176 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 162. 



ments of Patrizi, Hill, Mosso and others are 

 reviewed. The internal organs, stomach, kid- 

 neys, etc., may be in full activity during pro- 

 found sleep. As regards the nervous system 

 the inactivity is found In the centers rather than 

 in the nerve and cord. The brain is in a col- 

 lapsed, pale condition. The special senses may 

 any of them be active, while walking, talking, 

 and other movements are not incompatible with 

 sleep. Even the brain may be active in some 

 of its parts. 



The various theories as to the cause of sleep 

 are discussed and criticised. The vasomotor 

 theories find sleep to be caused directly by the 

 withdrawal of the blood from the brain, or 

 indirectly by the relaxation of tone in the vaso- 

 motor center controlling the skin vessels, pro- 

 ducing dilatation of the latter and anaemia at 

 the centers. The chemical theories attribute 

 sleep to the impoverishment of oxygen in the 

 brain, or to the poisonous presence of carbonic 

 acid or of leucomaines. Some recent histolog- 

 ical theories of sleep explain it by assigning 

 certain amceboid characters to the cerebral 

 cells or to the cells of the neuroglia, the retrac- 

 tion of the ramifications of these cells resulting 

 in isolation and inactivity of the nervous ele- 

 ments. In place of any of these theories the 

 author herself very naively substitutes a psy- 

 chical theory based upon the formula : Sleep is 

 the resting time of consciousness. Hence we 

 notice that those in whom consciousness is 

 feebly developed, savages, infants, less cultured 

 adults, require more sleep than others. 



Under pathology, the writer treats of insom- 

 nia, syncope, excessive sleep, hibernation, 

 narcolepsy, catalepsy, hypnosis, latah and 

 somnambulism. In all of these the discussion 

 is brief and presents nothing striking. Under 

 hygiene, attention is called to the dangers of 

 too much sleep to persons of all ages. In chil- 

 dren it develops the vegetative life of the 

 organism at the expense of the central ner- 

 vous system. In boys and girls it is apt to 

 lead to albuminuria. In adults it enfeebles 

 the brain. Likewise, the half-waking state, 

 hypnosis, the use of alcohol or narcotics, are 

 all injurious, as they tend to produce an 

 enfeebled consciousness. We should rise late 

 in winter and early in summer. In the case of 



children perfect uniformity in the time of 

 retiring and rising should be avoided. 



Under the psychology of sleep, dreams are 

 treated at some length, as to their classification, 

 causes and peculiarities. The strangeness of 

 dreams, as well as the criminal nature that 

 they sometimes assume, is accounted for by 

 their atavistic character. In dreams our per- 

 sonal, fully developed consciousness is asleep, 

 while latent tendencies transmitted by our 

 farthest ancestors tend to revive. "A good 

 and peaceful man may awake in horror with 

 forehead bathed in sweat from a dream in which 

 he has been transported into some strange and 

 antipathetic environment in which he has com- 

 mitted a barbarous and cruel deed, not alto- 

 gether abnormal, but fully possible in the far 

 past of humanity." 



G. T. W. Patrick. 



University of Iowa. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADE3IIES. 

 NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES — SECTION 

 OF BIOLOGY — MEETING OF JAN- 

 UARY 10, 1 98. 



Professor Osborn spoke as follows on the 

 Origin of the Mammalia : Huxley's hypothesis 

 (1880) deriving the Hypotheria or Promammalia 

 from ancient Amphibia contrasts with Cope's 

 (1884), which substituted carnivorous reptiles of 

 the Pelycosaur type included in his order Thero- 

 mora. Baur (1886) placed the Theromora as a 

 parallel phylum with the mammalia springing 

 from Sauromammalia of the Permian. Osborn 

 (1888) proposed the Protodonta as archaic mam- 

 mals transitional to reptiles, and later (1893) 

 adopted Baur's views as to the Theromora. 

 More recently Baur has removed the Pely- 

 cosauria from the Theromora entirely, and thus 

 speculation by the late Professor Cope, Baur 

 and Osborn as to the origin of mammals turns 

 back to the true Theromora, namely, the Bi- 

 cynodontia and Theriodontia of Owen, a group 

 which Professor H. G. Seeley has described 

 in his numerous memoirs. Among these Per- 

 mian reptiles of South Africa we find a re- 

 markable assemblage of characters which com- 

 parative anatomy and paleontology have led 

 us to anticipate in the hypothetical promammal. 

 Osborn (1888 and 1893) described the probable 



