To the Editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

Sir, - As you desire for publication an account of my extraordinary sleeplessness, I make you welcome to what follows:"During three periods I have been bereft of sleep: - first, in 1833, "for six weeks; again in 1837, for five months; and now, these last four "years and five months.

Prior to the first period I never suffered from want of sleep; "although at times little sufficed for refreshment. My constitution, "naturally sound and vigorous, was till forty years of age sustained by "healthy exercise as a farmer - riding and walking much; indeed walks "of thirty or forty miles a day in no way distressed me. In the year "1819 1 was cruelly imprisoned in Canada ('illegally, unconstitutionally, "and without excuse or palliation,' as the present Legislative Assembly "has declared), during eight months; the last of which, in solitude "and stifling heat, undid me; and for three years thereafter I was "debilitated; nor should I ever have regained energy but for a resolu"tion to go to hard labour, which I did for upwards of three months -"breaking stones for the roads in Wiltshire, England, and living on the "earnings - sixpence a day - viz., from Sept. 9th till Dec. 23rd, 1822, "as minutely detailed in Parliamentary Journals.

In the year 1824 I was again confined in London, three years and "eight months - the purpose being to make me appear to the world "insane; and thus have my influence with the people destroyed. I "weathered this persecution by living on vegetable food; and being free "from all excitement, the time passed away happily. During this con"finement I had need of very little sleep; and the greater part of my "time in bed, never more than six hours, was given to reveries, chiefly as to schemes for bettering the condition of the labouring poor, plans for "laying out land in the wilderness, and studies for city building, which "I contemplated, and still do, to reduce to a science.

It was during this period, I think, that a habit of living without "sleep began to form. From March, 1828, till November, 1833, 1 was "tortured in Scotland with unsettled affairs; but generally in the best "health, and could walk from morn to night without fatigue, while four "or five hours of sleep was quite enough for rest and enjoyment.

Nov. 5th, 1833, I left Edinburgh at six o'olock p.m. in a canal "boat on my way for America - choosing such conveyance that I might "be along with my trunks, containing valuable books and papers. The "boat was an iron one, and jarring every little while against some other "boat, bridge, or lock, subjected me, reclining in a vile hold, to unspeak"able discomfort. Sleep was out of the question, and I had none all "the way to Glasgow, which we reached about ten o'clock next morning. "Taking time on shore only for breakfast, I forthwith had my trunks "conveyed to a steamer in the Clyde, and immediately sailed for "Greenock. There getting on board the steamship Vulcan, we were "under weigh for Liverpool in half an hour. We ran to sea in the teeth "of a hurricane, sheltered during night in Lamlash bay, and by earliest "dawn, ran through a stormy ocean to Liverpool, which we reached "early the second day. These two nights, like the former, were "sleepless.

Engaging a passage to New York in the packet ship Pacific "to sail next morning, I told Captain Wait how I had been deprived "of rest. He recommended a warm bath before going to bed in "Liverpool. This procured I believe some sleep, but certainly from "Liverpool to New York, embarking November 9th, and landing "December 22nd, I had not a wink of sleep. It was dark when we landed. "I resorted to a warm bath, got into a comfortable bed, and slept, as I "had done before leaving Edinburgh; nor did I again want sleep "nightly for three years.

Crossing the Atlantic, my sleeplessness became subject of conver"sation. One prescribed laudanum, but that had no effect; another "opium, which also failed; a third said, if I got tipsy, that would do; "but that did not. I drank grog, which only made me sick, and that, "for the first time, at sea.

The beginning of January, 1837, while lodged in a tavern at Wil"loughby, Ohio, I was seized with erysipelas in the leg, a disease I "have been long subject to, and during five months was without "sleep. After that period sleep returned gradually. For many weeks

I dozed by times, and had strange dreams; one of them so distinct "and beautiful that I wrote it down, and it was really worthy of "record. The attack of erysipelas, conjoined with other diseases, "rendered me lame and extremely feeble during the remainder of my "stay in Ohio - eighteen months; and after that, for four years and "four months, in Canada, with frequent attacks of erysipelas and rheu"matism, I was never strong, and all the time lame; often indeed at "death's door, in the most wretched condition, separated from my "family, and, for the most part, without sympathy or a friend to "whom I could unbosom my griefs. The loss of a beloved daughter "crowned my calamities, and finally barred out 'Nature's soft nurse.' "My children, four daughters and a son, the youngest now twenty-"seven years of age, grew up every way well; and my great conso"lation was, that whatever befel me, still my family would be pros"perous and happy. Alas! when least expecting a reverse in that "quarter, even when glorying over pleasant letters recently received "from my daughters, I heard that the second was dangerously ill.

I "lay in agony two weeks, and then had the melancholy assurance of "her death.

' Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,

He, like the world, his ready visit pays,

Where fortune smiles. The wretched he forsakes;

Swift on his downy pinion, flies from woe,

And lights on lids unsullied with a tear.'

After seven months of this period of sleeplessness, I consulted Dr. "Widmer, of Toronto, reputed the most experienced physician in "Upper Canada. He advised to dine early, and eat nothing after, "before going to bed; which till this day has afforded the most com"fort. His medicine - acetate of morphia, which I took at two distinct "times, for ten days together - had no effect. Corresponding with "the doctor, he expressed an opinion that my sleeplessness proceeded "from excitement of the brain, caused by much reading and writing "on politics, which I told him was an entire mistake, as I read and "wrote little, and troubled myself not at all with politics. In fact, my "troubles spring from unsettled private affairs, as my family and "friends well know.