 ing. 
 
 To give a little more completeness and confirmation 
 to the truth of what I have just said, I shall add some 
 further cases that came under my own observation. 
 First, I shall take up the subjective, and then the objec- 
 tive prophecies. 
 
 145. A clairvoyant prophecy by Miss Reichel, 
 
 In August, 1844, 1 took Miss Reichel, when extremely 
 sensitive, to the city. There she became somnambulic, 
 and among other sayings, foretold that she would have 
 a violent attack of cramp that night at ten o'clock. 
 At nine o'clock I brought her back to Castle Reisen- 
 berg, and at ten o'clock precisely, the predicted fit of 
 cramp came upon her. This lady foretold innumera- 
 ble times, with the utmost precision, when she would 
 have her next attacks of cramp or somnambulism, and 
 these prophecies were always so exactly fulfilled that 
 it was the custom of all the servants in my house to 
 ask her, in somnambulism, when she would have the 
 next attack, so that preparations to wait upon her 
 could be made accordingly. When she predicted an 
 attack, the whole matter wag considered as settled. 
 She made a request that, when she had cramps, par- 
 ticularly opisthotonus, passes should not be made over
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 193 
 
 her with steel magnets, but that her cramp should be 
 allowed to rage itself out ; the use of magnets, as she 
 said, did no good, and only made the cramps last lon- 
 ger. This proved to be true. An attack, which should 
 have lasted four hours, was treated with magnetic pas- 
 ses by her physician, and it lasted eight hours, instead 
 of being cured. Miss Weigand used to tell every day 
 at what time her somnambulic sleep would begin. I 
 went several times to see her before the hour fixed, and 
 satisfied myself that the abnormal sleep commenced' 
 precisely at the time predicted. 
 
 146. Predictions by other somnambulists. But 
 
 occasionally Miss Weigand predicted what was to oc- 
 cur at a more distant time. She foretold more than a 
 month in advance that she would become somnambu- 
 lic on the 5th of June, 1855, and continue in that con- 
 dition for three weeks uninterruptedly. I visited her 
 during that time, and found all*her predictions ful- 
 filled. Such cases often happened with her. Miss 
 Girtler went so far in foretelling her own condition, 
 that she was not content / with speaking, but she re- 
 quired her physician, Dr. Horst, to write down what 
 she said, and when he had done it, in my presence, he 
 had to read it to her, and then to make corrections at 
 her dictation. All her words were verified by the \ 
 subsequent events. When Miss Zinkel said one eve- 
 ning, in somnambulism, that she was afraid of the com- 
 ing night, for she would have an attack of toothache, 
 which would last an hour, I noticed her statement, 
 without saying anything to any one. The next morn- 
 ing I inquired how ehe had slept. She complained 
 that she had not slept well, for, from the time the 
 
 9
 
 194 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 clock struck 12 until one, she had suffered with severe 
 tooth-ache. At another time Miss Zinkel, while som- 
 nambulic at night, said she would have a bleeding at 
 the nose, the next morning at ten o'clock, and it would 
 be preceeded by great dizziness. I would relieve both 
 greatly, she said, if at nine o'clock in the morning, I 
 would lay some small horse-shoe magnets on her breast 
 and back, with the poles downwards, the south pole 
 on the right side. I said nothing to her about this. 
 At eight o'clock in the morning and several times la- 
 ter, she came to me and complained of a painful diz- 
 ziness which had caused her to fall down about half 
 an hour before. In accordance with her direction I 
 wrapped up the magnets and applied them. Her head 
 immediately became clear, and in less than three min- 
 utes the dizziness was gone. At ten o'clock I visited 
 her and found her nose bleeding. On another occa- 
 sion, Miss Zinkel, when in somnambulism, said she 
 would be present at a wedding on the next Sunday, 
 and at midnight would get sore eyes, but the soreness 
 would be easily cured by laying parsley that had been 
 soaked in water, upon her eyes ; and she requested me 
 to prepare some parsley in this way for her. I said 
 nothing of this commission and had the parsley pre- 
 pared. Some days afterward, on the morning after 
 the wedding I saw her, and while she was telling me 
 about the festivities of the occasion, she complained 
 that at midnight she had commenced to suffer from a 
 soreness of the eyes, so serious that she was afraid she 
 would lose her sight. After half an hour, the inflam- 
 mation began to increase ; and when I saw her, her 
 eyes were very red, much swollen, and had a strange 
 expression. She could not open nor move them with-
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 195 
 
 out feeling pain behind them. I could scarcely con- 
 ceal my astonishment at this mysterious phenomenon 
 which she had so accurately predicted a week before. 
 I then applied the parsley ; the pain ceased in a few 
 minutes, and in two days the inflammation had entire- 
 ly disappeared. Miss Sturmann, Mrs. Krebs, Mrs. 
 Lederer, Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Winter, Krueger, 
 Maix, Rupp, von Seckendorf, Dorfer, Blahusch, Alois 
 Bayer, Friedrich Weidlich and many others, all fore- 
 told the times of their future attacks, and not a single 
 case is known to me, where such a somnambulic pro- 
 phecy about the somnambulist's own state of health 
 was not proved by the event to be exactly true. [It 
 appears however, from the next paragraph, that som- 
 nambulists sometimes err in predicting when they will 
 recover finally from liability to somnambulism.] When 
 we take a general view of a thousand similar facts, we 
 may infer, as an established principle, that somnambu- 
 lists, as a doss, have an insight and a prophetic facul- 
 ty within the sphere of their own subjectivity, entirely 
 strange to us hitherto, and inexplicable in the present 
 condition of our psychological knowledge. 
 
 147. Limits of objective clairvoyance, And now 
 
 let us examine some further examples of the objective 
 clairvoyant prophecy, such as that recorded of Miss 
 Kynast, when she spoke of the superintendent's child. 
 Miss Atzmannsdorfer was living in my house, in the 
 country, when Professor Lippich, her protector, who 
 had brought her to me, and to whom she was warmly 
 attached, fell sick and died, after an illness of two 
 weeks. She was at that time extremely sensitive, and 
 at least half the time, day and night, in somnambu-
 
 196 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 lism. During the illness of Professor Lippich she ex- 
 pressed surprise that he did not come to see her every 
 third day, as he had previously done. At last she be- 
 came offended at his supposed neglect. It was plain, 
 from this, that she did not know he was ill. I then 
 told her that he was in bed, dangerously ill. Not- 
 withstanding this, she did not perceive that I was con- 
 cealing the news of his death, which I had received 
 several days before. She even besought me to let her 
 have horses to ride into the city to visit Lippich, and 
 this after he was dead, dissected and buried. I often 
 asked Miss Beyer, in somnambulism, about future 
 events, and she as often put me off with the reply : 
 " How can I know that ; nobody can know it." Miss 
 Nowotny, who had so wonderfully and truly predicted 
 the changes of her illness six weeks in advance, after- 
 wards became ill by neglect, and then, for the first 
 time, went into strongly-expressed somnambulism. She 
 soon made predictions, which are not fit for repetition, 
 but which proved to be the mere vagaries of dream- 
 ing. Miss Zinkel predicted correctly the course of 
 her brief illness and the time of her recovery. She 
 then went farther into the future, and said she would 
 never become somnambulic again in her whole life. 
 Since that time, however, she has been somnambulic 
 several times, and will assuredly be so again. In the 
 same manner Miss Girtler has often stated that, with 
 this or that attack, her illness would end and would 
 never return. It ended every time, but always re- 
 turned again. Mrs. Krebs had been in the habit, for 
 a long time, of predicting in somnambulism, the attacks 
 of cramp, and these predictions invariably proved to 
 be correct. Suddenly she discovered that the wedding
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 197 
 
 ring on her finger had been broken, probably in con- 
 sequence of the violent motions in one of her attacks 
 of cramp, and she now sank in deep reflection for 
 several days, studying what the breaking could mean. 
 Finally she said, very confidently, that she had seen 
 the meaning, which was, that her husband would die, 
 after three months, and would be buried on Corpus- 
 Christi Day. Her husband prepared himself with 
 prayer to meet his God : but Corpus-Christi Day came 
 and went, and, after more than a year and a day, Mr. 
 Krebs was still alive and as well as ever. Miss Zinkel, 
 who predicted the changes of her own illness with 
 wonderful precision, prescribed, unasked, various re- 
 medies for stomach-ache, and, among others, a number 
 of small fragments of calcareous crystals, which were 
 to be placed in a little bag and laid on the stomach. 
 Since the strongly od-negative, sharp-pointed crystals 
 might exercise the same influence as a right hand, I 
 tried the prescription, but the prediction was not ful- 
 filled ; the crystals did not cure the stomach-ache. 
 
 148. Miss Weigand's celestial revelations. On my 
 
 first visit to Miss Weigand, I found her in the condi- 
 tion called " Ectasy" by the magnetisers. She was lying 
 upon her back upon a bed, with her hands folded over 
 her breast, as in prayer, surrounded by a semi-circle 
 of persons in devotion ; they were admiring and honor- 
 ing her as a saint. A large, tall man and a woman 
 were kneeling down before her, and her physician 
 sat at a table near by taking down every word uttered 
 by the somnambulic dreamer, in a drawling, pathetic 
 tone. As I entered she was just telling the man and 
 his wife on their knees that their dear deceased child
 
 198 SOMNAMBULISM AND - CRAMP. 
 
 was not in the Third, but only in the Second Heaven, 
 whence it would soon go to the Third, and advance 
 to the foot-stool of God. The poor couple were 
 bathed in tears. The physician put down everything, 
 and then took notes of a journey made by Miss Wei- 
 gand to the planets Ceres and Venus, and to the Sun, 
 the pattern of her trip looking as though it had been 
 cut out by orthodox catholic tailors, and all that sort 
 of nonsense. She continued to speak such stuff, mixed 
 with absurd predictions, for more than an hour, and 
 the grosser the foolishness, the more excited were the 
 prayers of those present, many of whom were on their 
 knees, with their hands raised in prayer. I have seen 
 and heard many things of this kind, but I think what I 
 have related is enough to support the general statement 
 to show that, in the thirty-one more or less somnam- 
 bulic persons with whom I have busied myself, I have 
 not heard a single true prediction about matters lying 
 outside of themselves, from any one of them. All 
 their predictions about foreign matters were, without 
 exception, the mere play of the ungoverned fancy. It 
 is possible that higher powers have appeared else- 
 where, but I never saw anything to convince me of their 
 existence. 
 
 If these observations be compared with each other 
 and with the prophetic power ascribed to somnambu- 
 lists by the common people, it will be seen that the 
 latter are far wrong. It may be said that my som- 
 nambulists were not deep enough in somnambulism ; 
 but if not one among thirty-one was deep enough to 
 have the supposed prophetic faculty, then that faculty 
 must be very rare, even among somnambulists. And 
 then, no one has given a sign by which the deepness
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 199 
 
 necessary to fortune-telling may be known. Just as I 
 am writing this, there is much talk in Vienna about 
 some somnambulists reported to have given astonish- 
 ing statements relative to events passing in Venice, 
 Zara and elsewhere, and which statements were con- 
 firmed almost as soon as made public. But scarcely 
 had flie supposed confirmation become known before 
 later news came, proving the somnambulists to have 
 been all wrong, and their good repute as wonder- 
 workers of brief duration. 
 
