Trance

Trance, a morbid sleep, differs from natural repose in duration; in profound insensibility to external impressions; in following excitement and the exaltation of certain instincts, chiefly the religious and amative, rather than fatigue or exhaustion; and in being the concomitant or symptom of diseases of the nervous system, particularly Hysteria (q.v.). It differs on the other hand from Coma (q.v.) in not being associated with serious organic disease, and in the absence of stertorous breathing, muttering, delirium, &c. See SLEEP, INSANITY, CATALEPSY, ECSTASY.