Appendix “B” and “C” have been translated from the Latin by A. T.
Craig especially for use in “The Gift of Sleep.” They are of value
chiefly as showing the attitude of the ancients towards this natural
function.
Appendix “D” gives some provisional conclusions based on a
Questionnaire on Sleep. The returns are as yet incomplete.
APPENDIX A
The “Dictionary of Psychological Medicine” (1892), giving the
terms used in medical psychology with the symptoms, treatment, and
pathology of insanity. Two vols. Edited by D. Hack Tuke, M.D., LL.D.,
Examiner in Mental Psychology in the University of London; lecturer on
Psychological Medicine, etc., says:
LOSS OF SLEEP AS A CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE OF INSANITY: Insomnia is the
indication of a morbid condition. It is also, when prolonged, something
more. Loss of sleep may frequently be a cause, or one of several
causes, of mental disorder. To remove it is therefore of the greatest
consequence in the early treatment of the insane. _In a large number of
instances it is doubtless the consequence and not the cause of mental
trouble._ The agony of mind associated with melancholia, or the rapid
flow of ideas in acute mania, may render sleep an almost unattainable
boon, and in these cases it requires great discrimination to decide
when, if at all, to administer hypnotics. (P. 1173.)
REMEDIES KNOWN AS SOMNIFACIENTS, SOPORIFICS, HYPNOTICS, AND NARCOTICS:
At the outset we must put the question, Is there a distinction between
hypnotics and narcotics? Dujardin-Beaumetz answers in the affirmative.
He holds that for the drug to be hypnotic it must imitate the natural
condition of sleep by effecting a lowered intra-cranial pressure, and
that drugs which, though bringing about unconsciousness, do not lower
cerebral pressure, or which increase it, cannot claim to be hypnotics.
On this line he separates chloral as a hypnotic from opium as a
narcotic ... in the different forms of artificial or drugged sleep it
is probable that these two factors—quantity of blood, including blood
pressure, and quality of blood, do each play a part. (P. 1129.)
Medical science has been able so far to do little for sleeplessness,
except to call it “Insomnia.” INSOMNIA: Loss of sleep has been
classified under various heads by writers on wakefulness. Thus
German-Sée has made no less than nine divisions:
a—dolorous insomnia.
b—digestive.
c—cardiac and dyspnoeal insomnia.
d—cerebros-spinal, neurotic insomnia comprising lesions of encephalon,
general paralysis, acute and chronic mania, hysteria, hypochondriasis.
e—psychic insomnia (emotional and sensational).
f—insomnia of cerebral and physical fatigue.
g—genito-urinary insomnia.
h—febrile, infectious, autotoxic insomnia.
i—toxic insomnia (coffee, tea, alcohol).[10]
[10] Tuke’s “Dictionary of Psychological Medicine,” vol. i., p. 703.
Among the causes of insomnia those of a predisposing character are the
female sex, old age, nervous temperament, intellectual pursuits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account