MAURY OX SLEEP AND DEEAMS. 417 



the vascular system of the brain. The many cases 

 where sleep, or states closely akin to it, can be pro- 

 duced by causes in which the circulation is little, if 

 indeed at all, concerned, but where the nervous system 

 is directly and powerfully acted upon, suffice to show 

 how important is the influence of the latter in con- 

 nexion with these complex and ever-changing pheno- 

 mena. 



A treatise on Sleep and Dreams, to be complete, 

 should comprise also the pathology of these states, and 

 the remedies useful or useless which have been sug- 

 gested to remove or relieve the disorders affecting 

 them. These topics, however, belong rather to profes- 

 sional works, and we cannot here do more than refer 

 to them, important though they are to the physiologist 

 as well as to the physician. It has been our object in 

 the foregoing article, which we now bring to a close, 

 to place before our readers simply and clearly what we 

 may best call the Natural History of Sleep and Dreams. 

 While avoiding as far as possible all technical language 

 and the metaphysical subtleties into which such ques- 

 tions are prone to pass, we have sought to inculcate 

 larger and more distinct conceptions of these great 

 functions of our inner life, the very familiarity of which 

 obscures them to our contemplation. And at the same 

 time we have endeavoured, by pointing out the close 

 relations and analogies of the phenomena to those of 

 our waking existence, to establish here, also, that con- 

 tinuity and identity of Being, upon which these pheno- 

 mena on first view seem so strangely to infringe. 



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