 149. Clairvoyant reading the thoughts of others. 
 
 Another remarkable kind of clairvoyance has been 
 observed, and I must not leave it unnoticed here ; 
 but no proof of it has ever appeared within the 
 range of my experience. It will be best represent- 
 ed by the following example : Persons who interest 
 themselves in somnambulism and the like, are not 
 rare in the highest circles of European society. 
 Such a gentleman sent another, a person familiar 
 with the subject and somewhat sensitive, to Paris, 
 to examine the state of magnetic knowledge there, 
 particularly in the assemblies of Baron Dupotet. As 
 he was about to start, one evening, to one of 
 those assemblies, he received a letter from his pa- 
 tron. He put the letter in his pocket, intending to 
 read it at another time. When he entered the assem- 
 bly a somnambulic lady, with whom he was acquaint- 
 ed, addressed him thus : " Ah ! you have received 
 an interesting and important letter from ? " 
 " Yes," he replied ; " what does it say ?" " I can not 
 tell you yet ; I do not see it," was the answer. The 
 conversation was continued, and after the lapse of half
 
 200 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 an hour, the visitor, tickled by curiosity, went to one 
 side, opened his letter and read it. When he returned 
 and sat down in the company, the somnambulist again 
 addressed him and said, " I can now tell you what 
 there is in your letter ; your patron writes to you that 
 
 you shall ;" and she went on to state the purport 
 
 of the letter very correctly. I have the report of this 
 case from a person in whom I place much confidence ; 
 but I tell it as I heard it, and can not vouch for it 
 personally. Presuming, however, that it is correct, it 
 is very instructive. So long as the gentleman did not 
 know the contents of the letter, so long the somnam- 
 bulist was also ignorant ; but from the moment that he 
 knew it, she knew it also. She, therefore, had no way 
 to learn its contents save through the consciousness 
 of its possessor. Between the time when she could 
 not discover the purport of the letter, and the time 
 when she learned it, nothing had passed, save the read- 
 ing by the gentleman, add the knowledge of it in his 
 consciousness. She, therefore, had access to his con- 
 sciousness, could seize the ideas there current, and 
 could transfer them to her own consciousness. Our 
 physicists, and the psychologists of the new school, 
 will say, " this cannot be ; it is impossible." I reply : 
 " I cannot comprehend or explain the possibility, but 
 the fact (assuming the truth of the report), establishes 
 the posibility. Although I cannot explain it, I would 
 not, therefore, be justified in denying the fact. Logic 
 does not justify the conclusion, that, because we do 
 not understand a thing, that therefore it does not exist. 
 We do not know what a mental conception is ; and so 
 long as we are ignorant on such a point, so long 
 as we do not know whether a mental conception
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM: 201 
 
 is of a material nature or not, whether it is the effect 
 of a force, or a force in itself like od, whether it has 
 or radiates out an atmosphere ; so ^long, in one word, 
 as we know so very little of the nature of ideas, and 
 of the presence of idea in our consciousness so long, 
 I say, as such is the case, we must not declare such 
 a great fact as the one under consideration, to le 
 unworthy of investigation. We are rather under 
 obligation, our highest interest requires us, to investi- 
 gate it. 
 
 150. MissReichel frightened by an imaginary dog. 
 
 Following the course of impartial investigation, I 
 shall here record my certain experiences, as a counter 
 part to the statements of another, as recorded in the 
 last paragraph. I have already told how Miss Reichel, 
 when in deep somnambulism, did not observe that she 
 had reached the top of the stairway, and that she raised 
 her foot for another step. [The author has not told 
 us anything of the kind, that I remember. TRANS.] 
 She had, therefore, not directly observed, nor learned 
 from my consciousness, the fact that we had reached 
 the top of the stairway. It is. true, perhaps, her at- 
 tention was not fixed on the stairs, but on her conver- 
 sation, and attention is absolutely necessary to obser- 
 vation. In another case, however, there was no lack 
 of attention. The same night, Miss Reichel, very deep 
 in somnambulism, wished to go put into the beautiful 
 moonshine. All representations and appeals to make 
 her desist from this purpose were in vain, and she was 
 going to have her will, even if she had to break away 
 forcibly. Finally, it occurred to a servant to warn 
 her against a large dog, which ran loose in the park 
 
 ty
 
 202 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 at night. This induced her to abandon her purpose, 
 and go back to her bed room. But there was no dog 
 in the park ; the only dog in front of the castle was a 
 Florentinian molossus of cast iron. She, therefore, 
 did not know that there was no dog about, and, not- 
 withstanding her somnambulism, she was deceived by 
 a very simple trick. Her perception did not reach 
 through the park, nor into the consciousness of the 
 lying servant. Miss Blahusch, while with me in the 
 dark chamber, waiting for the development of her 
 visual faculty, fell into somnambulic sleep. Mr. Leo- 
 polder was present. As he began to joke with her, 
 she supposed him to be an unmarried man, and her 
 conversation with him, taking its tone from that sup- 
 position, continued for some time. He not only, how- 
 ever, had a wife living, but one of his daughters was 
 present in the same dark chamber ; yet the somnam- 
 bulist did not perceive these facts. 
 
 151. Clairvoyants not hearing when spoken to, 
 
 When I spoke with Miss Reichel in the most suscep- 
 tible condition of her somnambulism she did not un- 
 derstand me and I had to repeat. Once it happened 
 that I had to repeat my words three times, and then 
 had to change the form of the sentence before she 
 understood me. I am not a native of Vienna but was 
 born in Stuttgard, and therefore have not the Viennese 
 accent ; and this slight difference between our forms 
 of expression though we both speak tolerably pure 
 German, made my words difficult of understanding 
 for her. The same difficulty occurred with Miss Beyer. 
 This lady, being a native of Bohemia speaks almost 
 exclusively high German, [In Bohemia the people are
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 203 
 
 of Slavonic origin and when they speak German at 
 all they usually speak only high German, whereas the 
 German people proper ordinarily speak a vulgar dia- 
 lect or plait peculiar to their province in addition to 
 the high German or pure tongue. TRANS.] but yet 
 there were times at first when in the deepest somnam- 
 bulism, she could not understand me until I had 
 repeated my words. As late as 1 the 19th January 
 1848, on which day I had made vain attempts to wake 
 her by the silent exercise of my will, she said in som- 
 nambulism .with an expression of regret : " I do not 
 know your will as I used to know that of my physi- 
 cian." Both these sensitives in their ordinary som- 
 nambulic state, were entirely incapable of perceiving 
 my thoughts in my own mind ; the intervention of 
 signs was necessary. Although Miss Beyer's attention 
 was strongly fixed on what I was saying she did not 
 know what it was until I had repeated it plainly. I 
 made similar observation with Misses Girtler, Atz- 
 mannsdorfer, Krueger, Mrs. Krebs, Mrs. Lederer, 
 and others. 
 
 152. Clairvoyance not necessarily belonging (o 
 somnambulism. Although the transfer of the idea avas 
 purely mental, in the first case, nothing similar occur- 
 red in the latter experiments ; in these, signs were 
 always necessary to convey the ideas : but since the 
 mental transfer of ideas in Miss Beyer in numerous 
 cases is known to my own experience, and as I can by 
 no possibility deny such communication, therefore 
 speaking of differing states, we arrive at the analytical 
 result, of which we previously had a glimpse in the 
 wonderful prophetic power of Miss Nowotny and
 
 204 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 Kynast, that clairvoyance does not necessarily belong 
 to somnambulism, but that in the latter condition, 
 something else, may appear, a higher spiritual condi- 
 tion which is the means of this objective clairvoyance 
 and serves to convey ideas immediately from one mind 
 to another. 
 
 It will be said that there are states in somnambu- 
 lism, and that what does not appear in one stage, will 
 be found in another. The possibility is not to be 
 denied. Yet the whole range of my experience 
 proved that persons in the lowest stage of somnambu- 
 lism, Miss Zinkel for instance, when merely touched 
 by it in nearly healthy days, had the faculty of fore- 
 seeing the course of her health for a week to come, 
 during which week she was to be well and able to 
 attend to her ordinary work, and to go to a ball ; 
 though deep somnambulists in the highest exaltation 
 could not know the thoughts of other persons around 
 them. It was then neither the height nor the depth 
 of the somnambulism which determined the spiritual 
 perception ; a superinduced change in the somnambulic 
 state brought this perceptive power with it, and this 
 change was evidently one connected immediately with 
 sensitiveness, but whose nature, cause and modes of 
 action are entirely unknown to us. 
 
 153. Acuteness of odic perception and somnam- 
 bulism opposite states* Miss Atzmannsdorfer assured 
 me at various times that the capability of seeing the 
 odic lights and feeling the odic sensations stands in a 
 kind of opposition to the faculty of clairvoyance in 
 somnambulism, and when either rose the other percep- 
 tibly iank. She considered the former as a sensuous
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 205 
 
 external feeling ; the latter as an inward conception. 
 The faculty of external perception became more acute 
 when she was vexed, or angry or frightened ; while 
 the inward prophetic faculty grew stronger in propor- 
 tion to the quietude of her mind and the depth of her 
 sleep. I have shown above that vexation, anger, and 
 fright operate od-positively and soretically upon the 
 head like upward passes, which increase the acuteness 
 of the vision and feeling for the odic rays. On the 
 other hand I have proved that downward passes exer- 
 cise a nemetic influence, and they not only weaken the 
 vision for odic lights but they even destroy it entirely 
 for a time. That downward passes have a tendency 
 to induce sleep has been known for years. But it is 
 in the deepest sleep that the somnambulists are the 
 most disposed, to make predictions about the future 
 conditions of their health and about other matters. 
 The statements of Miss Atzmannsdorfer agree remark- 
 ably with all my varied experiences, as recorded in 
 this work ; and on taking a general view of the facts 
 we arrive at the fallowing general result : as on one 
 side the soretic transfer of od to the cerebral system 
 exalts the odic perception and weakens the clairvoyant 
 faculty ; so on the other side nemetic transfer of od 
 from the brain, and to the sympathic system, quiets 
 mental excitement, weakness and even destroys the 
 odic perception, induces rest and sleep, and creates, 
 excites, and exalts the clairvoyant faculty. 
 
 Thus we have worked ourselves through the endless 
 confusion and entanglement to a certain commanding 
 point, whence we can with tolerable clearness overlook 
 a larger portion of the field.
 
