336 
of the dream-life of delinquents, is of especial 
interest. It is greatly to be regretted that De 
Sanctis fails to give more exact details of his 
method of inquiry. Written answers would 
have been impossible from most of these sub_ 
jects, so it is probable that the statistics are 
compiled from personal questioning ; and, in 
this case, it is reasonable to suppose that De 
Sanctis made his questions concrete enough to 
secure naive and reliable answers. A fuller 
account of his methods should, however, have 
been given, especially in view of the unequivo- 
cal interest of the results (p. 237). Less than 
one-fourth of the one hundred and twenty-five 
criminal subjects, and only one-seventh of the 
class of lowest criminals, are frequent dreamers; 
whereas one-fourth of the entire number, and 
two-fifths of the most depraved, are never con- 
scious of dreaming. This suggests, of course, 
a low degree of mental activity on the part of 
these subjects, and this indication is strength- 
ened by the observation that by far the greater 
part of delinquents’ dreams are of an entirely 
unemotional nature. The most curious effect 
of this tendency is that the criminal seldom 
dreams of his own crime and when he dreams 
of it is as likely as not to be entirely unmoved. 
Twenty-two subjects, out of ninety-three, ac- 
knowledged the occurrence of dreams of this 
character, but half of these stated that such 
dreams were without emotion. 
The emotional nature of the dream is a sub- 
ject which De Sanctis treats at length, to the 
comparative disadvantage of such topics as 
imagery, association and thought in dreams. 
The chapter on ‘Sogni ed Emoziani,’ which 
considers especially the relation of dream-emo- 
tions to those of the waking life, is one of the 
most suggestive of the entire volume. