Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-10-26
SIGNIFICANCEO FDREAMS
an Interesting Lecture by a Noted
English ScienJist.
Surer@itlons About Visions During Sleep
Ruthlcssiy Dealt With - Physical
lila La Most Cases Are
to Dlap

"What the actual scientific view Of
dreaming now is may be inferred from
a lecture which was recently delivered
on the subject at the royal institution
by DIR. l.. W. Richardson. In the poets
view," say, the London Telegraph,
dreams are visitors from the ivory gate,
or, as Shakespeare calls them, children
of an idle brain;' but science is more
prosaic and teaches that dreams may
be, after all, nothing more than the
common vibrations of terrestrial
media acting upon corporeal
Moratorium like the sound heard
on a wire intension long after
it has been struck by the musi-
clan. All musical instruments dream
says DR.. Richardson, after we cease to
play on them and if we bring the mi
crophone into use we can hear the
dream. This is as near poetry as science
will permit us to approach in explain
ing the phenomena of thought going on
during sleep; for the accomplished
lecturer proceeded to inform his au-
dience that dreams are all eXplainable
on physical grounds-there is no mys-
terry about them save that which springs
from blindness 70 facts
After dividing dreams into sub
jective and objective, and mixtures of
both, he went on to class among the
first species dreams produced by indi-
gestion. pain or fever. while objective
dreams are those started by noises or
other events going on outside the sleep
err. This is fair sample of the ruthless
way in which science disposes of super
stition.' Against the imaginative view
of the significance Of dreams men of
science protest, and will probably con-
tinue to protest as long as there are
any men of science left. They quote
the old lady in the Spectator, who be-
heved that the earthquake at Lisbon
had some mysterious but quite unex-
planned connection with the fact that a
few days before she had happened to
spill some salt at table.
perhaps the most practical lesson
taught at the royal institution lecture
was one which may assist US to know
which of our dreams are signs that
something is wrong with our bodily or
ganization. AS a rule, said the lecturer,
1t is better not to dream at all Dream
lessness is usually a symptom of all
round health. A childs dreams are in
variably signs of disturbed health, and
should be regarded with anxiety For
adults it is a good thing to know that
our brains are being overstrained when
our nightly dreams relate to events of
the day, and if we actually seem in
sleep to be continuing our daily work
this is a danger signal which never
must be disregarded. When we feel
wearied in the morning very likely it
results from dreams we have forgotten,
and then the best thing to do is to take
exercise. Without coming to any de-
cided opinion as to the supernatural
meaning attributed to dreams, we can
at least profit by thesApractical hints.
considered as products of bad diges-
ton dreams cannot be reasonably ex-
pected to tell us anything of useful
character or TO supply Us with any warn
ing, except one directed against the
continuation of depraved dietetic hab-
its. If it is true FIAT the sleep of health
is dreamless. then Il becomes difficult to
believe that the only persons to whom
visions in sleep are vouchsafed should
be the victims of indigestion. 1t is al
ways puzzle for persons of an unim-
aginative turn of mind to understand
how the future, which does not yet
exist. can be supposed to have any eff
feet on the present. and it must be adj
mitted that dreams of warning are
much harder to believe in than the
brain waves and thought transfer
ences' which members of the psychical
research society take as matters
quite in the ordinary course of things.
There is a considerable mass of testi-
mony in favor of the power of the mind
to produce results at an enormous dis
lance by some system of psychical
telegraphy of which nobody has yet
discovered the secret. A man who goes
to sleep and dreams that his brother is
being killed 10y a wild tribe in central
Africa, and who afterwards hears that
he did meet with that fate at the pre-
else time when the vision occurred. need
not fly to any supernatural explanation
of the phenomenon. 1t is quite differ
ent when dream tells of something
which is to happen in a few months
time. In the latter case most people
will prefer to join with science in
attributing the fact either to a law
of coincidence or to a simple deIusion.
I'VE must do science the justice to
admit that II she increases the gloomi-
ness of life in some directions, S by her
doctrine OF the struggle for existence,
she decreases it in other respects. one
of which is by aiding in the gradual
Punishment of any confidence in visions
and omens and 'weirdness' generally"
No News.