 206 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 154. A blow at the materialists. Some learned 
 men, belonging to the school of gross realism, includ- 
 ing certain physiologists like Mr. Vogt, and many 
 chemists like Mr. Liebig, who have found that common 
 salt is decomposed and even elaborated in the human 
 body in the same manner as those chemical processes 
 can be conducted in the retort, and thence have drawn 
 the illogical conclusion that man, with his body and 
 soul, hide and hair, is nothing more than a course of a 
 development of affinity, who look upon consciousness 
 as a mere product of material organizations, and as a 
 mere function of matter, people who never made a 
 thorough investigation into the inner nature of con- 
 sciousness, of ideas and of thought, although they 
 think themselves justified and qualified to pass the 
 boldest judgments these people have laid great weight, 
 among other things, upon the English investigations 
 in somnambulism ; and the AUgemeine Zeitung (of 
 Augsburg) has published an article, entitled " An 
 Evening with Elliotson," from Herr Cotta, which at- 
 tracted much attention and was thought to give a strong 
 support to the materialistic views of the nature of the 
 human soul. I think this the proper place for me to 
 express my opinion about this matter, and about all 
 similar cranioscopic investigations. Mr. Elliotson, of 
 London, is undeniably deeply learned in the pheno- 
 mena of somnambulism, and the world is indebted to 
 him for much instruction. But, as the English trans- 
 lator of, and commentator upon, some of my writings, 
 and as an anatomist familiar with the organs of the hu- 
 man head, he should not have overlooked some impor- 
 tant points when he asked himself and others for the 
 cause of the grimaces and gesticulations which followed
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 207 
 
 when he touched various spots on the head of a som- 
 ' nambulic person with his fore-finger. For, when these 
 phenomena are examined by the light of the odic 
 theory, they at once take an entirely different shape, 
 and the materialistic hypotheses based upon them by 
 Elliotson and the German physicists disappear like 
 mist. Our skull encloses our brain, which is the in- 
 strument of our mental activity, but is this all that is 
 to be taken into account here ? Are there not other 
 agents the cutaneous and sub-cutaneous nerves ? Is 
 not the skull completely covered with them ? There 
 are the two nerves of the forehead, the two trochlears, 
 the two temple-nerves, the two large ear-nerves, the 
 two nerves behind the ears, the two small and the large 
 nerves of the occiput all sub-cutaneous nerves, 
 which, with their branches, lose themselves in the skin, 
 and run radius-like towards the vertex. They are all 
 divided into two halves, right and left, and therefore* 
 od-positive and od-negative, and, springing from the 
 brain, they communicate with it and pass immediately 
 to it. Now we know from the doctrine of the odic 
 pairings and passes, and from the strong influences 
 exerted by touches on the head, and by passes in va- 
 rious directions over the hands of sensitives, that the 
 slightest like and unlike odic treatment immediately 
 causes violent reactions in the sensitive system. We 
 also know that there is an immeasurable difference 
 whether the influence of a certain limb, such as a 
 finger, be exercised on the right or left side, whether 
 the direction be with or against the course of the 
 nerve, whether the influence be exerted for a long or 
 a short time, and so on. If now Mr. Elliotson applies 
 the point of his right fore-finger to the right side of a
 
 208 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 sensitive's head, so that it is over the large ear-nerve, 
 the influence will grow more painful the longer the 
 finger be kept in its place. The influence will be of 
 like poles re-acting soretically upon each other, and, 
 after a little time, will be like that of a surcharge. 
 This influence must be almost intolerable to the som- 
 nambulist. The influence will re-act obstructively on 
 the brain, and will particularly affect the parts nearest 
 which the nerve enters the brain, and not immediately 
 under the finger, where probably no influence will be 
 felt. If Mr. Elliotson now attributes the subject's 
 expression of pain to that part of the skull covered 
 by the finger, he is evidently in error. The emana- 
 tions from his fingers, as we have seen in the course 
 of these investigations, operate much more rapidly 
 along the course of the nerves than directly through 
 the skull, which is an amorphous substance, but although 
 ' permeable to od, it does not conduct it so rapidly as 
 the nervous substance. Whenever I made experiments 
 in regard to odic influence on the head, I always found 
 the effects produced through the sub-cutaneous nerves 
 to be the first in time and strength. But if Mr. 
 Elliotson moved his finger from one side of the head 
 to the other, or used a finger of the other hand, or 
 changed its position so that its direction was with, 
 and not against, the course of the nerve, or placed it 
 where it operated on two nerves at once if he held 
 it for a longer or shorter time, or changed it from one 
 nerve to another, or changed its distance nearer to or 
 further from the nerve to be affected, in every case 
 the change would cause different sensations in the 
 somnambulists, sometimes agreeable, sometimes disa- 
 greeable, now quick, then slow in motion, here irritat-
 
 MENTAL EXALTATION IN SOMNAMBULISM. 209 
 
 ing, there soothing, painful or delicious, and so on ; 
 and when he wishes to suppose that the play of 
 gesticulations is based on joy and sorrow, religion 
 and wickedness, he can find abundant room for his 
 fancy. But if it should happen that the odic influence 
 of the finger penetrates into the skull, the discharge 
 must be conveyed all through the brain under the law 
 of odic conduction in continuous bodies, and operates 
 upon all parts of it at the same time. This influence 
 must be so complicated that no trustworthy conclusion 
 can be drawn from it, and the only secure base for 
 judging the effect of the change of the fingers is in 
 the influence exerted on the sub-cutaneous nerves the 
 moment after the position of the finger has been 
 changed. This can teach us nothing about that part 
 of the brain under the finger, and much less of its 
 spiritual significance. All the extraordinary things 
 laid before us in this way as problems of psychology, 
 evidently rest on an improper connection of cause and 
 effect ; their explanation is to be sought in an entirely 
 different direction, and finds its proper solution in the 
 laws of od. The materialism of the hylozoists cannot 
 reap the slightest harvest in this field.
 
 210 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SOME PECULIAR MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 
 
 155. Drowsiness. Before somnambulic sleep, 
 begins, it is often, though not always, preceded by pre- 
 monitory feelings such as we call drowsiness when 
 they precede ordinary sleep. This ordinary drowsiness 
 we can resist and thus put off the commencement of 
 sleep, and the same may be said of somnambulic sleep. 
 Thus with Miss Kruger while I was making experi- 
 ments with her, I saw her struggling against the som- 
 nambulic drowsiness, and when I finished my experi- 
 ments she fell asleep. I often saw Miss Zinkel beset 
 by the same drowsiness. If I was not present, she 
 would resist it by taking brisk exercise, going out into 
 the fresh air, sprinkling cold water in her face, or 
 drinking ice water. By these means she overcame 
 the drowsiness ; but she always felt a peculiar pressure 
 on the eyes, then a burning of the eyes, and sensations 
 similar to those caused by light upward passes. I 
 often saw Miss Beyer struggling to repel the somnam- 
 bulic drowsiness, and by experience she became prac- 
 ticed in the matter. But she had to do penance for 
 driving away the sleep. It often happened and some-
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OP SOMNAMBULISTS. 211 
 
 times in my house, when she resisted the approaches 
 of somnambulic sleep for the purpose of assisting in 
 my experiments, that she was attacked some hours 
 later, usually in the night, by cramps. The same often 
 happened to Misses Blahusch and Sturmann, Mrs. 
 Kienesberger and Mrs. Lederer as I saw. The phe- 
 nomena were the most strongly marked in Miss Atz- 
 mannsdorfer and I had opportunities very often to 
 observe them in her. When I visited her, my presence 
 always, as I have previously stated, had a somniferous 
 influence on her, but this influence was unwelcome to 
 her, and she sought to resist it, as much as possible. 
 The resistance caused her eyes to burn, as in Miss 
 Zinkel, and then her eyes began to water, and tears 
 to flow, just as when I made light upward passes 
 over her. The usual violence which she did to the 
 drowsiness, a kind of odic victory over herself, worked 
 in every respect like an upward pass, and here again 
 we see that the exertion of mental power is imme- 
 diately connected with an od-positive soretic influence 
 on the brain. 
 
 It is worthy of note that Miss Atzmannsdorfer suc- 
 ceeded better in resisting 4he somnambulic drowsiness 
 soon after having had a somnambulic nap. When she 
 had been awakened from such a sleep she could resist 
 the drowsiness and keep awake longer than at other 
 times. 
 
 ^ 
 
 156. The somnambulic consciousness. He who 
 
 has never seen somnambulists rarely has a correct con- 
 ception of the mental condition and outward deport- 
 ment of such persons. They are both asleep and 
 awake. How can they be both at once ? The idea of
 
 212 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 somnambulism given by Jenny Lind in the opera of 
 :i La Somnambtila," going out with a lighted candle 
 upon a roof, is far irom nature. When I went with a 
 lighted candle, at night, to see Miss Zinkel in somnam- 
 bulism, her first word was an urgent request that I 
 should put out the light, because it burnt he^. I placed 
 it behind her bed, and she was satisfied with this. 
 Miss Reichel, when somnambulic, would bear no light, 
 and if an attempt was made to compel her to submit 
 to it she would scream with anger and fall into 
 cramps. Miss Atzmannsdorfer could bear the light, 
 but only after a conquest over her own feelings, and 
 then I had to place it behind some piece of furniture 
 so that its direct rays should not strike her. Miss 
 Nowotny would not permit the light to be brought 
 nearer than the adjoining room. 
 
 But to come back to the state of consciousness in 
 somnambulism, some idea of it may be formed from 
 the following observation made on Miss Dorfer. I 
 was making some odic experiments with her ; she fol- 
 lowed my directions and communicated the result to 
 me. After a time I noticed her sister, who was pre- 
 sent, smiling, and did not imow why. She seeing in- 
 quiry in my eyes said. "Why, she's asleep." Now for 
 the first time I perceived that the sensitive's eyes were 
 closed, and that she had become somnambulic without 
 my observing it. The conservation, the experiments, 
 questions and answers had continued their course, and 
 so quiet was her transition to somnambulism that I 
 did not notice the great change in the consciousness 
 of my assistant. Similar cases often happened in day 
 light and in the dark chamber with Misses Sturmann, 
 Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, Beyer and Kynast, so that
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 213 
 
 in the midst of the conversation it was necessary for 
 me to look or ask "are you asleep or awake ?" 
 
 157. The Author's first visit to Miss Girtler, When 
 
 I made my first visit to Miss Clementine Girtler, I 
 found her with her mother, and both came forward 
 with studied politeness to meet me as a stranger in- 
 troduced by their physician. The first visit was a 
 brief one, but the guarded decorum of the young lady, 
 her graceful motions, her freedom from affectation, 
 and her regular participation in the conversation did 
 not indicate that she was in any abnormal state, the 
 only apparent signs of which were her closed eyes 
 and the use of "thou" in addressing everybody. The 
 conservation soon turned upon her health and her pe- 
 culiar condition, and she spoke about it as freely and 
 as clearly as if she had been talking of a cough or a 
 corn. Every sentence was so reasonable, and her de- 
 scription of the nature of her state were so true and 
 objectively correct that I had to guard myself every 
 moment lest I should forget that her mind was in a 
 sphere of consciousness far remote from ours. When I 
 was about to go away she. invited me to come again 
 and begged pardon in the choicest terms, for the free- 
 dom which she had taken of saying "thou" to me, but 
 it would be impossible or at least a painful compul- 
 sion for her to express herself differently : this was 
 one of the privileges of somnambulists. When I re- 
 plied among other things how desirable it is that all 
 men should throw off the false portions of their con- 
 ventional customs and always use the upright "thou" 
 towards each other, the expression met her full ap- 
 proval and she assured me that it was the advantage
 
 214 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 of somnambulism, that in that state the tongue speaks 
 with the truth and sincerity of the inward thoughts 
 and feelings ; all direct and indirect falsehoods were 
 there sacrificed to the fresh impulses of the heart, un- 
 restrained by conventionalities. Men, I replied, was 
 there a higher and nobler being than in normal life ; 
 and to this she assented with all her heart as she bade 
 me Good Day. I describe this scene so circumstan- 
 tially because it gives a correct picture of the condi- 
 tion of experienced somnambulists, and enables every 
 one to correct erroneous conceptions of that state. No 
 person ignorant of somnambulism would have believed 
 that this was anything save trickery and deception, 
 but Miss Girtler was really a highly interesting and 
 deeply somnambulic sufferer, in whom at other times 
 the strangest phenomena appeared. I passed many 
 hours in intellectual conversation with her on other 
 occasions but with occassional interruptions by som- 
 nambulic paroxysms wherein the usually mild maiden 
 became furiously excited, her external conduct show- 
 ing the violence of her extraordinary internal nervous 
 disorders. At these times the great differences in the 
 phases of somnambulism appeared in their strongest 
 light, but I cannot dwell upon that branch of the sub- 
 ject in this treatise. 
 
