CATALEPTIC SLEEP.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1565, 23 May 1887, Page 3

CATALEPTIC SLEEP.

The sleeping Frenchman at the hotel m Soho is, (observes the " Dally Newe," a far more genuine sensation than any of tba fasting Italians who have lately exhibited their talent m going without their dinners, at so ranch a head. He, too, m a sense, sleeps for money, bat not for money taken at the doors. He has lOBt £32, how it is not exactly known, but apparently by foul play, and the anguish of it has brought on an old and wellknown nervous affection of which one of the symptoms ia a profound sleep. Ghauff»t, for that his is name, has been m a kind of trance for Dine dayj, and he may continue mit for weeks to come. It 1b not, even m semblance, a sleep of death, for the breathing m regular; but, at first, the ocoaslona) mntterlngs showed that it was, with slight exceptions, one long dream rf mental r.aln. He muttered about £30. about a cabman who robbed him, and whose number he knew; about a lady who was kind ; about his determination to commit suicide if he did not get his money back. The doctors do what they like with him. They lift his arm, and it remains quit; 3 stiff, m any ppaltioa m which it is plaoed : they make it fall limp on tha bed by gently stroking it with hia hand. They vie. their power over h'ra chit fly m administering nourishment; but, for this purpose, he has to be wakened by a beam of Ught of Intense brilliancy, directed upon his closed eyes. The eyes then open with a glassy stare, the patient leaves off muttering, takes his milk or beef tea, then instantly falls asleep again, and perhaps resumes his soliloquy about the lady, and the cabman, and the £32. Ono name his on h's lips, and it explains a good deal ; it is the ttime of Pr, CharcDt, the famous Parisian profesßor, who, with J)n. Brafd, has told us so much about the science of neuiypnology, or nerve sleep. Dr. Oharcot baa been communioated with, and has apparently recognised Ohanff ,t as one of the many cataleptio patients wboße affliction has been the study of his life.