Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-09-07
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
A. 1r+eresting Lecture by a Noted
English Scientist
About Visions Durias steep
suthlessiy Dealt with = rhySicAi
Ills I'm Most Cases Are
to BIaH-s

..y,-,,o+ the actual scientific view OF
,...a,-;r,, now is may be inferred from
a lecture which was recently dei'Veieu
ON the suUjuct at tile regal ii'sIilh 1Iuu
bv DR.. Il. w. Richardson In tne Poet
low" saws the London telegraph
J,,.,,,s are visitors from the ivory gate,
-. as Shakespeare calls them, children
.of an Idle BRAIN but science is moro
,,,.-s,ic and teanhes that dreams may
he. after all. nothing more than INC
,(,'.,-,,on vibrations OF terrestrial
,,odi, acting upon cofporeal
,-il,,.,toriurn.' like the sound heard
-, wire intension long after
= has been struck by the musi'
ian. All musical instruments dream
saws DR.. Richardson, after we cease 70
nlav on them and if we bring the mt
crophone into use we can near the
dream This is as near poetry as science
will permit us to approach III explain
inc the phenomena Of thought going on
during sleep; for the accomplished
lecturer proceeded to inform his au-
dicnce that dreams are all explainable
on physical grounds-thcrc is no mys-
terry about them save that which springs
from blindness 10 facts
After dividing dreams into sub
iective and objective, and mixtures or
both. he went on to class among the
first species dreams produced by indi-
restion. pain or fever. while objective
dreams are those started by noises or
other events going on outside the sleep
or. 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
anv men Of science left. They quote
the old lady in the Spectator, who be-
lievcd that the earthquake at Lisbon
. had some mysterious but quite unex-
plaincd connection With the fact that
lew 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
I something is wrong with our bodily or
Canizatiou. As a rule, said the lecturer,
/ it is bctter.nOt to dream at all Dream
( lessncss is usually symptom of all
/ round health. "A child's dreams are in
/ variablv signs of disturbed health, and
should be regarded with anxiety. For
adults it is u 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 10 be continuing our daily work
( this is a danger signal which never
must be disreEarded. 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 these practical 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 that the sleepof health
is dreamless, then it 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 a puzzle for persons of an unirn
aginatite 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 ad
mittcd that dreams of warning are
much harder to believe in than The
brain waves and thought transfer
enccs' which members of the psychicS
research society take as matter:
quite in the ordinary course of things
There is a considerable mass of testi
mOny i'll favor of the power of the rniuC
to produce results at an enormous dis
lance by some system of psychica
telegraphy of which nobody has YET
discovered the secret. A man who goe
to sleep and dreams that his brother i
being killed by wild tribe in centra
Africa, and who afterwards hears tina
he did meet with that fate at the pre-
else time when the vision occurred, nee,
not fly 10 any supernatural explanation
OF the phenomenon. 1t is quite differ
ent when a dream tells of somethin.
= which is to happen in few months
time. In the latter case most peopl
viii prefer TO join with science il
attributing the fact either to a Law
Of coincidence or to a simple deusion.
eve must do science the justice t
admit that if she increases the gloomi
ness OF life in some directions, a s by he
! doctrine of the struggle for existence
she decreases it in other resDects on
, of which is by aiding in the gradua
Punishment of any confidence in vision
/, and oInens and 'weirdneSs' generally"
No News.