 When in 1845, with Berzelius and Councillor Hoch- 
 berger, I visited Lady Baroness Elise von Seckendorf 
 in Carlsbad, I unintentionally threw her into som- 
 nambulism by a pass or two made over her right hand 
 with a crystal of gypsum. Her conduct continued to 
 be so true to the ordinary conventional rules that we 
 all three, then knowing little of somnambulism, sup- 
 posed she was merely pretending to be somnambulic,
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 215 
 
 though she was truly somnambulic in the fullest and 
 purest measure. We saw no change, except that she 
 "thoued" us ; her language, her pronunciation, her 
 opinions, were the same as before ; and that so trifl- 
 ing a matter as a pass with a stone over a hand, with- 
 out even touching it, should overturn the whole spirit- 
 ual nature of a person any such supposition appear- 
 ed very absurd to all of us, though elderly men, who 
 had seen much of life. But how many hundred simil- 
 ar, and even stranger cases have I seen since then ! 
 
 158. Thought fulness of Mrs, Lederert Mrs. Le- 
 derer was so experienced and so educated in somnam- 
 bulism, wherewith she had suffered for many years, 
 that she addressed Dr. Horst, her physician, and my- 
 self not with "thou," but with the customary and con- 
 vential "you," (Sie, in German,). And since she was 
 usually lively, jocose, and unaffected, she would in 
 somnambulism ask my pardon, for, she said, liveliness 
 was a privilege of somnambulists. Once when her 
 physician wanted to make some experiments with odic 
 passes on her, she got up and moved her chair to the 
 far end of the room, away from the street. I did not 
 understand her motive in doing this, and asked the 
 cause. She said she did not wish the people across the 
 street to see what was going on ; so thoughtful and 
 prudent was she in somnambulic sleep. In her waking 
 condition she could not have been more careful. 
 Miss Krueger, in her somnambulic state, described to 
 me accurately the course of her sensations when she 
 passed, usually about mid-night, from normal to ab- 
 normal sleep. At another time, in somnambulism, she 
 described to me, with instructive exactness, the deve-
 
 216 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 lopment of her cramps. A third time she gave me pre- 
 cise information about somnambulic vision when se- 
 veral bodies stood before the object to be seen, as in 
 looking into the interior of the human body. She had 
 so clear a consciousness of her own situation, and she 
 was so competent to maintain an intelligent conver- 
 sation, that every such meeting with her was peculiar- 
 ly instructive. And this happened at a time when her 
 somnambulism was so low that she could see nothing 
 save a red cloud before her eyes, and I had to lead 
 her about. 
 
 159. Truthfulness of Miss Zinkel. The conduct of 
 Miss Zinkel on one occasion shows a queer phase of 
 somnambulism. She was conversing in that state with 
 me when she suddenly assumed a tone of great inti- 
 macy, and said to me, "Yon Reichenbach, I must tell 
 thee something in confidence." "Well, what is it ?" 
 "I have been deceiving thee." "How ?" "I have re- 
 ceived a letter from the captain, and have concealed 
 it from thee. He insists upon marrying me. I tell 
 thee now that I deceive thee in the daytime, so thou 
 mayest know it, but thou must not say anything to me 
 when I am awake, for thou knowest it would grieve 
 and offend me." I promised silence and kept my pro- 
 mise ; but I must tell the secret to the reader in con- 
 fidence. A wealthy captain in the Imperial army was 
 then courting her and she was irresolute whether to 
 accept him, and assumed that I was opposed to the 
 match, though I said nothing either for nor against it. 
 She had previously, when awake, told me something of 
 the affair, but concealed the receipt of the letter. Tu 
 this conduct we see a peculiar psychological puzzle, how
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULIST! 217 
 
 the sensitive was more candid and upright towards 
 me in somnambulism than when awake, and she en- 
 tered a kind of complaint before me against the waking 
 self, forbidding me, at the same time, to raise the veil 
 of her somnambulic confidence in the day-time. What 
 a singular changing of two personalities in one and 
 the same individual, and all with the consciousness of 
 the change. She knew that when awake she was the 
 same person ; and betrayed that other one to me ! I 
 dare, not tell her what she herself told me. She knew 
 that when awake she would not know anything of that 
 which she did telling me ! But how did she now that ? 
 What an incomprehensible conscious double persona- 
 lity ! In a similar manner Miss Zinkel often, in som- 
 nambulism, bade me never to tell her" when awake, 
 that she had been somnambulic. " It would pain and 
 grieve me," she would say, and insist that I should 
 promise silence. One day I could not resist the desire 
 to speak to her about her somnambulism, and, indeed, 
 it seemed to pain her to think that she had been som- 
 nambulic, a state for which she had a great dislike. 
 But the queerest part of it occurred the next day, 
 when she again became somnambulic. She then gave 
 me a severe and formal lecture for having broken my 
 promise and betrayed her abnormal condition to her 
 when awake. I then had to make sacred asseverations 
 that I would never do the like again. 
 
 My friends and myself often talked for hours or 
 half-days at a time with Misses Atzmannsdorfer, Rei- 
 chel, Sturmann, Krueger, Kynast, Beyer and Zinkel, 
 when they were in somnambulic sleep ; sometimes our 
 conversation was serious, about somnambulism ; some- 
 times it was jocose, turning on such questions as inte- 
 
 10
 
 218 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP. 
 
 rest young ladies, and they would take their share in 
 the jokes, as though they were in their natural condi- 
 tion. A stranger coming in would never have sup- 
 posed that any person was in an abnormal state. 
 Indeed, Miss Reichel, in somnambulism, often went 
 from Hietzing to Vienna, attended to business there, 
 and returned home alone through the throng of men 
 and wagons in the capital. 
 
 From all this we perceive that somnambulists are 
 not like normal sleepers in a dream of merely imagi- 
 native ideas, but that they form conceptions, judg- 
 ments, conclusions. In this respect somnambulism is 
 strongly distinguished from normal sleep. 
 
 160. Attention in somnambulism, It is well 
 known that attention is absolutely necessary to the 
 formation of sensuous conception. Thus it happened 
 that soldiers engaged in battle have been wounded 
 and have not been aware of it until a comrade would 
 call their attention to the flow of blood : and we all 
 know that when sunk in reflection a thousand things 
 are done about us without our noticing them. This 
 universal quality of our mind shows itself also in sen- 
 sitiveness and in somnambulism. Some examples of 
 my experience may be worthy of a place here. When 
 several persons visited Miss Atzmannsdorfer, in som- 
 nambulism, she usually noticed no one save myself, and 
 her conduct was such that there was reason to believe 
 she did not perceive the others at all. But if I asked 
 her who were with me, she would consider a little 
 while and then reply properly. It was evident that 
 she did not turn her attention to them until after I 
 asked and she then first recognized their presence.
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 219 
 
 This lady, as well as Misses Reichel, Girtler, Stur- 
 mann, and others would undertake at any time to 
 hunt me out, recognize me by feeling my person stand- 
 ing silent in the company, and they always succeeded. 
 In the beginning, before I knew much of these mat- 
 ters, I took up a little magnet in the dark chamber 
 and held it to my breast expecting that Miss Atz- 
 mannsdorfer would notice it and speak of it. But she 
 did not, and after a long delay I expressed my astonish- 
 ment. I did not then know that I had weakened its 
 light by placing "it near my breast ; my stomach, my 
 metallic buttons, my hands and fingers, all stronger 
 than the magnet, that unless her attention had been 
 particularly drawn to the little magnet she would 
 never have observed it. To satisfy my doubts I im- 
 mediately placed my hand on a single-leaved horse 
 shoe magnet with its armature on, and this she per- 
 ceived by its light. Many other remarkable instances 
 might be given to show that as in the normal con- 
 sciousness, so also in somnambulism and to a still 
 greater extent attention is necessary to perception. 
 But when they do give attention they often penetrate 
 to a depth and distance that astonish us. 
 
 161. Awaking from somnambulism. Here belong 
 the phenomena and the manner of awaking from som- 
 nambulism, wherein the high degree of clearness in 
 the sleepers consciousness becomes, if possible, still 
 more evident. 
 
 At first I thought nothing more singular or comical 
 than that the somnambulist should say that she wished 
 to awake, and would request me to wake her. Miss 
 Reichel often made such requests of me and my
 
 220 SOMNAMBULISM AND CEAMP 
 
 friends. And when the person, for instance my 
 daughter Ottone, did not know how to go to work, 
 there was no difficulty on that score, for Miss Reichel 
 would at once explain to her precisely what she should 
 do to effect the awakening. " Go to yonder drawer," 
 she would say, " there you will find a stone wrapped 
 up in a paper ; hold it in your left hand, make eight 
 passes with it from my breast to my eyes, then four 
 passes sidewise from my eyes to the temples, and I 
 shall awake." This was done, and the sleeper, called 
 back to normal consciousness by the soretic influence 
 of these passes, opened her eyes and often was aston- 
 ished at the position in which she might find herself. 
 
 162. Miss Atzmannsdorfer and her linen, Miss 
 Atzmannsdorfer had ordered some linen garments to 
 be made for her own use, and they were brought to 
 the house at a time when she was somnambulic and 
 holding a lively conversation with me. I had the sew- 
 ing given to her. She expressed much joy at its receipt, 
 but had scarcely looked through it before she said 
 " I must be awake to examine these things ; wake me 
 up ; do wake me." I did so immediately by means of 
 upward passes and then it was necessary that she 
 should be told over again that the seamstress had 
 come with sewing ; for she had not the remotest recol- 
 lection of what had happened while she was somnam- 
 bulic. It was therefore for the purpose of being able 
 to see her work more clearly that she had anxiously 
 desired to be awakened. She was perfectly conscious 
 that she was asleep, and she knew from experience 
 that her sensuous perception of her linen would not 
 be so distinct and accurate in that condition, as in the
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OF SOMNAMBULISTS. 221 
 
 normal waking state. It is scarcely possible that a 
 case should occur more significant of the spiritual con- 
 dition of somnambulism. I have wakened Miss Kru- 
 ger and Miss Blahusch several times in one day at 
 their request. Mrs. Lederer would say " It is now 
 time for me to go home ; I must now be awakened," 
 and as she said so it was done. Her consciousness 
 had continued clear and kept measure of the time. 
 On one of these occasions Mrs. Lederer wished to 
 show what various conditions her somnambulism would 
 offer, and she would pass from one to another in the 
 course of awakening. In fact I saw her then while re- 
 ceiving twenty-five upward passes from her physician, 
 pass through four clearly distinct conditions. But 
 very clear consciousness, and definite knowledge of 
 her disease were necessary to enable her to point out 
 to me the various stages of its development as if it 
 were the rolling of machinery. At another time, with- 
 out any previous conversation in regard to the matter, 
 I wished to try whether I could awaken Mrs. Lederer 
 by placing myself silently behind her chair. Our like 
 sides were thus brought opposite to each other, and 
 from this I expected she would be awakened. But she 
 perceived my purpose and would not permit me to stay 
 there, saying it would wake her up. She was thus 
 clearly conscious of what I was doing, and what in- 
 fluence I would have upon her, and drew her inferences 
 there from. Miss Kynast also demanded to be waked 
 up by me in the dark chamber. Miss Atzmanns- 
 dorfer, when somnambulic, instructed my daughter 
 Ottone in the art of awakening her in my absence ; 
 she should make passes over her eyes and temples as 
 is customary. It often happened that Miss Atzmanns-
 
 222 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 dorfer announced to me the near approach of her 
 spontaneous wakening. She was minutely conscious 
 of the course of events within herself, as they ripened 
 at the ending of somnambulism. She would say : " I 
 will soon awake ; I feel it already in my stomach ; now 
 it is on my breast ; now it is on my neck, and when it 
 comes into my head I shall be awake ;" and after the 
 lapse of half a minute she really did wake up. Miss 
 Zinkel often requested me to wake her up, but some- 
 times, when I wished to do so, she would declare it 
 premature and hurtful, request me to abstain, and bid 
 me to wait quietly until she should wake up sponta- 
 neously. This same lady, who of late has had only 
 short attacks of sleepwaking, has minutely described 
 to me her sensations in waking from weak somnambu- 
 lism. A few double passes, given her at her own re- 
 quest, brought her to a dim consciousness, a kind of 
 halfway position between sleep and waking, as describ- 
 ed in Chapter First. Every succeeding pass in- 
 creased the clearness of her consciousness, and finally 
 she became fully awake, with open eyes ; but even then, 
 for about half a minute, her head is giddy. I have 
 often observed this giddiness, not only in Miss Zinkel, 
 but also in Miss Krueger, who never noticed me imme- 
 diately, on awakening, but always rubbed her eyes for 
 a long time ; looked with an air of discontent upon 
 the dark, dim world f and came to herself only by de- 
 grees. Mrs. Lederer, Misses Reichel, Atzmannsdorfer, 
 Beyer, and others acted in the same manner aftei 
 awaking from somnambulism. 
 
