The particulars are perfectly trustworthy, for I have enquired
fully into them, and speak from abundant and independent evidence.
A gentleman of considerable position was found by his wife to have
the curious trick, when he lay fast asleep on his back in bed,
of raising his right arm slowly in front of his face, up to his forehead,
and then dropping it with a jerk, so that the wrist fell heavily
on the bridge of his nose. The trick did not occur every night,
but occasionally, and was independent of any ascertained cause.
Sometimes it was repeated incessantly for an hour or more.
The gentleman's nose was prominent, and its bridge often became
sore from the blows which it received. At one time an awkward sore
was produced, that was long in healing, on account of the recurrence,
night after night, of the blows which first caused it.
His wife had to remove the button from the wrist of his night-gown
as it made severe scratches, and some means were attempted
of tying his arm.

"Many years after his death, his son married a lady who had never
heard of the family incident. She, however, observed precisely
the same peculiarity in her husband; but his nose, from not being
particularly prominent, has never as yet suffered from the blows.
The trick does not occur when he is half-asleep, as, for example, when dozing
in his arm-chair, but the moment he is fast asleep it is apt to begin.
It is, as with his father, intermittent; sometimes ceasing for many nights,
and sometimes almost incessant during a part of every night.
It is performed, as it was by his father, with his right hand.

"One of his children, a girl, has inherited the same trick.
She performs it, likewise, with the right hand, but in a slightly
modified form; for, after raising the arm, she does not allow the wrist