plant, about a foot and a half or two feet in height, with a flender ftem, and the branches proportionally weak and tender. The leaves are long, and fland fo clofe together that all on one branch may be confidered as a fingle leaf four or five inches in length, and ten lines in breadth; which being fubdivided into the other ftill fmaller, forms in each of them the true leaf, which is about four or five lines in length, and not quite one in breadth. On touching one of thefe fmall leaves, all of them immediately quit their horizontal pofition, and fly into a perpendicular direction, clofing their inward fuperficies, fo that thofe which before this fenfitive motion made two leaves, now feem as but one. The vulgar name of this plant at Cartha gena being improper to be mentioned here, we fall omit it; in other parts it is more decently called la vergonzofa, the bashful, and la doncella, the maiden. The common people imagine that this effect is caused by pronouncing its nanie at the inftant of the touch, and are amazed that a plant should have the wifdom of fhew. ing its obedience to what was order ed, or that it was too much affected by the injury offered it to conceal its refentment.

We afterwards met with this plant at Guayaquil, where the climate feems to be better adapted to it than that of Carthagena, for it is not only more common, but grows to three or four feet in height, the leaves and every part in proportion.

In the woods about Carthagena are found a great quantity of bejucos or willows, of a different magnitude,

figure, and colour, and fome of the ftems flat. One fpecies is particularly known on account of its fruit called habilla de Carthagena, the bean of Carthagena. It is about an inch broad, and nine lines in length, flat, and in the shape of a heart. The fhell, though thin, is hard, and on the outside fcabrous. It contains a kernel refembling an almond, but lefs white, and extremely bitter. This is one of the moft effectual antidotes known in that country against the bites of vipers and ferpents; for a little of it being eaten immediately after the bite, it prefently ftops the effects of the poifon; and according ly all who frequent the woods, either for felling trees or hunting, never fail to eat a little of this habilla fafting, and repair to their work without any apprehenfion. I was informed by an European, who was a famous hunter, and alfo by feveral other perfons worthy of credit, that with this precaution, if any one happened to be bit by a ferpent, it was attended with no manner of ill confequence. The natives tell you, that this habilla being hot in the highest degree, much of it cannot be eaten, that the common dofe of it is less than the fourth part of a kernel, and that no hot liquor, as wine, brandy, &c. must be drank immediately after taking it. In this cafe they doubtlefs derive their knowledge from experience. This valuable habilla is alfo known in other parts of America near Carthagena, and goes every where by its name, as being the peculiar product of its jurifdiction.

THE

to ion of

this committee, to depend on a particular affection of the nerves, which

ing fee. Under the influence of

this affection, the imagination reprefents to him the objects that fruck

him while awake, with as much force as if they really affected his fenfes; but does not make him perceive any of thofe that are actually prefented to his fenfes, except in fo far as they are connected with the dreams which engross him at the time. If, during this ftate, the imagination has no determined purpose, he receives the impreffion of objects as if he were awake; only, however, when the imagination is excited to bend its attention towards them. The preceptions obtained in this flate are very accurate, and, when once received, the imagination renews them occafionally with as much force as if they were again required by means of the fenfes. Laftly, thefe academicians fuppofe, that the impreffions received during this flate of the fenfes, difappear entirely when the perfon awakes, and do not return till the return of the fame difpofition in the nervous fyftem.

Their remarks were made on the Sieur Devaud, a lad thirteen years and a half old, who lives in the town of Vevey, and who is fubject to that fingular affection or difeafe, called Somnambulism, or Sleep-walking. This lad poffeffes a strong and robu conftitution, but his nervous fyftem appears to be organized with peculiar delicacy, and to difcover marks of the greateft fenfibility and irritability. His fenfes of fmell, tafte, and touch, are exquifite; he is fubject to fits of immoderate and involuntary laughter, and be fometimes likewife weeps without any apparent cause.

This young man does not walk in his fleep every night; feveral weeks fometimes pafs without any appearance of a fit. He is fubject to the difeafe generally two nights fucceffively, one fit lafting for feveral hours. The longeft are from three to four hours, and they commonly begin about three or four o'clock in the morning.

The fit may be prolonged, by gently paffing the finger or a feather over his upper lip, and this flight irritation likewife accelerates it. Having once fallen afleep upon a ftaircafe, his upper lip was thus irritated with a feather, when he immediately ran down the fteps with great precipitation, and refumed all his accuftomed activity. This experiment was repeated several times.

The young Devaud thinks he has obferved, that, on the evenings previous to a fit, he is fenfible of a certain heavinefs in his head, but efpecially of a great weight in his eyelids.

