The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-27
The Brain in Sleep.

Dreams are generally a repetition of thoughts unguided by reason. Those caused by internal action or brought about by action within the body are due entirely to the action and state of the stomach, which in turn is affected by the quantity and quality of food con- sumed
 The first ends or feeIers of the nerves are located in the walls of the stomach, and as the food Is digested they draw up the nourishment and distribute it throughout the nervous system to re- place the waste that has taken place during the day. If the stomach be sur charged with an abundance of heating food, too much nourishment is forced upon the brain, causing an abnormal
 filling of the channels, thereby expand l ing them. bringing them in touch with
 others and causing the matter from one
 to overflow into or to mix with the fluid of neighboring channels. Whenever the | fluid traverses a channel more or less
 forcibly the thought which originated
 that passage is reproduced more or less
 wildly; hence insures the general mix 1 ing up of thoughts which originally had
 no connection with each other.
 An overloaded stomach also causes
 flow of blood to the brain, sent there by
 nature to assist in assimilating the e&- tra nourishment. and the overcharged
 blood vessels, pressing upon the nerve channels near the brain. cause even more turbulent disturbances. This ac- counts for the advice of so many medl-
 cal men that no considerable quantity
 especially of animal food, should be
 taken immediately before bedtime.
 The crossing, recrossing and touching or
 these thought channels brought about
 in this way produce the absurd mix
 lures of fancies that often come to us
 when we sleep.
 The stomach, too, is a mill which
 keeps on forever grinding, the walls
 acting as the grindstones. When,
 therefore, there is nothing between
 them, or, in other words, when the sto-
 mach is empty, one wall grfnds upon
 the other, causing an irritation ot the
 nerves which produces that peculiar
 sensation of falling from some great
 height.
 To understand how external action will affect the dream of a sleeper Il must be borne in mind that those } dreams which seem to take hours, and |. even days, in passing really occupy bu' minute fraction of a second. II . therefore, we are awakened by some
 loud, strident noise, say by the cracklne of a whip, then between the time tha the sound strikes the ear wslle we arc
 vet asleep and the time that we are tul' . ly awake to realize what has caused ths ' sound a few moments only nave Il elapsed, but those few moments Wer' sufficient to allow of dream or appa y rentIy several hours duration. As an example,: A nilkman, driylnt ! up beneath an open bedroom window
 cracks his whip snartly. Immedlatei. the thought produced by the soun Il causes a dream. The sleeper imagine . himself a soldier who has fallen7nto LII ' hands of the enemy. He is led out to D 2 shot He stands blindfolded, wit Il hands tied, before the platoon Of sol
 diers. He hears the click, click, CLICK . the rifles are COChSu' LiC AiSNAtS ~- ' word given, and the noise of the Volle :, rings out on his ears. Then he awake a with a start, to hear the rumble ot tn o milkman's wagon as he cracked Ill ~ whip and drove off over some roug h cobblestones. e A blow, a cut or a sensation ot pal ;o will operate in the same way ana aWah
 on certain channels of thought connec' m ed with pain just as the noise aWok |, those connected with sound.
 l. For instance, a sleeper dreams that a is closed up in some close travelling cal 5o riage and is being driven rapidly off ,e an unknown direction by man WI le has designs upon his purse and III m He tries to shout, in vain he struggle ,e to get free and in the tussle drives a ,e arm through the glass window of u ly carriage. The hand is cut and plee'
 ing. It smarts fearfully, and rs awakes to find that in his sleep ne hs ,y carelessly thrown out an arm, ana at hand has smashed some fine medicll lg glass on a stand by the bedside. IT n- whole dream passed between the tn
 that the hand first struck the glass, CT at Iating the sensation of pain, and the m he nent that the sleeper awake to reall in tho fact-Chicago Record.