20 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



which ascends to its native stars during sleep, there extend- 

 ing its ordinary sphere of knowledge. A curious approach to 

 the modern doctrine of hypnotic suggestion is found in the 

 view of Von Nettesheim that through an effort of the will one 

 may control the dreams of another person even though ignorant 

 of the distance and position of the subject. 



The philosophical importance of dreams lies obviously in 

 the belief openly expressed by Tylor, Radestock and others 

 that the concept of the immortality and even the separate 

 existence of the soul originally grew out of dream appearances. 

 It is certainly the fact that in the earliest ages dreams were 

 regarded as the most direct and important means of revelation. 

 The office of " interpreter of dreams " was more important far 

 than the corresponding meterological bureau of the modern 

 regime. The history of the Hebrew people would have been 

 far different, as Dr. Hale has shown with no less acumen than 

 wit in his clever tale of the yellow dog, if Providence had not 

 watched over the career of Joseph, the dreamer of Dothan. 

 When the Guinea negro sees his departed foe in visions upon 

 his bed it never occurs to him to doubt the reality of the visit. 

 When the savage dreams of the happy hunting grounds he 

 awakes with full confidence that his spirit has left the bodily 

 tenement and tasted the first fruits of his pious ferocity. The 

 Tagli in Luzon believe that a dreaming person should not be 

 awakened lest his soul should perchance be absent. An Indian 

 in Manilla, on awakening suddenly, found only the part of the 

 body of his companion from the middle upwards lying by his 

 side, the rest having wandered away in the form of "Tigbalang, " 

 He covered the torso with ashes, at which the missing portion 

 returned with threatening gestures being unable to reunite with 

 the trunk by reason of the ashes. It is not merely the savages 

 of Africa and the Chinese who believe that the air is thick with 

 spirits who share our food and largely control our acts. A cer- 

 tain grade of mental development and various conditions of 

 body and periods in life predispose to a belief in what we char- 

 acterize, in the natives of New Zealand, as gross superstition. 



The most diverse and widely separated races have the com- 