His fleep is at all times unquiet, but particularly when the fits are about to feize him. During his fleep motions are obfervable in every part of his body, with ftarting and palpitations; he utters broken words, fometimes fits up in his bed, and afterwards lies down again. He then begins to pronounce words more diftinctly; he rifes abruptly, and acts as he is infligated by the dream that then poffeffes him. He is fometimes, in fleep, fubject to continued and involuntary motions.

The departure of the fit is always preceded by two or three minutes of calm fleep, during which he fnores. He then awakes rubbing his eyes like a perfon who has flept quietly.

It is dangerous to awaken him during the fit, eípecially if it is done fuddenly; for then he fometimes falls into convulfions. Having arifen one night with the intention of going to cat grapes, he left the houfe, paffed through the town, and went to a vineyard where he expected good cheer. He was followed by feveral perfons, who kept at fome distance from him, one of whom fired a piftol, the noife of which inftantly awaked him, and he fell down without fenfe. He was carried home and brought to himself, when he recol

lected

lected very well the having been awakened in the vineyard; but nothing more, except the fright at being found there alone, which had made him fwoon.

After the fits, he generally feels a degree of laffitude; fometimes, tho' rarely, of indifpofition. At the end of one of thofe fits, of which the gentlemen of the committee were witneffes, he was affected with vomitings; but he is always foon refored.

When he is awaked, he never for the most part recollects any of the actions he has been doing during the fit.

The fubject of his dreams is circumfcribed in a small circle of ob. jects, that relate to the few ideas, with which, at his age, his mind is furnished; fuch as his leffons, the church, the bells, and efpecially tales of ghofts. It is fufficient to ftrike his imagination the evening before a fit, with fome tale, to direct his fomnambulism towards the object of it. There was read to him, while in this fituation, the ftory of a robber; he imagined the very next moment that he faw robbers in the room. How ever, as he is much difpofed to dream that he is furrounded with them, it cannot be affirmed that this was an effect of the reading. It is obferved, that when his fupper has been more plentiful than ufual, his dreams are more difmal.

In their report, the gentlemen of the committee dwell much on the ftate of this young man's fenfes, on the impreffion made upon them by frange objects, and on the ufe they are of to him.

A bit of ftrong smelling wood produced in him a degree of reftleffness; the fingers had the fame effect, whether from their smell or their tranfpiration. He knew wine in which there was wormwood, by the smell, and faid, that it was not wine for

his table. Metals made no impreffion on him.

Having been prefented with a litthe common wine while he was in a ftate of apathy, and all his motions were performed with langour, he drank of it willingly; but the irritation which it occafioned produced a deal of vivacity in all his words, motions, and actions, and caufed him to make involuntary grimaces.

Once he was obferved dreffing himself in perfect darkness. His clothes were on a large table, mixed ⚫ with thofe of fome other perlons; he immediately perceived this, and complained of it much; at last a fmall light was brought, and then he dreffed himself with fufficient precifion. If he is teafed or gently pinched, he is always fenfible of it, except he is at the time ftrongly engroffed, with fome other thing, and wishes to strike the offender; however, he never attacks the perfon who has done the ill, but an ideal being whom his imagination prefents to him, and whom he purfues through the chamber without running against the furniture, nor can the perfons whom he meets in his way divert him from his purfuit.

While his imagination was employed on various fubjects, he heard a clock ftrike, which repeated at every stroke the note of the cuckoo.

There are cuckoos here, faid he; and, upon being defired, he imitated the fong of that bird immediately.

When he wishes to fee an object, he makes an effort to lift his eye-lids; but they are fo little under his command, that he can hardly raise them a line or two, while he draws up his eye-brows; the iris at that time appears fixed, and his eye dim. When any thing is prefented to him, and he is told of it, he always half-opens his eyes with a degree of difficulty, and then fhuts them after he has taken what was offered to him.

The

The report infers from thefe facts, and from many others relative to the different fenfes, that their functions are not fufpended as to what the Sleep-walker wishes to fee, that is, as to all thofe perceptions which accord with the objects about which his imagination is occupied; that he may also be difpofed to receive thofe impreffions, when his imagination has no other object at the time; that in order to fee, he is obliged to open his eyes as much as he can, but when the impreffion is once made it remains; that objects may ftrike his fight without triking his imagination, if it is not interested in them; and that he is fometimes informed of the prefence of objects without either feeing or touching them.

Having engaged him to write a theme, fay the committee, we faw him light a candle, take pen, ink, and paper from the drawer of his table, and begin to write, while his mafter dictated. As he was writing, we put a thick paper before his eyes, notwithstanding which he continued to write and to form his letters very diftinctly; fhewing figns, however, that fomething was incommoding him, which apparently proceeded from the obftruction which the paFer, being held too near his nofe, gave to his refpiration.

