A SLEEP-WALKING LADY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 298, 10 September 1908, Page 5

A SLEEP-WALKING LADY.

i\ <jL,ci3r rrnuivinu L,m/ii ' ■ ■ • ■■ The stories of what people have done when -talking in their sleep have a certain fascinajtion about them, since anyone might at any ■ ime take a fancy to go and do the same. Vhese are phenomenal adventures from which iO one can say positively that ho is safe, and the dullest pe'rson awake might have, the most exciting experiences when asleep,, might cross a raging torrent on a slender plank, as does the heroine of that most famous opera "La Somnambula," or might, charge across a railway track in the teeth of an oncoming engine. No one'knows what he'might-not do, and so all are interested in hearing what others have done. Tho "British Medical Journal" is the latest paper to publish such. a story, on the authority .of a doctor at the Birmingham General Hospital. The patient, a girl aged twenty-one,' a ■ teacher, typist, and student of music, was taken to the hospital for tho sake of observation. Dr. Russell whites:— "She came downstairs in tho middle of the night; she played the piano, tuned her violin, and put new strings on it. She sleeps quietly for the first few hours, but about 1.30 or 2 a.m. she gets rut of bed. ,On tho first occasion on which she found the door locked, on attempting to go. out of. the room, she went at orice to a table and wrote a letter in German, and then threw it away. "On other nights she takes books down " and reads them, studies harmony, and does , : crochet work, although the room is in darkness; and it is noticeable that, if there is >V faint light from tho gas, she takes her 'book or work to the window, and reads or crochets in .the darkest part of the room. "On tho last night of the present. series of attacks she wrote a short letter .to her music teacher, together with an essay, putting it-into an. envelope and addressing it correctly: — "'Sonataform is divided into three forms: —1. Introduction. 2. Development. 3. Recapitulation. (Here follow two lines crqssed out.) The introduction consists of two simple themes both written out shortly (? strictly) on the tonic. The development is sometimes very long, and in it both themes are worked out thoroughly at great length. The development is always written in tho Dominant. Recapitulation is a brief summary of tho whole piece, which is written again in tho Tonic. Some sonatas also, contain a short introductory theme, and snatches of this theme it will bo found are generally found running all through the sonata. A good instance is the Patbetique of Beethoven.' "This essay, as well as the accompanying letter, was written quite clearly in pencil, and was indited in tho dim light in which, in her waking state, she had previously been unable' to writo "with any degree of legibility." ■ ' ■ •