Year: 1873

The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of


We find IN an old medical journal
an interesting compilation Of ac
counts of remarkable dreams. Not
all, nor nearly all dreams are pro.
duced by impressions made upon
the mind during sleep, but this is
frequent exciting case. A story is
told of an officer on board q trans
port, whose companions could pro,
duce in him any kind of dream by
Whispering in his ear. They often
amused themselves in this manner
Once they conducted him through
the whole process Of q quarrel
which ended in q duel, When the
parties were supposed to have met
II pistol was put in his hand, and he
fired it OIL. The report awoke him
At another time, they found him
asleep on locker, and made him
! believe that he must swim for his
)iitr. They then pretended that q
shark was WrsniDg him, and he
mnst dive. In attempting this he
fell off the locker and woke up,


A physician who was sleeping IL
a room that smelt strongly of cheese
and was swarming with rats
dreamed that he was imprisoned
for u political offease, in = huge
cheese, that the cheese was attacked
hy an army Of rats, and that the
rats had begun to knaw at him.


A yapng woman, who had the
habit OF sucking her thumb while
asleep, tried to break herself by
covering tho thumb with aloes he:
fore she went to bed; when she
awoke, the aloes were all sucked Off
She had dreamed that she was cross
ing the ocean in II steamer made OF
wormwood, with plates, Dishes
chairs, and everything Of worm
wood, and that there was II bitter
smell all over the ship. There was
so strong q hitter taste in her mouth,
that on her arrival at Hayre, she
asked for a glass Of water; but the
attendant brought her an infusion
of wormwood, which she gulped
down. On her requesting a Paris
physician to extract the wormwood
from her body, he told her that the
only remedy was oxgall, which he
gave her by the pound, The bitter
taste Of the remedy was as bad as
that of the wormwood; and to get
rid Of it she applied to the Pope,
who told her that she must make
pilgrimage to the plain where The
pillar of salt stood, which was
formerly Lots wife, and must eat
q piece of salt as large as her
thumb, She reached the object of
her journey, and then deliherated
as to what part Of the figure she
should break off. The result was,
that, as she had a bad habit Of suck.
ing herthumb, she would break of
and suck that part of the statue.
On putting che broken fragments
into her mouth, she awoke and
found that she was sucking her own
thumb. - pa ~.


A Mr.. Marry caused a series of
experiments to be performed on
himself when asleep, which afforded
very satisfactory results.


First eXperiment:-He caused
himself to be tickled with q feather
on the lips and inside the nostrils,
He dreamed that he was subjected
to horrible punishment. A mask
of pitch was applied to his face and
then torn roughly off, taking with
II the skin of his lips, nose and
face.


Second Experimental pair of
tweezers was held at a little dis
tance from his ear, and struck with
a pair Of scissors. He dreamed
that he heard the ringing of bells.
This was soon converted into the
tocsin, and this suggested the days
Of June, l848.


Third experiment. A bottle of
eat Gle Cologne was held to his nose.
He dreamed that he was in per-
fumers shop, This excited visions
of the East; and he dreamed that
he was in Cairo, in the shop of Jean
Marie Farina. Many surprising
adventures occurred to him there,
the details Of which were forgotten,


Fourth experiments. "A burning,
lucifer match was held close to his
Tnostrils. He dreamed that he was
at sea (the wind was blowing in
through the windows, J, and that the
magazine OF the vessel blew up.


Fifth experiment:-He was slight
ly pinched on the nape Of the neck.
He dreamed that q blister was ap-
piled. And this recalled the rec
objection of q physician who had
treated him in his infancy. sgF