180 THK XKHVOl S SISTKM AND ITS ('( ).\SKI;\ ATK >.\ 



So loim MS they have the unexpected character, their oc- 

 currence due- imt seem to indicate that there is any failure 

 to recuperate t lie powers of those nerve-complexes on which 

 the strain of the ensuing day must fall. It may he 

 asserted that dreamless sleep is the ideal, hut we do not 

 know surely that it is ever reali/ed. People who say they 

 never dream, more probably dream and forget. We know 

 how uncertain at hest is our recollection of mo-t dreams. 

 The impressions seem to he destroyed hy the strong light 

 of day as though they were images upon a photographic 

 plate. Much as we have to develop our negatives in 

 rooms dimly lighted hy selected rays, we have to rehearse 

 our dreams in the half-waking condition at dawn if we are 

 to make them our permanent po--e-sioii. This does not 

 imply want of vividness in dreams when they are first 

 experienced; Kllis is apparently justified in his striking 

 aphorism: "Dream- are real while they last; can we say 

 more of life?" 



The writer once had occasion to discover how completely 

 a lapse of memory may create the impression that there 

 ha> heen unconsciousness. Nitrous oxid had heen given 

 for the extraction of two teeth. When he came to him- 

 self he told the dentist that he was much gratified hy the 

 entire success of the a ne-t hesia. He left the office with 

 the same feeling of satisfaction. On the street a few min- 

 utes later he recalled with appalling distinctness the pain 

 of the -econd extraction. No impression of the first 

 operation ever reiurned. It is disquieting to think that 

 one may suffer severely and then report in good faith that 

 one did not, hut it is the same with dreaming. 



The suhjrct matter of dreams may he of considerahle 

 assistance in answering a very important question. A 

 pei-son who wakes day after day with feeling- of weariness 

 and incapacity may he either indolent or tired. It is 

 likely that the -en-alion.- are much the same in the two 

 case.-, and yet ii i- nece--ary that the two conditions shall 

 In- distinguished, ('learly enough, mischief will he done 

 if one who is reallv fatigued and in need of more rest 



