DREAMS 191 



the army, goes to the front, and is shot. He is awakened 

 by the slamming of a door. It seems probable that the 

 enlistment and the march to the field are theories to ac- 

 count for the report which really caused the whole train 

 of thought, though it seemed to be its latest item. 



A dentist made the following experiment twice with the 

 same results: While a patient was inhaling nitrous oxid 

 the names of the stations on a local railroad line were 

 repeated to him. When consciousness returned he was 

 asked what he had dreamed. In each case the reply 

 was, "I thought that I went on a long railroad journey 

 and at last met with a terrible accident." One cannot 

 doubt that the catastrophe was the dreamer's interpreta- 

 tion of the violent extraction of a tooth. 



The dreaming state is one which usually has little or no 

 motor expression. Ellis has called attention to the fact 

 that in dreams we may either think that we move with 

 extraordinary ease and speed, or we may have the sense 

 of inability to command the muscles. Of course, the 

 second state is one in which we have a more correct 

 impression of the actual situation. The author cited 

 thinks that it is always associated with shallow sleep 

 when there are sensory signs of the immobility of the 

 limbs. With deeper sleep these signs would disappear 

 and the dreamer would not be deterred from imagining 

 remarkable indulgences in locomotion and aviation. 



The lack of brightness in the ocular sensations possible 

 to one with closed eyes may account for the report com- 

 monly made that dream scenery is colorless and sober. 

 This is not necessarily the case; the writer often ex- 

 periences surprise and pleasure when, after a winter day, 

 he finds that in his dream country the grass is brilliantly 

 green, the sky intensely blue, and the sunshine as golden 

 as that of a Sorolla landscape. It is generally agreed 

 that sensations of taste and smell are rarely noted in 

 dreams. 



