Sleep, and How to Obtain It. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)—This
is not the least useful of the series of little manuals of health, &c., to which it belongs. To the man of forty, who has chosen the better of the two alternatives commonly said to be presented to that age, and is a physician rather than a fool, it has not much to teach ; but there are many readers, notably those who have the charge of children, and young students, who may peruse it with much advan- tage. Insomnia, though not always as dangerous as commonly sup- . posed (the writer knows an eminent man of letters who has suffered from it for many years without apparent damage), is an exceedingly difficult thing to get rid of. Our own experience is that the truest sign of excessive mental exertion is the beginning to dream of one's work ; and that there must be a cutting-down of the daily labour, at any sacrifice, so soon as this symptom is perceived. As for the means of getting sleep (apart from drags, which are, of course, to be avoided as long as possible), something is wanted that shall not be intolerably dull,—an objection to such devices as counting imagi- nary sheep—but yet shall not be interesting enough to excite. The writer's plan is to reckon up friends and acquaintances whose names begin with a certain letter. He seldom gets through more than one letter without the desired result.
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