39 
of the fancy during sleep are exempt from the connection of the 
real perceptions of waking life, and consequently possess greater 
power. The inconsistency of the dream is due to its course 
being left entirely to the guidance of portentous associations, 
modified by the interference of accidental impressions at the 
moment. The absence of control over our thoughts disables us 
from reflecting on the ideas which spontaneously arise, and 
prevents us from comparing them with past experience or with 
each other. The coherence of the dream, in so far as it 
occasionally exists, probably results, in part from an orderly 
suecession of previously associated ideas, in part from a faint 
power of selection exerted at the time. The exaggeration of 
real impressions is accounted for by the fact that while the great 
majority of external impressions are excluded, those which find 
entrance are thereby placed in a peculiarly favourable position. 
They are in novel isolation from their usual surroundings ; their 
nature is vaguely apprehended ; and they cannot be confronted 
with other experiences. Accordingly they usurp the whole 
available resources of consciousness and assume an utterly 
inordinate importance. In this way a slight sensation of cold or 
pressure may give rise to the illusion that we are lost in a 
snowstorm or crushed under a falling house. 
As regards the duration of dreams, whilst some apparently 
very long series of events seem to be gone through in a few 
seconds, somnambulism, and various experiments establish the 
fact that some dreams last a considerable time. 
DE ———————— 
THE COTTON TRADE OF INDIA. 
By JAS. SMALLEY, of Acsrington. February 24th, 1891. 
Mr. Smalley’s paper was illustrated by a number of photographs 
of the principal mills in the neighbourhood of Bombay, models 
of the workpeople, specimens of yarn spun, &c., quoting from a 
speech delivered in Bombay on the mills in England and India 
which he said entirely represented his own opinions), he pointed 
out that although the long hours in Indian mills was admitted it 
was contended that the English mill hand worked four times as 
hard as the Indian. Although the Indian mills ran 80 hours 
per week, only 10 per cent. of the workpeople worked full time, 
and their labour was by no means continuous. Although the 
