DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS. 255 



But the brain, with all its dependencies and appendices, 

 is not only the organ of thought, but it stimulates and 

 directs our whole system, as numerous experiments 

 have shown. In the waking state both these 

 functions are exercised equally, as far as the im- 

 pulses and functions of the body are concerned, and 

 as long as the psychical and organic characteristics 

 of the waking state continue. But in sleep the ex- 

 citing influence of the brain is diminished, and the 

 brain transmits much less of the normal excitement 

 and normal tension to the spinal axis with its rami- 

 fications in the afferent and efferent nerves ; in the 

 waking state an external impression is promptly con- 

 veyed to the centres, whence it returns in correspond- 

 ing movements with the usual connection and rapidity, 

 whether reflex or deliberate. Since in sleep the 

 relative condition is flaccid and torpid, this action no 

 longer takes place. For if the brain be affected by 

 strong impressions, and these are followed by corre- 

 sponding movements due to reflex action, as is often 

 the case, even in sleep, the dreamer is only obscurely 

 conscious of them, and they almost wholly depend on 

 the spinal axis, and the peripheral ganglia. 



As we have said, the function of the brain is 

 duplex; it stimulates and directs, and it is also 

 sentient and conscious, and this second function is 

 persistent in dreams. Although the brain is no 

 longer directed by a power which dictates psychical 

 acts and phenomena, yet its automatic action is not 

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