The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-01-14
CuriOsities of Sleep-A Collection OF
Singular Dreams. s

As. evidence, against the view that the action OF
the brain is continuous during sleep, we may ad-
duce cases of apparently very long dreams !naI
have been completed. from beginnlng to end, IN a
very few seconds. and which have been excited by
external influences. The following examples OF
such dreams prove how great Is the activity OF tue
brain during sleep compared with the actuai lapse
Of time.
: person. who was suddenly aroused from sleep
by "a few drops of water sprinkled IN ms iaeei
dreamed. of the events OF an entire lHe.h WHICH
happiness and sorrow were mingled anu "hlch
finally terminated with an alteration upon I"e
borders of an extensive lake. into which ms eNas-
perated companion. after a considerable struggle,
succeeded in plnnging him. DIR. Carpenter men
pulpit during the singing of a psalm before the
sermon. and awakening with the conviction that he
must have slept for at least an hour. and that the
congregation must have been Whiting for him
but, on referring to his psalm book, he was con-
soled by finding that his slumber bad not lasted
longer than the singing OF a single line.
Sir Benjamin BrOdie, in his Psychological In
quiries, III S54, mentions the following fact OF the
late Lord Holland /: I" On an occasion when he was
much f~atigued, while listening to q FREUD who was
reading aloud. he fell asleep and had asdream, the
particulars of which it would take him a quarter
of an hour or longer to express IN writing. After
he awoke he found that he remembered the be-
ginning of one sentence, while he actually heard
the latter part of the sentence Immediately follow
ing it ; so that, probably, the whole time during
which he had slept did not occupy more than a
few seconds" ,r-E TGa-4% v4ufD
A lawyer found it necessary to ascertain the
exact age of a client of his, who was also his cousin.
Their grandfather. who was rather an eccentric
person, had died when they were boys. The lawyer
often told his cousin that if the grandfather had
been alive the desired information could have been
readily obtained, and that he had a dim reeOllec-
ton of having seen u record kept by the old gentle
man, and of there being some PECULIARLY about it
which he could not recall. Some months after the
search had been given up as hopeless he dreamed
that their grandfather came to him and said " You
have been trying to find out when j. was born.
Don't you recollect that one afternoon. when we
were fishing, read you some lines from an Elzevir
Horace, and showed you how l had made q family
record ont of the book by inserting a number of
blank leaves at the end? Now, as you know,
devised my library to the Rev. -. | was a great
fool for giving him books which he viii never read.
Get the Horace and you will discover the exact
honr at which j was born" The lawyer,
deeply impressed with the dream. started by the
first morning train to visit the clergyman. who
lived In a neighboring city. found the Herace, and
at the end were the pages constituting the family
record. exactly as had been described in the dream.
By no effort of his memory could he recall to his
recollection the incidents of the fishing excursion.
The following case, in which a dream in other
respects highly remarkable-occurred twice on the
night. came under the notice of the writer of
this article in the year 1913. Our readers may rec
ollect that in the year just recorded, there was a
terrible case of murder. DR.. Webster, Professor of
Chemistry in Harvard College, being convicted of
the murder of his acquaintance-wc can hardly
say his friend-Dr. Parkman. A lady-we will
call her X. we'll known in the literary world,
and then residing in London, had, some years pre-
viously, paid a long visit to the United States,
during which she became Intimately acquainted
with DR.. Webster and his family, who showed her
much kindness and attention. After her return to
she continued to correspond with the
family ; and one day, in the early autumn of 1e48.
gentleman related to DR.. Parkman called upon
her with an introduction from Professor Webster.
On that night she went to bed at her usual hour,
but soon experienced a horrible dream. She
fancled that she was being urged by DR.. Webster
to assist him in concealing a set of human bones in
wooden box aud she distinctly recollected that
there was a thigh bone. which. after failing to
break 1T in pieces, they vainly attempted to insert.
but 1T was too long. While they were trying to
hide the box-as she fancied, under her bed-she
woke In a state of horror and cold perspiratIon.
She Instantly struck q light. and tried to dispel the
recollection of her horrible vision by reading.
After a lapse of two hours, during which she had
fixed her attention on the book, she
put out the lights, and soon fell asleep. The same
dream again occurred, after which she did not dare
a woman of singular moral and pbysi-
courage-to attempt to. sleep any more that
Early on the following morning she called
upon the writer, and told him of her fearful ex-
periences of the past night. Nothing more at the
time was thought of these dreams but shortly
afterward the news reached England that DR..
Parkman was missing that the last time he was
seen alive he was entering the college gates and