This, however, as well as other cases of a similar kind, must not be regarded as an extreme instance of healthy slumber, but as a form of lethargy or coma, as indicative of disease, as the opposite condition or sleeplessness, that is frequently an accompaniment of certain forms of fevers, inflammatory affections, and brain disorders.
Mr Durham, of Guy’s Hospital, seems to have disposed of the condition that sleep is caused by the pressure of the distended veins on the brain.
A piece of bone being removed from a dog’s skull so that the animal’s brain could be observed when sleeping, it was found, 1, the veins were not distended. 2. During sleep the brain is in a comparatively bloodless condition, and the blood in the encephalic vessels is not only diminished in quantity, but moves with diminished rapidity; and this is corroborated by the observations of Dr Hughlings Jackson on the ophthalmoscopic condition of the retina during sleep, the optic disk being then whiter, the arteries smaller, and the retina generally more anæmic than in the waking state. 3. The condition of the cerebral circulation during sleep is from physical causes, that which is most favorable to the nutrition of the brain tissue. See Bed, Watchfulness.
SLEEPLESSNESS AND COLD FEET. The association betwixt cold feet and sleeplessness is much closer than is commonly imagined. Persons with cold feet rarely sleep well, especially women. Yet the number of persons so troubled is considerable. We now know that if the blood-supply to the brain be kept up, sleep is impossible. An old theologian,
when weary and sleepy with much writing, found that he could keep his brain active by immersing his feet in cold water; the cold drove the blood from the feet to the head.
Now, what this old gentleman accomplished by design is secured for many persons much against their will. Cold feet are the bane of many women. Light boots keep up a bloodless condition of the feet in the day, and in many women there is no subsequent dilatation of the blood-vessels when the boots are taken off. These women come in from a walk and put their feet to the fire to warm—the most effective plan of cultivating chilblains. At night they put their feet to the fire, and have a hot bottle in bed. But it is all of no use; their feet still remain cold. How to get their feet warm is the great question of life with them—in cold weather. The effective plan is not very attractive at first sight to many minds. It consists in first driving the blood-vessels into firm contraction, after which secondary dilatation follows. See the snowballer’s hands! The first contact of the snow makes the hands terribly cold; for the small arteries are driven thereby into firm contraction, and the nerve-endings of the finger-tips feel the low temperature very keenly. But as the snowballer perseveres, his hands commence to glow; the blood-vessels have become secondarily dilated, and the rush of warm arterial blood is felt agreeably by the peripheral nerve-endings. This is the plan to adopt with cold feet. They should be dipped in cold water for a brief period; often just to immerse them, and no more, is sufficient; and then they should be rubbed with a pair of hair flesh gloves, or a rough Turkish towel, till they glow, immediately before getting into bed. After this a hot-water bottle will be successful enough in maintaining the temperature of the feet, though without this preliminary it is impotent to do so. Disagreeable as the plan at first sight may appear, it is efficient; and those who have once fairly tried it continue it, and find that they have put an end to their bad nights and cold feet. Pills, potions, lozenges, “night-caps,” all narcotics, fail to enable the sufferer to woo sleep successfully: get rid of the cold feet, and then sleep will come of itself.—British Medical Journal.
SMALLPOX. See Pox.
Smallpox in Sheep. Syn. Variola ovina. This disease, although bearing the same name as that which attacks the human subject, is a perfectly distinct malady, and incapable of being communicated to man either by inoculation or contagion. In about ten days from the time of the animal’s having imbibed the contagion feverish symptoms set in accompanied with a mucous discharge of a purulent character from the nose. Red inflammatory pimples then begin to develop, first appearing where the skin is thin. After the pimples have been out about three days they assume a
white appearance, and are filled with serum and pus. “Some of the vessels dry up, leaving brown scabs; others, especially in the severer cases, run together, and the scarf skin is detached, leaving an ulcerated surface. It is in this ulcerated stage that the prostration reaches its height, and that most sheep die. The mortality from smallpox in sheep ranges from 25 to 90 per cent.”[168]
[168] Finlay Dun.