 163. The clear consciousness of somnambulism. 
 
 All these examples and observations show that persons
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OP SOMNAMBULISTS. 223 
 
 in somnambulism may have a high spiritual clearness 
 and as complete a consciousness of their condition as 
 when normally awake ; and they further bring to light 
 the new psychological fact that in somnambulism there 
 is a kind of education, as in the mental development 
 from childhood to manhood. A neophyte somnambu- 
 list does not understand his relations to himself and 
 the world, as we saw in the case of Miss Zinkel, who 
 was confused about herself; she was a somnambulic 
 child, but after the condition has often returned, these 
 ideas having often recurred, having strengthened them- 
 selves by union with other like ideas, and having 
 gained room in the soul and height in consciousness, 
 they continue to grow clearer, abstract conceptions 
 are formed, the reason forms judgments and draws 
 conclusions, and the somnambulist is no longer a 
 dreamer, but a thoughtful man in the state of sleep. 
 
 Sleep therefore, as a physiological change of our 
 general life, does not prevent the full use of our think- 
 ing powers, as the old psychology ventured to assert. 
 
 164. Somnambulism differs from common sleep 
 only in profoundness* The question now presses itself 
 upon us, why it is not the same in common normal 
 sleep. The investigation has not yet advanced far 
 enough to answer this question. But this much seems 
 probable, that the cause is to be found in the inferior 
 depth of common sleep. When the senses or the ima- 
 gination are strongly influenced by external irritants 
 or lively conceptions we awake from common sleep ; 
 and for this reason, none of our conceptions can reach 
 such an exaltation or strength as would suffice to in- 
 ducG us to act. In somnanibulic sleep, on the contrary,
 
 224 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 the strongest external irritations, cuts, burns, and 
 noises, do not suffice to awaken the sleeper ; he is so 
 deep that the liveliest thoughts do not interrupt him ; 
 lively mental excitements can therefore arise ; he can 
 sustain them, and their strength may induce him to 
 speak and act without breaking his sleep. Somnam- 
 bulism, therefore, appears, in its physiological as well 
 as its psychical aspects, only as a deeper kind of sleep, 
 and from this greater depth all the somnambulic phe- 
 nomena hitherto observed may be sufficiently explained. 
 
 165. Thouingi When I repeated to Miss Beyer 
 in her normal state the words which she had spoken 
 to me the previous day in somnambulism, and she 
 heard that she had thoued me, she blushed. At the 
 time of our first acquaintance she was almost entirely 
 ignorant of her condition in sleep-waking, and she was 
 not aware that she addressed everybody as thou. But 
 all somnambulists with few exceptions do this. Lady 
 Baroness von Seckendorf said to me immediately 
 when I had made a pass over her right hand with a 
 like crystal pole, " thou hast lamed my arm." Mr. 
 Krebs, Mrs. Kienesberger, Misses Weigand, Sturmann, 
 Nowotny, Kynast, Kruger, Dorfer, Reichel, Zinke], 
 Atzmannsdorfer and Blahusch, and Friedrich Weidlich 
 said " thou" to everybody when sleeping. Miss Girtler 
 did the same, making a formal apology for it. Mrs. 
 Lederer was the only distinct exception : she said : 
 " you" [Sie in German] to her physician and myself. 
 But her physician told me that sometimes previously 
 when he attended her, she had thoued him. The 
 " you" which she used was therefore the result of a 
 spiritual education in somnambulism after long expe-
 
 MENTAL CONDITIONS OP SOMNAMBULISTS. 225 
 
 rience : when I first saw her, she had outgrown som- 
 nambulic childhood wherein everybody is thoued, and 
 had developed herself to the conventional language 
 of " you." Miss Winter had at times peculiar condi- 
 tions of somnambulism in which she would address 
 other persons with " you." But Mrs. Joanna An- 
 schuetz in the same conditions always said " thou" to me. 
 The thouing in sleep-waking belongs in the classes 
 of all those phenomena, in consequence of which the 
 somnambulists, like the sensitives generally, in their 
 whole physiological bearing, stand some steps closer 
 to nature than non-sensitives, or rather are not so far 
 removed from it. This close relationship to nature 
 again coincides with the depth of somnambulic sleep, 
 in which the sensitives are farther removed from ordi- 
 nary life than ever occurs in other circumstances. 
 
 10*
 
 226 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 166. Recollection of occurrences during sleep- 
 waking, Max Krueger, Misses Kynast, Reichel, Bla- 
 husch, Nowotny, Beyer, Atzmannsdorfer, and Zinkel, 
 Mrs. Lederer, Mrs. Krebs, Friedrich Weidlich and 
 many others, after awaking, had not the slightest re- 
 collection of anything that occurred to them during 
 sornnambulic sleep. When they awoke while engaged 
 in speaking or acting, they had not the slightest idea 
 from memory of what they had just been saying or 
 doing. This is the rule with all somnambulists, and 
 hence the common belief that no one preserves any 
 recollection in his normal condition, of his ideas and 
 doings in sleepwaking. 
 
 But on close examination I have not found this to 
 be universally true. Mrs. Kienesberger told me on 
 one occasion that a short time previously, when som- 
 nambulic, a number of people had stood about her and 
 had spoken to her about many things ; she awoke and 
 was astonished to find so large a company about her. 
 She then told them the dream which she had had, and 
 this supposed dream was nothing more than the dim 
 recollection of the events which had just been really 
 occurring in the room. I observed something similar 
 in Miss Krueger. While she was recovering from the 
 drowsiness of the sleep, she said it appeared to her as
 
 STATE OP THE MEMOBY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 227 
 
 though she had been in the garden among the flowers. 
 I questioned her and she told me she had a dream, 
 the particulars of which as she stated them, were a 
 mere repetition of our conversations while she was 
 somnambulic. Immediately after waking from som- 
 nambulism Miss Zinkel told me a dream she had had ; 
 it was nothing more than the conversation I had just 
 had with her. But at the end of a quarter of an hour, 
 when I wished to speak about it again, she had for- 
 gotten it entirely ; she no longer remembered a word 
 of her dream. These last cases are precisely like 
 those which happened to non-sensitives wakened in 
 the midst of normal sleep ; immediately after a waken- 
 ing we remember the last fleeting dream-pictures, but 
 at the end of a few minutes they have entirely escaped. 
 The recollection of the ideas excited in the dream 
 are strong enough to be sometimes remembered when 
 awake, but they are not strong enough to get a firm 
 hold on the mind and they are soon forgotten, like 
 many other events occurring to us while awake but 
 not observed attentively. On the other hand I noticed 
 in my long intercourse with Miss Atzmannsdorfer that 
 though she never remembered immediately after wak- 
 ing, what had passed in somnambulism, yet afterwards 
 a dream-like recollection would arise when similar 
 events occurred to develop the association in her 
 mind. If I showed her when awake a scientific in- 
 strument, which I used in experimenting with her in 
 somnambulism, she would say it appeared to her as 
 though she had seen that instrument before, Mrs. 
 Lederer would speak still more distinctly in such 
 cases. She had often observed that though on awak- 
 ening she knew nothing that had passed in somnam-
 
 228 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 bulism, yet afterwards a partial recollection of the 
 events would arise in her mind. 
 
 167. Different states of Miss Girtler's memory. 
 
 The somnambulic sleeps of Miss Girtler are peculiar. 
 They are irregular in duration, and after waking, two 
 conditions are perceptible : one in which she remem- 
 bers nothing that happened while she was asleep ; the 
 other in which she remembers everything as though 
 she had been normally awake. The first condition is 
 evidently that of most somnambulists ; the last she 
 considers to be a still higher spiritual state. I regret 
 that I have not had an opportunity to study the inte- 
 resting difference more thoroughly, and must content 
 myself now with merely recording the fact here, so 
 that it might not be lost for future investigation in 
 consequence of its rarity. 
 
 168. Memory better in somnambulism than in nor- 
 mal consciousness, The consideration of the state of 
 the memory during sleepwaking itself, is a point of 
 much psychological interest. Every somnambulist 
 recollects all the records of his memory as clearly as 
 if he were awake, yes, he recollects them much more 
 clearly than when awake. What he once knew and 
 had forgotten he remembers in somnambulism. It is 
 known that somnambulists speak tongues which they 
 do not understand when awake and if a close investi- 
 gation be made for the source of their knowledge, it 
 will be found that they knew these tongues in early 
 years, but had forgotten them in the course of time 
 for the want of practice, and it was supposed that 
 nothing remained of them in the memory. But the
 
 STATE OP THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 229 
 
 traces of these languages, though lost to the normal 
 memory, still remained in the mind, and somnambulism 
 was powerful enough to raise them again to clear 
 consciousness, to give them for a short time their lost 
 freshness, to fill them with a new glow. From this it 
 seems probable that the somnambulic sleep has a better 
 memory than normal waking. But we find something 
 just like this in common normal dreaming ; for instance, 
 I cannot call back clearly to my memory the features 
 of my deceased wife, who died about twenty years 
 ago, no matter how much I strive to do so. But when 
 I think of her in dreams her picture reappears before 
 me, and I perceive it so distinctly that all the expres- 
 sions of her fine features are visible to me in all their 
 loveliness. My memory, therefore, is sharper and 
 stronger in dream than in waking, and therefore this 
 quality belongs not to somnambulic dreaming alone, 
 but to all dreaming. It rests, as is known, upon noth- 
 ing else than the absence of all influences that might 
 disturb the memory by the numerous sensuous impres- 
 sions filling our minds constantly in ordinary life, and 
 preventing us from going down to the dephts of our 
 consciousness. The exclusion of these impressions 
 gives other ideas more force to the sleepwaker and to 
 the ordinary dreamer, and hence their more acute 
 memory. 
 
