The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-05-19
DREAMS AND THEIR CAUSES.
Som Interesting Facts and Theories for
Drenmerx.

1
| Dreamerx-
The London Times says: The second
of Prof Terriers lectures on Sleep and
Dreaming" was devoted to the latter sub
ject, with the exception of a brief re-
sumo of his former lecture on sleep by
way of introduction.
Sleep, he had shown, was the repose of
the brain as the organ of consciousness,
and sound sleep the cessation of con-
scious activity. Heset aside as unsound
the doctrine of Sir w. Hamilton, who
from the phenomena of dreaming had
argued the continuousness of conscious
ness during sleep. The brain, though a
unity, was a complex unity, and TO diff
ferent parts different functions belonged
Hence, according to the analogy of the
bodily functions, one part and its func-
tlon may rest, while others are in action
The partial activity of the brain was the
explanation of dreaming. Conscious ac-
Ftivity belongs to the hemispheres proper
of the brain. The parts below, in so far
as they are independent, are concerned
in actiOnsdescribed as reflex, sensi-motor,
ETC., and these can go on as we'll during
sleep as in waking hours.
Diagrams of the brain were referred to
in illustration. The brain was the organ
of consciousness, and it, therefore-not
the gangliOns of the nervous system, as
held by DIR. Carpenter and others-was
the organ of sensation. The phenomena
of hemi an9sthesia were cited in proof.
For each class of impressions there were
special regions of consciousness in the
brain. The lecturer was even disposed
to localize attention and the higher in
tellectual faculties. The impressions re-
ceived were photographed on the brain,
and were capable of being revived. But
for this power OF recalling them no
knowledge would be possible. Memory,
or the registration of sense impressions,
is the ultimate basis of our mental
furniture. Each piece of that furni-
ture has its function, like the letters
in a compositor's case. We have
! sight-memory, an ear-memOry, etc.
When thinking, or engaged in ideation,
we are but recalling, as shown by Her
bert Spencer and Balm, our original SEN
satiOns and acts of cognition. Some
move their lips when thinking, as though
summoning up the names for their
former sensations. Commonly the re-
production was very faint, but in some
instances it was nearly or quite as vivid
as the former sensation. 1t was so with
Goethe and other poets, with painters,
religious enthusiasts, and with those
called spiritualists. 1t was so in delirlIm
and mania, and there was always some
thing morbid in such cases.
! The auditory phantOms of musical COM
Posers and others are spoken OF. The
impression made on taste and smell were
not often so wildly reproduced, but il
was otherwise with those of touch. The
relation between visceric euphoria or dis
phOria was next illustrated, and the laws
| of association of ideas, as laid down by
Laycock and confirmed by DIR. Carpen-
| ter. The nature of this association will
vary as individuals, but if the man be
known as well as the general laws, it will
be possible to read his thoughts. Here
the lecturer read a striking extract
from E. A. Poe ('' Murders in the Rue
MOrgue," vol. l, p. 409), which was re-
ceived with loud applause. The foregO-
ing principles were then applied to
dreaming. In accordance with the laws
laid down those portions of the brain
most continuous in action would require
| the longest rest. Hence the centers of
attraction would sleep while the func-
tiOns allied to reflex actions would more
easily awaken.
The brain in sleep was compared To a
calm pool in which a stone causes rip
pies liable to interruption by other rip
pies similarly caused. So the ripples of
ideatiOn get confused. But, again, the
circle on the pool may not be interrupted
and then the ideatiOn will be regular.
The current of the ideatiOn may be CO.
herent or incOherent. TIE most vivid
association, which is commonly the latest,
dominates over the rest. DIR. Reid, the
oofo af III,
by an Indian. There was blister upon
his head. DIR. Gregory, through having
a hot-water bottle at his feet, deampt Of |
walking up the crater of .Etna. A trOu-
blesome corn makes a man dream of SER |
pents biting his foot, and ringing in his |
ears has caused dreams of marriage bells |
The blue devils and other horrors seen |
by the victims of delirium tremens were |
analOgously explained Visceral condi- |
tions were shown to be most frequent |
sources Of dreams. The hungry dreams |
of feasts, the thirsty of water, and the !
drOpsical of drowning. From the condi- |
tion of the digestive organs arose night |
mare Mental or bodily detection shows |
itself in oppression of the chest, and this, |
vice versa, causes mental or bodily de- |
preston by the law of association. We |
feel hideous animal sitting on us. The !
oppression leads to an effort at liberation,
and we wake from nightmare with a
scream Bereavement makes us dream of
our lost ones, and we sec them so vividly |
that our dreams become real apparitiOns
Incoherent dreaming, in which currents
of ideation get iumbled together, was
happily compared TO the changes pro-
duced by the shaken kaleidoscope.
it was remarked that there is never
anything absolutely new in o4r dreams;
we never dream OF anything of which our
senses are wholly ignorant. The blind
do not dream that they see, nor the deaf
of music. Here a letter is missing from
the iont of type. Our fancy in dreams is !
awake, and the faculties which should |
check it are asleep. Hence we are wont !
to say that nothing surprises us in sleep. |
The lecturer proceeded to shed light on
such facts as that problems have been
solved bv mathematicians in their dreams |
which had utterly baffied them when
awake. So the poet Campbell excogi |
tated in his sleep the celebrated sentence:
4" For coming events cast their shadows
before"
One beautiful illustration the lecturer
used. The brain, he said, might become
a palimpsest, the effaced writing on which
often reappeared. Past impressions were
imperfectly rubbed out, and the present
written over it, but past memories would
revisit us in our dreams, if not in Our
waking hours. OF the tenacity of mem
ory, marvellous illustration was cited
from Trevelyan's Life of Macauley,"
who picked up, while waiting in a Cam
bridge coffee-house for a pOst-chaise, a
newspaper containing two poetical pieces, |
one " Reflections of an Exile" and the !
other Parody on a Welsh Ballad"
Macauley looked them once through, and
never gave them further thought for
forty years, when he repeated them with |
out the change of single word.
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