Upon another occafion, the yeung fomnambulist arofe at five o'clock in the morning, and took the neceflary materials for writing, with his copybook. He meant to have begun at the top of a page; but, finding it already written on, he came to the blank part of the leaf, and wrote fome time from the following words, Fiunt ignari pigritia-ils deviennent ignorans par la parefe; and, what is remarkable, after feveral lines he perceived he had forgot the s in the word ignorans, and had put erroneoufly a double r in parefe; he then gave over writing, to add the s he

had forgot, and to crafe the fuperfluous r.

Another time he had made, of his own accord a piece of writing, in order, as he faid, to please his matter. It confifted of three kinds of writing, text, half text, and fmall writ; each of them performed with the proper pen. He drew, in the corner of the fame paper, the figure of a hat; he then asked for a penknife to take out a blot of ink, which he had made between two letters, and he erafed it without injuring them. Lastly, he made fome arithmetical calculations with great accuracy.

In order to explain fome of the facts obferved by the academicians which we have here mentioned, they eftablish two general obfervations, which refult from what they have faid with refpect to the fenfes and the dreams of this fleep-walker.

1. That he is obliged to open his eyes in order to recognize objects which he wishes to fee; but the impreffion once made, although rapid. ly, is vivid enough to fuperfede the neceflity of his opening them again, to view the fame objects a-new; that is, the fame objects are afterwards prefented to his imagination with as much force and precifion as if he actually faw them.

2. That his imagination, thus warmed, reprefents to him objects, and fuch as he figures to himself, with as much vivacity as if he really faw them; and, laftly, that all his fenies being fubordinate to his imagination, leem concentrated in the objc&t with which it is cccupied, and have, at that time, no preception of any thing but what relates to that object.

Thefe two caufes united feem to them fufhcient for explaining one of the most fingular facts that occurred to their oblervation, to wit, how the young Devaud can write, although he has his eyes fhut, and an

obstacle

obftacle before them. His paper is imprinted on his imagination, and every letter which he means to write is alfo painted there, at the place in which it ought to ftand on the paper, and without being confounded with the other letters; now it is clear that his hand, which is obedient to the will of his imagination, will trace them on the real paper, in the fame order in which they are reprefented on that which is pictured in his head. It is thus that he is able to write feveral letters, feveral fentences, and entire pieces of writing; and what seems to confirm the idea, that the young Devaud writes according to the paper painted on his imagination, is, that a certain fleep. walker, who is defcribed in the Encyclopædia, (article Somnambulism) having written fomething on a paper, another piece of paper of the fame fize was fubftituted in its ftead, which he took for his own, and made upon this blank paper the corrections he meant to have made on the other which had been taken away, precifely in the places where they would have been.

It appears from the recital of another fact, that Devaud, intending to write at the top of the firit leaf of a white paper book, Vevey, le topt a moment as if to recollect the day of the month, left a blank space and then proceeded to December, 1787; after which he asked for an Almanack a little book, fuch as is given to children for a new-year's-gift, was offered to him; he took it, opened it, brought it near his eyes, then threw it down on the table. An Almanack which he knew was then prefented to him; this was in German, and of a form fimilar to the Almanack of Vevey: he took it, and then faid, What is this they have given me; here, there is your German Almanack. At laft they gave him the Almanack of Berne; he took

this likewife, and went to examine it at the bottom of an alcove that was perfectly dark. He was heard turning over the leaves, and faying 24, then a moment afterwards 34Returning to his place, with the AImanack open at the month of December, he laid it on the table and wrote in the space which he had left blank, the 24th. This fcene happened on the 23d; but as he imagined it to be the 24th, he did not miftake. The following is the explication given of this fact by the authors of the report.

The dates 230, 24th and 25th of the month of December, had long occupied the mind of the young Devaud. The 23d and 25th were holidays which he expected with the impatience, natural to perfons of his age, for the arrival of thofe moments when their little daily labours are to be fufpended. The 25th, especially, was the object of his hopes; there was to be an illumination in the church, which had been described to him in a manner that quite tranfported him. The 24th was a day of labour, which came very difagreeably between the two happy days. It may easily be conceived, how an imagination fo irritable as that of the young Devaud, would be truck with thofe pleafing epochs. Accordingly, from the beginning of the month, he had been perpetually turning over the Almanack of Vevey. He calculated the days and the hours that were to elapfe before the arrival of his wifhed-for holidays; he fhewed to his friends and acquaintance the dates of thofe days which he expected with so much im patience; every time he took up the Almanack, it was only to confult the month of December. We now fee why that date prefented itself to his mind. He was performing a talk, because he imagined the day to be the Monday which had fo long

engroffed