 169. The ideas of one somnambulic fit followed 
 up in the next. Another remarkable quality of som- 
 nambulism is, that the sleepwaker, though he has little 
 or no recollection in his normal state of what he 
 thought, did, and perceived when somnambulic, yet 
 has not forgotten ; for all somnambulists have a elear
 
 230 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 recollection, while in their abnormal condition, of all 
 that they ever did, or mentally perceived in that state ; 
 and, in one fit they follow up the labors and trains of 
 ideas broken off by the end of the previous fit. 
 Miss Nowotny found in her writing desk a knit purse 
 not quite finished, but so far done that she must have 
 spent several nights working at it. When normally 
 awake she knew nothing at all about the origin of the 
 purse, save by inference ; she found it lying in her 
 locked writing-desk, after she had been bed-ridden for 
 some time with illness ; she must have worked at it 
 regularly night after night in somnambulism with a 
 definite plan. When I spoke with Misses Reichel, 
 Atzmannsdorfer, and Kynast, in somnambulism, they 
 always knew exactly what they had done in previous 
 fits of sleep-waking, what experiments had been made, 
 and who had taken part in them. Miss Zinkel, when 
 somnambulic, had warned me of dangers threatening 
 my life, to be plotted by my enemies in 1853, and 
 every time she was somnambulic she came back upon 
 these dangers with great earnestness, and always re- 
 ferred to what she had said on previous occasions. 
 I often observed in Misses Beyer and Sturmann also, 
 that when they became somnambulic, they took up the 
 thread of thought broken by waking from the previous 
 sleep. Since, persons in somnambulism remember at 
 the same time, all they have done in the normal con- 
 dition, therefore, they possess a richer memory than 
 when awake. 
 
 But here, too, sleepwaking shows an analogy with 
 ordinary sleep, for it is well known that there are 
 many men who spin out their dreams from night to 
 night and yet know nothing of them when awake.
 
 STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 231 
 
 170. Main facts about somnambulic memory. 
 
 We have now arrived at the following results : 
 
 1. The sleepwaker recottects everything which occur- 
 red to him ivhile awake, as weU as in previous Jits of 
 somnambulism. 
 
 2. The memory is sJiarpened and exalted during 
 sleepwaking, so that knowledge, once possessed, but for- 
 gotten when awake, such as language, is recollected. 
 
 3. After awaking, all this recollection is ordinarily 
 lost again, and even the events occurring during the som- 
 nambulic Jit, are forgotten. Sometimes there is a faint 
 recollection for a few minutes after awaking ; sometimes, 
 also, a dim impression remains in the mind for a long 
 time. 
 
 4. Somnambulism is not always the same, but con- 
 tains many different and not yet investigated conditions, 
 one of which, rarely occurring, leaves a full recollection 
 in the mind after waking, of aU that happened while 
 the abnormal sleep lasted. 
 
 5. Somnambulism and ordinary sleep have some pe- 
 culiar qualities in common, namely, that after waking, 
 faint, siviftly disappearing recollections of dreamings 
 remain ; that in those conditions the mind remembers 
 impressions partly or entirely forgotten when awake, 
 and that the sleeper remembers trains of thought com- 
 menced in previons dreams, and continues iofoUow them 
 up, though he knows nothing of them when awake. 
 
 6. Somnambulism is a true sleep, but deeper than 
 ordinary sleep. Its greater depth furnishes the expla- 
 nation for most of its peculiarities, which explanation is 
 simple, clear and consistent ivith established principles 
 of psychology.
 
 232 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 171. Uprightness and vanity. Somnambulists are 
 extremely sensitive to distrust of their honesty and 
 doubt of the truth of their statements. When per- 
 sons show that they are suspicious that the sleep- 
 waker is trying to deceive them, there is usually an 
 end to experiments. The somnambulist hates those 
 who thus offend him, will have nothing more to do 
 with them, and is unwilling to work with them. The 
 somnambulic peculiarities of Miss Girtler brought a 
 number of inquisitive friends to see her. When she 
 learned that some of them suspected her conduct of 
 being deceitful, she absolutely refused to admit any 
 more visitors ; her father had to close the door against 
 every one, and her physician with difficulty obtained 
 permission for me to see her. I have known many 
 similar examples. On the other side I have always 
 found them as sensitive to the least dishonesty 
 practiced upon them by other persons. An active, 
 easily offended sense for honesty and morality, more 
 exalted than that ordinarily found in the world, al- 
 ways governs them. We have seen that Miss Zinkel, 
 in somnambulism, disapproved so much of an insignifi- 
 cant violation of uprightness in her normal state, that 
 she complained to me of herself. But if we should 
 conclude from this that the somnambulists are all thus, 
 and that none have been ruined by fate, we should 
 commit an error on the other side. I have indeed 
 known some somnambulists who did not hesitate to 
 openly say what they knew to be false ; but I have 
 not mentioned their names in this treatise, and I have 
 generally avoided them. /They, however, were false 
 only when dishonest physicians led them on to fortune- 
 telling and to medical quackery, when they had to
 
 STATE OF THE MEMORY IN SOMNAMBULISM. 233 
 
 avail themselves of the stupidity of others who were 
 to be used as tools or dupes v 
 
 Women do not give up their innocent little vanities 
 in somnambulism. Miss Atzmannsdorfer knew that 
 I disliked all nightcaps. Scarcely had she learned my 
 taste in this matter when I observed, that if I surprised 
 her lying ill and somnambulic in bed her first act was 
 always to tear off her nightcap hurriedly, and hide it 
 before me under the bed so that I should not see her 
 in it. Miss Girtler, in sleepwaking, was always care- 
 ful to keep her long and beautiful hair in good order. 
 On one occasion this same lady, while somnambulic, 
 spoke with much interest of the ceremonies of the 
 approaching Corpus Christi day, which she wished to 
 attend and she was full of curiosity about the new 
 and beautiful bonnet she was to receive that day from 
 the mantua-maker. The conduct of Lady Baroness 
 von Seckendorf was more studied in sleepwaking 
 than when normally awake. Misses Beyer, Weigand, 
 Reichel and Sturmann all spoke purer German in som- 
 nambulism ; and Miss Weigand spoke with studied 
 pathos. This other little things showed the natural 
 womanly desire, in somnambulism, to please. 
 
 Vanity is always a little liar ; it leads us to claim 
 merits to which we are only half entitled. But while 
 it gives us a new evidence of the clearness of con- 
 sciousness in sleepwaking, it also shows us that som- 
 nambulism, although doing homage to a higher up- 
 rightness on one side, is not entirely free, on the other, 
 from the weaknesses of selfishness and untruth.
 
 234 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 THE NATURE OP SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 172. Co-existent negative and positive od, We 
 
 have seen (in chapter in) that somnambulism is an od- 
 negative, and cramp an od-positive condition. We 
 then drew the conclusion that two states so diametri- 
 cally opposite to each other, could co-exist simulta- 
 neously in our organism only by virtue of the fact, 
 that the positive and negative forms of od may meet 
 without destroying or neutralizing each other. That 
 this actually is the case, I have clearly shown in many 
 places: And that this may and often is the case in 
 the human body, is abundantly shown by the somnam- 
 bulic phenomena which I have recorded one after 
 another. 
 
 Common sleep begins by the abandonment of all 
 mental activity, with a quiet forgetting of everything 
 that occupied the attention and activity of the mind 
 through the day. The spiritual animal life ceases, and 
 its place is occupied by the unconscious negative. The 
 forward part of the brain sinks into rest. If the 
 mind is filled with care, anxiety, misery, sorrow, anger, 
 love, or any mental activity, sleep is driven away ; 
 the irritated cerebrum refuses to go to rest ; the spirit- 
 ual activity will not give place to the vegetative, and
 
 THE NATURE OP SOMNAMBULISM. 235 
 
 sleep is impossible. This often happens among non- 
 sensitives, and we must expect to find it much oftener 
 among the more susceptible and irritable sensitives. 
 
 Even in ordinary sleep the sensuous perception is 
 benumbed ; sight is gone entirely ; the hearing is dull, 
 slight irritations of the senses are not noticed. Many 
 people sleep so firmly that they must be well shaken 
 before they will awake. In somnambulism the senses 
 are still more benumbed. Sleepwakers may be pinch- 
 ed, cut, beaten with rods, (of which I have given 
 many examples from my own experience) burned, their 
 limbs may be amputated, even their breasts cut off and 
 they will not awake. It follows that somnambulism 
 is a firmer, deeper sleep than the deepest ordinary 
 sleep. The higher the sensitiveness of the sleepwaker 
 is, the more difficult, even to impossibility, is it to 
 awaken him by sensuous irritations. High sensitives 
 sleep so very deeply, particularly when passes have 
 been made over them in sleep, that as Misses Reichel, 
 Zinkel, and Krueger said, it was impossible to wake 
 them through the senses. 
 
 173. Soretic influences treasured up in the neme- 
 tic statet But we know how to awaken somnambulists 
 easily namely, by soretic treatment with upward 
 passes towards the nervous centre. They awake 
 readily when the sensitiveness is low ; even a single 
 pass may suffice. It is different with demi-and high- 
 sensitives. Repeated passes may fail to awaken them, 
 especially if they have not slept long. Miss Reichel 
 required from eight to fifteen passes to awaken her. 
 I had often to give Miss Beyer from twelve to sixteen 
 passes before she awoke. Miss Atzmannsdorfer never
 
 236 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 awoke until she had fifteen or twenty passes. I saw 
 Miss Lederer receive about thirty passes before wak- 
 ing. It follows that the influence of all these upward 
 passes given before waking, was preserved in the 
 brain, although the person was not yet awake. While, 
 therefore, the somnambulist's condition, on one side, 
 under certain negative influences, was nemetic, her 
 condition, on the other side, derived from the passes, 
 was soretic, both existing together in full somnambu- 
 lism. We therefore discover here the important fact 
 that, in a sensitive and somnambulic person, both con- 
 ditions can exist together that which creates som- 
 nambulism and that which induces cramp, the nemetic 
 and soretic, the od-negative and the od-positive. 
 
 174. Why sleepwalkers clamber out on roofs, 
 
 This furnishes us, then, with a key to the explanation 
 of the most complex phenomena of somnambulism. I 
 shall refer to a few of them. A sensitive person often 
 became somnambulic, but remained in her bed. Sud- 
 denly it was observed that she arose, went out of the 
 window, and took dangerous walks on the cornice of 
 the house. This was Miss Sturmann, in Ferdinand- 
 street, Vienna. So with Lady Baroness von Natorp ; 
 she remained constantly in her chamber, but unex- 
 pectedly her night gown was found in the hall. The 
 members of the Rainer family were uneasy every night 
 at certain hours. What kind of times were these for 
 all these sensitives ? It was when the full moon and 
 its od-positive rays influenced them and made them 
 active. While they were in a predominating od-nega- 
 tive condition, the moonshine had an od-positive effect 
 upon the whole house and its occupants. The influence
 
 THE NATURE OF SOMNAMBULISM. 237 
 
 upon the somnambulists was not strong enough to 
 disturb them. Affected by the light fine od-positive 
 influences, their brains were excited to activity. They 
 arose from their beds, and since their condition was 
 mainly od-negative, and the moon's rays od-positive, 
 the sensation was agreeable, and hence the untameable 
 longing of somnambulists to get into the full glare of 
 the moonshine ; hence also the singular clambering 
 upon roofs, which has no other purpose than to get 
 where the moon's rays will strike the sleeper without 
 obstruction, and where the light can also be seen on 
 surrounding objects. Miss Sturmann when somnam- 
 bulic, said to Professor Lippich, with a kind of delight, 
 that moonshine was an enjoyment, too deep to be 
 described by any words. We laughed at the singular 
 earnestness of the sleeper, because we did not then 
 (July 1844) understand the meaning of her expressions ; 
 but their profound meaning is now as intelligible 
 for all. 
 
