598 Dr. B. W. Richardson [April 29, 



and I, simultaneously and independently discovered that by putting 

 diflferent centres to sleep by cold of different intensities we could pro- 

 duce variations of motion, by influencing the motor parts of the brain 

 that balance each other. For example, we found that in birds the 

 cerebellum, which in full activity impels the body to forward move- 

 ments, is balanced by two great ganglia in the fore part of the cere- 

 brum, called by the old anatomists the corpora striata, and that if the 

 cerebellum be put to sleep the body makes backward somersaults ; 

 while if the ganglia in the fore part of the cerebrum be made to 

 sleep, the body is impelled forward in a similar mode of motion. 

 There was thus produced one of the same conditions which Mr. Weston 

 experienced in his dream after walking many short laps. He had 

 wearied his cerebral centres by the constant jerk he encountered in 

 his long exercise on the short circuit ; and when he passed into sleep, 

 his propelling centre, the cerebellum, which in its action had become 

 almost automatic, seemed to force him forward imperatively. In this 

 way dreams olten become automatic where balance is not correct. In 

 some persons a kind of sudden dream occurs when they look down a 

 steep height ; the controlling centre in the brain is for the moment 

 overpowered, while, the propelling centre continuing unaffected, the 

 danger is occasionally realised, of precipitation into the space below. 

 This is the dream of the motor centres in a state of broken 

 balance, but there is a dream also of the reasoning centres due to 

 broken balance in them, in which one nature in man seems to struggle 

 with another, as if indeed two were contending, a dream of weariness 

 and strife, such as is commonly present in the unhappy during waking 

 dreams, as well as in dreams of sleep. I have called this the dream 

 of contention. The break of balance in this instance is between the 

 two hemispheres of the brain, which, like the two hands, the two eyes, 

 the two lungs, are independent organs, and which, as Dr. Wigan 

 taught nearly fifty years agone, are by their independency the cause 

 of the dual nature of the mind. If these hemispheres are closely akin 

 in function, either for strength or weakness, we have the evidence of 

 the single mind for strength or for weakness. But in very few 

 is there such equality : in the majority of persons one hemisphere is 

 strong, the other less strong, the stronoer ruling until it is so 

 wearied that it gives way to the feebler. The apparent contradictions 

 of human nature are readable, by this key, in the dream of C(»ntention, 

 dream of resolution, of contrition, of remorse, in some cases of con- 

 fession of real or imaginary offences against common or moral 

 law. The sleeping dreams of the insane, like their waking 

 dreams, are specially of this character, and atford the best insight 

 we have into the meaning of what is called the unbalanced or insane 

 mind. 



My reading of dreams, their phenomena, and their causes would 

 be incomplete were I not able to draw from the study some useful 

 practical lessons. We can draw many such, and here are a few. 



