The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-10-26
THE CAUSA7I0N Of DREAMS
They Are Mental Vibrations, Caused
BY Indigestion and Pain.
CHILDREN OF AN IDLE BRAIN
This Is what Shakespeare Calls Them, but
Science Proves That They Are, in
Reality, the Offspring of a
Very Busy One.

What the actual scientific view of dream
ing now is may be inferred from lecture
delivered on the subject at the Royal insti-
tuition b. Dr. B, w. Richardson In the
poets view dreams are visitors from the
ivory gaze, OF, as Shakespeare calls them,
"children Of al idle braiD;' but science is
more prosaic, and teaches that dreams may
be, after ALL nothing more than the com
mon vibrations Of terrestrial media acting
upon = corp0real Moratorium" like the
sound heprd on "a wire in tension long after
II has been struck by the musician
'All musical instruments dream" says
Dr. Richardson, after we cease to play on
them, aud il we bring the uicrophone into
use We can hear the dream. This is as
near poetry as science will permit us to APP
proach in explaining the phenomena of
thought going on during sleep for the ac-
eomplished lecturer proceeded to inform
his audience that dreams are all explain
able on physical GrOunds-there is no mys
terry about them save that which springs
from blindness to facts.
After dividing dreams into subjective
and objective, and mixtures of both, he
went ON 10 class among the FIRST species
dreams produced by indigestion pain or
fever, while objective dreams are those
started by noises or other events going on
outside the sleeper This is a fair sample
Of the ruthless way in which science dis
poses Of superstition" Against the inn
aginatiye view of the significance of
dreams men Of science protest, and will
probably continue to protest ny long as
there are any men Of science left.
Perhaps the most practical lesson taught
Al 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 organization. As a rule,
said the lecturer, it is better not to dream
al all. Dreamlessness is usually sign of
all round health. A child's dreams are
invariably signs Of disturbed health and
should be regarded with anxiety. For
adults il is a good thing to know that we
may be sure that our brains are being over
strained 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 danger signal which must
never be disregarded.
When we feel wearied in the morning
very likely it results from dreams that we
have forgotten, and then the best thing to
do is TO take exercise. Without coming to
any decided opinion as TO the supernatural
meanings attributed 10 dreams we can at
Least profit by these practical hints Con
sidered rs products Of bad digestion dreams
cannot be reasonably expected to tell us
anything of a useful character or to supply
rs with any warning, except one directed
against the continuance Of depraved Diet
etic habits. If it is true that the sleep of
health is dreamless, then IL becomes diff
cult to believe that the only persons to
whom visions in sleep are vouchsafed
should be the victims of indigestion.
1t is always puzzle for persons of an I'M
imaginative turn of mind to understand
how the future, which does not yet exist,
can be supposed 10 have any effect on the
present, and it. must be admitted that
dreams Of warning are much harder to be-
lieve in than the brain wave" and
thought transference," which members of
the Psychical Research society take as
matters quite in the ordinary course of
shings. There is a considerable mass of
fesrimOny in favor Of the power of the
mind to produce results at an enormous
lstance by some system Of psychical te-
'graphy Of which nobody has yet discov-
cred the secret.
A man who goes to sleep and dreams
that his brother is being killed by wild
tribe in central Africa, and who afterward
hears uhaJ he did meet with that fate at
the precise time when the vision occurred,
need not IL 70 any supernatural explana-
tlon for the phenomenon. 1t is quite diff
ierent when q dream tells of something
which is 10 happen in q few months time.
In the latter case most people will prefer
20 join with science in attributing the fact
either TO a law of condolences or TO sim
pie delusion- We must do science the jus.
tlce To sdmt that, if she increases the
gloominess OF life in some directions, as by
her doctrine Of the struggle for existence,
she decreases it in other respects, one OF
which is by aiding in the gradual Danish
ment of any confidence in visions and
omens and "weirdness" generally. Lon.
don Telegraph.