 175. Weak soretic irritations causing activity, 
 Weak od-positive or soretic irritations excite the sen- 
 sitives, as I have shown. When Misses Blahusch, 
 Atzmannsdorfer, Hupp, and others began to get drowsy 
 in my dark chamber, a single upward pass sufficed to 
 drive away their somnolency. But if I gave them 
 more passes than were necessary to keep them awake, 
 I created a feeling of uneasiness, headache, stomach- 
 ache, uncomfortable warmth, and finally cramps. 
 Similar sensations are made when upward passes are 
 made over a somnambulic sensitive, as when he is 
 exposed to any od-positive influences. In simple 
 somnambulism he sleeps quietly ; but when weak or
 
 238 SOMNAMBULISM AND CRAMP. 
 
 moderate od-positive and soretic influences affect him, 
 they do not wake him up ; his sleep is so deep that as 
 sensuous irritations will not awaken him, so neither 
 will slight odic irritations. He sleeps, but not soundly. 
 As a healthy man with an overladen stomach sleeps, 
 though in a restless manner, so a sensitive in somnam- 
 bulism continues to sleep, but uneasily when moderate 
 soretic influences are at work on him. He begins to 
 speak, arises from his bed, walks about, and now bo- 
 comes a sleepwaker. This restlessness may be induced 
 by causes apparently the most insignificant, such as 
 lying with the head to the west ; the proximity of a 
 wall to the back of a sleeper lying on his right side ; 
 the proximity of a stove ; a persistent southwest wind ; 
 the light of the full moon ; a dog or cat lying near the 
 feet ; a large looking glass ; a piano, and a thousand 
 other little circumstances of which nobody thinks in 
 ordinary life. They excite the od-negative somnam- 
 bulist positively, and incite him to activity without 
 breaking his deep sleep. Mental excitements operate 
 in the same manner. A somnambulist while asleep 
 creates ideas ; if his mind fixes itself on care, anxiety, 
 danger, desires, or passions, the corresponding 
 thoughts arise in his mind and exercise an od-posi- 
 tive influence on his brain, as I have hitherto ex- 
 plained. Every mental agitation arising in the brain 
 operates upon it like an upward pass ; it does not 
 wake him up, but impels him to action, which then 
 takes place if the sleep be not broken. The som- 
 nambulists work, talk, laugh, weep, write love-letters 
 and poems, send for physicians, walk out on roofs, go 
 out barefoot into the snow ; their external senses 
 arc totally without feeling ; sleep holds them captive ;
 
 THE NATURE OP SOMNAMBULISM. 239 
 
 the spiritual activity has received their impressions 
 and occupied their place. 
 
 176. Conclusion, We now come to the follow- 
 ing conclusion : 
 
 Somnambulism may be separated into two formal, 
 different but coexistent, and combined conditions. It is 
 not a simple affection ; it is not an independent disease, 
 to which an immediate curative treatment can be applied; 
 but it is a complicated abnormal phenomenon ; its deepest 
 foundation is sensitiveness, without which there can be 
 no sleepwaking . It is, therefore, born with the 
 possessor, and is awakened and exalted by various 
 accidental psychical and moral disturbances of 
 health. In its proper nature, it is od-negative 
 combined more or less with od-posstive soretic exter- 
 nal or internal influences; it is a mixed od-negative 
 and od-positive condition of the nervous system.

 
 TRANSLATOR'S APPF.XDIX, 
 
 4^*5% 
 
 <, r^j 
 
 /Q? 
 
 '03
 
 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX, 
 
 THE following extracts from various author?, confir- 
 matory of Reichenbach's statements and theory may be 
 not uninteresting to the reader : 
 
 " However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all ra- 
 tional doubt that in certain abnormal states of the nervous 
 organism, perceptions are possible through other than the 
 ordinary channels of sense." Sir William Htimillou. 
 
 "The most cautious philosopher has no right absolutely 
 to reject facts thus attested, because he cannot see their 
 explanation; and above all, he has no right to brand the 
 witness with the charge of deceit or imposture, without full 
 and careful inquiry. If he will not or cannot investigate, let 
 him, in decency, be silent." Prof. Wm. Gregory ~- Leitcrs on 
 Mesmerism Let . XIII, p. 14. 
 
 " It is a very obvious principle, although often forgotten 
 in the pride of prejudice and of controversy, that what has 
 been seen by one pair of human eyes is of force to counter- 
 vail all that has been reasoned or guessed at by a thousand 
 human understandings." Tims. Chalmers. 
 
 " We stand before the dawning of a new day for science, 
 a new discovery, surpassing any that has hitherto been 
 made, which promises to afford us a key to some of the most 
 recondite secrets of nature, and thus to open up to our view 
 a new world." Hvf eland. 
 
 "Unalarmed by the apparent strangeness and incongruity 
 of the phenomena to be investigated, we should call to mind 
 how frequently appearances of external nature, puzzling at 
 first sight and seemingly irreconcilable with each other, have
 
 244 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 
 
 all been solved and harmonized by a reference to some one 
 pervading principle, and should thus be led to surmise that 
 the irregularity and variations of the Mesmeric world may 
 be found, upon mature observation, less inexplicable than a 
 careless spectator could imagine." Rev. C. H. Townshend. 
 " In every case the boldness and acuteness which lead a 
 man to take new views of a subject and to combat ancient 
 prejudices are in his favor. There is an innate consciousness 
 attendant on correct observation, which upholds him and 
 encourages him to war with the world. The sadden light 
 that has struck him is like a light from heaven, and brings 
 conviction to his heart. His eyes are not deluded but shar- 
 pened by desire. No other person can have that intimate 
 zeal, that interest in the inquiry which urges him onward, 
 His all is at stake, and consequently no one is so strict with 
 him as he is with himself. Who can compare the cursory 
 and partial views of the great body of mankind with his ? 
 We may call him a visionary or a heretic, but remembering 
 the slow but certain triumph of Harvey and Galileo, we 
 should be cautious how we brand him with epithets which 
 may recoil upon ourselves." Townshend, Book 1, sec. 2. 
 
 " When we know that there is a medium permeating in 
 one or other of its forms, all substances whatever, and that 
 this medium is eminently capable of exciting sensations of 
 light, when we take this in conjunction with a heightened 
 sensibility in the percipient person, rendering him aware of 
 impulses whereof we are not cognizant, we are no longer 
 inclined to deny a fact or suppose a miracle." Ib. III. 4. 
 
 " 'Is not vision,' as Newton says, 'performed chiefly through 
 the vibrations of this medium, excited in the bottom of the 
 eye by the rays of light, and propagated through solid, pel- 
 lucid and uniform capillamenta of the optic nerves into the 
 place of sensation. And is not hearing performed by the 
 vibrations of this or of some other medium, excited in thf 
 auditory nerves by the tremors of the air, and propagate I
 
 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 245 
 
 throngh the solid pellucid and uniform capillamenta of those 
 nerves into the place of sensation ? And so of the other sen- 
 ses.' Admit this, and the mysteries of sensation in sleep- 
 waking stand revealed. When once we see clearly (and see 
 we must, if we consider nature aright,) that the communica- 
 tion between all portions of the univers is continuous and 
 incapable of interruption that there is a pervading medium 
 filling all things, permeating all the extended sphere of 
 mesmeric faculties appears no longer miraculous." Ib. Ill, 4. 
 
 " Productive of the effects called mesmeric, there is an 
 action of matter as distinct as that of light, heat or elec- 
 tricity, or any other of the 'imponderable agents,' as they 
 are called." Ib. IV. 
 
 " It seems to me there is every reason to believe that the 
 principle of mesmeric action is a disturbance of equilibrium, 
 and that the mechanical effects may be explained by differ- 
 ences of positive and negative, of plan and minds, in the 
 mesmerizer and the patient." Ib. IV. 
 
 "E. A." one of Townshend's mesmeric subjects, who per- 
 ceived things by the forehead, would occasionally receive 
 information relative to external objects by the back of his 
 head, the side or the top ; but he seldom did this spontan- 
 eously, and would id ways say it was a great effort and did 
 him harm. Ib. Ill, 3. 
 
 ' Anna M.' 1 was very sensitive to any touch on her fore- 
 head, though apparently dead to feeling elsewhere. Ib. 
 
 " Ammonia at her nose had no effect, but placed to her 
 forehead made her draw back with affected respiration, and 
 moreover exhibit action in the muscles of the nose, which 
 last circumstance more especially adds to the presumption 
 that the external impact, in all mesmeric cases, though be- 
 ginning at an unusual point, is finally transferred to the 
 accustomed nerves of sensation. " Ib. 
 
 A lady told C. H T. that when her daughter was in u 
 cataleptic fit she could hear only at the pit of her sio;ni."i;
 
 246 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 
 
 and once when her daughter standing in the middle of a 
 morning bath was taken with a fit, the mother called to her 
 in vain, till she held her mouth close to the water and called, 
 when she was roused from her catalepsy, as she usually was 
 when she was called so that she could hear. Ib. 
 
 "E. A." with his eyes shut was able to read the smallest 
 type. Ib. 
 
 "E. A." played a piece of music which he had never seen 
 before, from a book placed at some feet from him. 
 
 Once when mesmerized and led to a place where he had 
 never been, he described its features properly and the form 
 and position of the distant mountains. 
 
 His power of vision or perceiving objects which we perceive 
 only by vision, was strongest in his forehead, but appeared 
 to reside in all parts of his head. 
 
 When a set of colored eye-glasses were given to him, he 
 raised a blue one to his forehead and said, "everything looks 
 blue to me, 1 ' and he named the tints of the other glasses. 
 The eminent Dr. Foissac, of Paris, was witness on this oc- 
 casion. 
 
 E. A. had two thick towels over his head and reaching to 
 his hips, and still was able to read, holding the book opposite 
 his forehead. These towels impeded his power of vision 
 somewhat but he could still read. 
 
 He could tell a card hidden behind a book. 
 
 Sometimes I placed a card in a book with his finger in, 
 holding the book slightly open where the card was ; E. A. 
 told the card. If the book were closed he could not tell it. 
 
 Sometimes he said he could see through the book ; some- 
 times he said that he saw by vibrations of a medium which 
 could turn corners. Sometimes when he found it difficult to 
 tell a card he would ask to breath on it. 
 
 I was inclined to imagine that the whole nervous system 
 of E. A. shared something of the percipient faculty ni:mi- 
 fested more particularly in his head.
 
 TRANSLATOR'^ APPENDIX. 247 
 
 E. A. could read in perfect darkness after some practice ; 
 at first it was difficult. He liked to have hold of one of C. 
 H. T's hands or to have it on his forehead. He would also 
 beg him to breath on the thing to be seen. Ib. 
 
 " The concentration of mind in mesmerism is such as I 
 should imagine to be unattainable under any other condition: 
 all the bodily organs being, as it were, annulled, there are 
 none of those conflicting consciousnesses, which in actual life 
 destroy each other, like meeting waves in water. Whatever 
 source of perception mesmerized persons possess, appears 
 rather to consist in one sense than in many; in one sense 
 which can become each the others, so that he who exercises 
 it seems to become by turns, a hearing, seeing, or feeling 
 unity. 11 Ib. 
 
