The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-02-26
ABOUT DREAMS.

, oDVOl DhLAmSs
Remarkable Mental Achievements q
snnss1,.ef anefsIIntere sting Anecdotes-Th
: The following is from a review in tn
New York San of recent work
:" Pathology of Mind,'' by DIR. Henr
Maudsley, an eminent English physical
and scientist:
1t has been a disputed question
whether sleep is ever quite dreamless
ana opposite answers to it have beel
propounded. Some writers, infecte,
. probably in some degree by the Car
tesian dogma, that the mind never ca,
be entirely inactive, contend that whel
} we declare we have not dreamed, tn,
truth is that we have dreamed, but hav,
forgotten it. The difficulty of conceiv
ing temporary nullity of mental func
ton is dismissed by DR.. Maudsley as .
lingering predjudice from the metaphys
zeal notion OF mind as an exalted spirit
ual entity. whose essence had nothing il
common with the low material necessities
OF the body. He believes the weight OF
evidence to be really on the side of the
opinion that the soundest sleep is wholly
dreamless. 1t will scarcely be gainsaid
that when we make the matter one OF
observation, we preceive during sleep
all shades of gradation between the most
vivid and active dreaming at the one
end and the very faintest show of
evanescent activity at the other end of
the scale. In certain cases of suspended
animation which seem analogous to the
state of things existing in deep sleep,
we can not well avoid the conclusion
that the subject had passed the imper-
ceptible line between the least f1utter of
activity and complete nullity of
function. Such was the case
cited by DR.. Hoy in an
American medical journal of youth
aged 19 who was rendered insensible
through the kick on the head by mare
named Dolly. As soon as the depressed
bone was removed he cried, "Whoa,
Dolly" with great energy, and then
stared about him in amazement, won-
dering what had happened to him.
Three hours had passed since the acci-
dent. He was not conscious the mare
had kicked; the last thing which he
remembered was that she wheeled round
her heels and laid back her ears. An
Other theory which has been broached
with regard to dreaming, is that we
only dream just as we are going to
sleep, or just as we are coming out of it
in the transition state into and out of
sleep. This was Coleridge's opinion,
and it was one that DIR. James Walker
of Harvard College was fond of advo-
eating, but it seems to DIR. Maudsley
even less tenable than the other. He
considers the somnambulist a positive
refutation of it, and this argument is
supplemented in common experience by
our observation of sleeping persons who
show plainly by their actions, or their
words, that they are dreaming, and who
still go on sleeping. Indeed, the fact
that we sometimes catch ourselves in
the midst of a dream when we are reused
suddenly out of profound slumber,
should suffice to dispose of the question
1t is certain that volition, in its high
est sense of control over the mental
operations, must needs be abolished in
dreaming, seeing that such volition is
neither more nor less than the expression
of the fullest coordinate activity of the
mental functions. For the same reason
the consciousness of personal identity,
the unity of individual character, is
confused, and not seldom seemingly lost
Our author maintains, however, that
throughout the vagaries of dreaming
there is often at bottom an obscure feel
ing of fiickering instinct of identity,
since otherwise we should never be Gas we
sometimes are) surprised at ourselves
when we seem not ourselves, Or when
we are doing extraordinary things. The
point, however, on which he lays most
stress, is the astonishing constructive ca
pacity often exhibited in dreams while
the impelling or regulating function of
volition is suspended. In his judg-
ment this phenomenon plainly indicates
that the elastic power of mind, its So
called imagination, is the fundamental
organic function of the supreme cere-
bral centers which being
displayed when will is in allegiance and
a fitful CLEAN, must evil
IDENTIFY lie beneath consciousness and be-
meath will. He finds the spontaneous
and Independent energy of these su-
preme cerebral centers demonstrated in
a striking way by those singularly CO.
herent dreams which every body has at
one time or another, and in which
he sometimes puts forth as much
Intellectual power as he ever
displays when awake. Many
stories have been told, on good authori-
ty, of persons who have in their sleep
poems, solved hard problems
in mathematics, discovered the key of
perplexing difficulty, or done like won
derful things. DIR. Maudsley does not
pause to weigh the proof of such asser-
lions; but, while bearing in mind that
dream achievements, which seem to us
very clever at the time, usually turn out
TO be nonsense when we awake, he is
disposed to concede, on deductive
that one who is fitted by
natural abilities and training to do good
work when awake, may oc-
casionally chance to do it in sleep, thus
getting the good of a good understand
ing even in his dreams. After all, such
instances as those just quoted merely
illustrates the spontaneou nature of the
process of creative activity, with which
and volition must needs
have no more to do as active agents