TRANCE, or Monurn SLEEP, differs from natural repose in duration; in profound in sensibility to external impressions: in following excitement and the exaltation of certain instincts, chiefly the religious and am; five, rather than fatigue or exhaustion; and in being the concomitant or symptom of diseases of the nervous system. The attitude, aspect, lowered respiration, and circulation of the entranced, resemble those of the sleeper. But there are many exceptions to this observation. A girl who remained dor mant for 13 years, although she grew from a child to a woman in that time. was corpse like in appearance, had lockjaw, and there was all hut a total suspension of the signs of life. But while an individual cannot be roused from this condition by the most power ful stimulants, an electric shock, or even, it is affirmed, by a surgical operation, thought or dream goes on uninterruptedly, and is more continuous and coherent in character than what takes place in ordinary sleep. So connected and real do these visions appear to the ecstatic, that they are generally accepted as true events, revelations, or impres sions, received during a brief visit to another world. Trance has occurred epidemically during periods of great religious fervor and superstitions; and whole classes of persons. are described as having preached while asleep, in the insurrection of the Cevennes. A
similar phenomenon was observed in 1865 in those affected V hysteromania at Morzine, in Savoy. The affection has been divided, according to the intensity of the symptoms, into (1) where neither the heart nor lungs act; where the temperature of the body falls; where no sustenance is taken, and the inner dream-life is the only vestige of vitality. Engelbrecbt, who was subject to trance, wrote a book descriptive of this inner life, diking which he believed himself to be transported to supernatural, if not to heavenly regions. (2) where the breathing and action of the heart are feeble, but perceptible; the joints flexible; but where the external senses are not awake, and where.the patient cannot be roused. (3) where, except in the insensi bility to external stimuli, and in the length of the suspension of volition, little abnormal is noticed. As these states often succeed hysteria, nervous and other diseases. the bodies of the supposed dead are for a time, in certain countries, so placed as to be watched, and in circumstances favorable to resuscitation.—Mayo, On the Truths con tained in Popular Superstitions, p. 88; Figuier, Histoire du ..iferreitleux dans les htodernes, t. ii. p. 38; Dendy, The Philosophy of Mystery, p. 367.