 E. A., when his eyes shut, in natural somnambulism, 
 would play pieces of music on his flute from the book, turn- 
 ing the pages over at the proper places, and he would do 
 this in the dark the music being pieces that he was unable 
 to play in his waking state without using the notes. Ib. 
 II.,Z. 
 
 Anna M. could hear a watch tick at her forehead, or at 
 her stomach, or at T.'t ear; but not at her own ear. Ib. 
 
 " It has appeared to me that the mesmerized possess sim- 
 ilar perceptions of sound apart from the natural sense of 
 hearing, and that they require certain conductors, in order 
 to make them apprehend a regular series of aerial vibrations. 
 Be it remarked, however, that the degrees of this isolation 
 from sounds, considered as sounds, depends on the itensity 
 of their mesmeric sleep ; for it should ever be kept in mind 
 that mesmeric sleep-waking has its shades and gradations, 
 varying from consciousness fully retained to its faintest twi- 
 light, or utter extinction." Ib. 2L, 3. 
 
 "The nerves of sensation in mesmeric patients are of them- 
 selves quite estranged from their usual modes of action ; and
 
 248 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 
 
 if the patient experiences sensation, it must be by some other 
 than the usual modes of nervous action. 11 2b. 
 
 Anna M. said: "In the mesmeric state I have only one 
 mode of knowing things ; and whether I see them, smell them 
 or feel them, it is all the same. Ib. 3. 
 
 The Seeress of Prevorst said, "I can find whatever I will 
 upon my plate with the spoon; I know well where it is; but 
 I cannot tell whether I see or feel it; and so with regard to 
 all other objects ; I know not whether I see or feel them." 
 
 " In the little I have seen, I have yet seen a patient walk 
 about with her eyes shut, and well blinded besides, holding 
 the knuckles of one hand before her as a seeing lantern. 11 
 Dr. Herman Mayo. 
 
 Dr. Mayo states that, "at his suggestion," he does not say 
 whether in his presence, presented cards to the new visual 
 organ of a young lady in a trance, not looking at the cards 
 himself, or knowing what they were till afterwards, and she 
 told them correctly. 
 
 Dr. Mayo relates, on the authority of a Mr. J. W. William- 
 son, of Wickham, several cases of persons entranced, who 
 could see with the back of the head and with the fingers. 
 
 Dr. Delpit, inspecting physician of the waters at Bareges, 
 states that a young lady of thirteen, was subject to being 
 entranced, and in that state could not see with her eyes, but 
 could read by placing her fingers on the letters. 
 
 Baron de Fortis records the case of a somnambulist ser- 
 vant-girl who waited at the table at Aix with her eyes shut, 
 and saw with her fingers, the palm of her hand and her el- 
 bow. 
 
 Dr. Mayo says that, in 1838, he saw in the possession of 
 Mr. Bultell, letters from an eminent provincial physician of 
 England, describing a person who was sometimes entranced, 
 and then her senses were not in the proper organs, but the 
 bit of the stomach, who could see objects at a distance, 
 through walls and houses, could read the thoughts of others
 
 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 249 
 
 far or near, could foresee future events, conld see her own 
 inside illuminated, and could tell what was wrong in the 
 health of others. Mr. Bultell examined this patient and bore 
 testimony to the wonderful character of her powers. 
 
 Dr. Petetin an eminent civil and military physician of 
 Lyons, in a inemoiral on catalepsy published about 1790, 
 records the case of a young married woman who fell into a 
 trance, and in that case could not hear at her ear, but heard 
 at the pit of the stomach, saw all through her body as if it 
 were transparent, without being told said that Petetin had 
 a headache and foretold truly its course and termination, 
 and discovered and read a letter which he had in his pocket. 
 
 Dr. Petetin also records the case of a young lady of Lyons 
 who, while in a trance, brought on by the firing of cannon, 
 saw him fighting to drive away the revolutionary tyrants, 
 and foretold the sad events of the 29th Sept., 7th and 8th 
 of October, 1790, and the cruel proscriptions issued by the 
 committee of Public Safety. 
 
 Dr. Petetin and Dr. Prost record the case of Madame de 
 Saint Paul, who was entranced and in that position saw 
 things passing at the distance of quarter of a mile (through 
 interposing walls and houses) and read the thoughts of per- 
 sons about her. 
 
 " Dr. Haddocks' clairvoyant subject in the magnetic sleep, 
 as I [Dr. Gregory] saw more than once, could see perfectly 
 what passed behind her, her eyes being closed; or anything 
 placed in such a position that had her eyes been open, she 
 could not have seen it : she could also see very often all that 
 passed outside of the door, and when I was there told us 
 how many servants of the hotel were listening at the door 
 in hopes of hearing wonders. She would also tell what was 
 doing in the room above or below her. In short she fre- 
 quently exhibited clairvoyance in every form, not only in 
 those just mentioned but also in that of seeing prints and 
 pictures shut up in boxes. Besides seeing various instances 
 
 11*
 
 250 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 
 
 of direct clairvoyance, I was able to satisfy my?clf that Dr. 
 Haddocks' experiments were made with the greatest car^ 
 and judgment: that he was particularly well acquainted with 
 the various causes of error and confusion, very careful to 
 avoid them, and that in short his accounts of such experi- 
 ments as I had not see-ri were entirely trustworthy." Pro- 
 fessor Wm. Gregory Part II. Case 44. 
 
 Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt (now Ritchi) was mesmerized 
 during illness. While mesmerized she was a clairvoyant. 
 She says: 
 
 " I was annoyed at being told thai I had spoken, done, 
 or written things of which I had no recollection. Numerous 
 poems were placed in my hands, which, I was informed, I 
 had improvised as rapidly as they could be taken down, the 
 subjects having been given haphazard, by any person present. 
 It was no particular gratification to be assured that 1 had 
 never produced anything as good before. Nor was it any 
 consolation to be told that in sleep-waking I was far more 
 sensible, more interesting and more amiable than in my or- 
 dinary state." 
 
 Her religious doctrines in the mesmeric state were those 
 of Swedenborg. 
 
 She could tell what her mesmerizer was eating. She could 
 read, write and work in the dark. She recognized objects 
 hidden in a handkerchief and held to her forehead. 
 
 She predicted correctly a severe illness which was to come 
 upon her after some days, and prescribed the treatment. 
 The attack was a congestion of the brain. Mrs. Mowalfs 
 Autobiography, Ch. IX. 
 
 Isabella D , when mesmerized, could hear words whis. 
 
 pered on the further end of a string fifteen yards lon^r, one 
 end of which she held in her hand. Lang on Mesmerism, 
 Ch. V. 
 
 The Chevalier Filippi, of Milan, doctor of medicine, and 
 a most determined opponent of mesmerism, has acknowledged
 
 251 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 
 
 to me that some of his patients, more particularly women 
 under their confinement, when suffering from nervons excite- 
 ment have distinguished the smallest objects in darkness 
 which appeared to him complete. Townshend III, 3. 
 
 Barth had a patient, E. S., a young girl, who could see 
 her whole body and its organs as if transparent or highly 
 translucent. See BartKs Mesmerist's Manual, Chapter on 
 Prevision. 
 
 "The sleep-walker sees colors in the dark, and that fact 
 is proof that the efficient cause of vision is the vibration of 
 another medium than light, and is not dependent on the an- 
 terior mechanism of the eye." C. H. T. 
 
 A young man who was thrown into mesmeric sleep in 
 three minutes on the first attempt, describes his feelings thus: 
 " The moment you pointed your fingers at me I felt uncom- 
 fortable. I dared not meet your gaze ; a sensation of heat, 
 resembling a stream of electricity, commenced at my forehead 
 and followed the course of your hands down to the pit of my 
 stomach. I could not open my eyes. I knew I was sitting 
 on a chair before yon, and the last idea in my mind before 
 falling fast asleep was this Shall I ever be allowed to rise 
 again." Esdailes, Note to Chap. VII. 
 
 When a magnet was held towards Anna M. she exhibited 
 convulsive movements in her hands When questioned in 
 regard to her sensations she replied, " I feel as if I were be- 
 ginning to be mesmerized, but not pleasantly: I feel cold." 
 Townshend //, 3. 
 
 "The effects which precious stones produce upon sleep- 
 walkers are also curious. In three cases where I had the 
 opportunity of making experiments of the kind, I found a 
 certain correspondence of sensation." Towns/tend: 
 
 "E. A." asserted that when mesmerized a vapor proceeded 
 from the magnetizer and seemed to penetrate and pervade 
 his frame. Townshend. 
 
 "It seems to me that irregularity iu the distribution of
 
 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 252 
 
 the nervous energy is at the bottom of all the mesmeric 
 symptoms, however produced, whether naturally or arti- 
 ficially; and I suspect the same effects may follow a state of 
 exhaustion or repletion of the nervous system. If I might 
 venture on so material an illustration, I should say that the 
 first effects produced in the system by mesmerism, may be 
 likened to a river rolled back upon its source by a heavier 
 body of water, stagnating in its channel and unable to re- 
 sume its natural course till the opposing tide subsides. 
 
 From all I have seen, I cannot but believe that there is 
 an influence of some kind that passes from one person to 
 another, when one of two persons is mesmerized in the way 
 I have described ; that in fact there is a virtual transfusion 
 of some vital agent from the one body into the other." Dr. 
 Esdaile. 
 
 " That [in the mesmeric trance] the nervous sensibility 
 has retreated from the surface and the organs of sense, is 
 evident to all observers, by the universal insensibility; and 
 the condition of the brain and muscular system would seem 
 to indicate that they labor under the effects of this revulsion. 
 The means, used to demesmerize particular organs and the 
 brain itself, appear to act by determining the nervous cur- 
 rents back to the surface, thereby relieving the deeper or- 
 gans from the load that oppressed them." Ib. 
 
 " That the mesmeric torpor of the nerves and brain does 
 not arise from sanguine congestion is often strikingly and 
 beautifully illustrated by the- actions of persons suddenly 
 awoke from the trance. They open their eyes wide, and at 
 the same moment their faculties are restored, but it is seen 
 that the pupil is dilated and insensible to light. This they 
 also immediately become aware of; they know that their 
 eyes are open, and that they ought to see, but do not. The 
 thought fills them with horror, and with a fearful cry they 
 bury their faces in their hands like persons struck by light-
 
 TRANSLATOR'S APPENDIX. 253 
 
 ning; but this soon passes off, and the retina recovers its 
 sensibility by a little rubbing of the eyes." Jb. 
 
 I think the power of somnambulism to bring back to 
 the memory, knowledge long lost to the normal conscious- 
 ness, cannot be sufficiently accounted for by the mere relief 
 of the mind from distracting sensuous impressions and' con- 
 flicting thoughts. A similar supernormal acuteness of memo- 
 ry has been observed in insanity, delirium, high fever, in 
 persons whose brains had been wounded, and in persons 
 under the influence of hasheesh, chloroform, &c. Several 
 gentlemen to whom very sudden and serious accidents have 
 happened, have told me that at the instant when death seem- 
 ed to be about to strike them, they saw every act of their 
 lives. In all these cases I imagine that there must be a 
 rush of blood to the brain, an increased mental activity. 
 May it not be that every impression ever made in the mind 
 is recorded on the fibres of the brain, and that those records 
 not often used finally get dusty and almost obliterated, and 
 that they can then only be read when illuminated by an 
 extraordinary flow of blood ? 
 
 J. S. H.
 
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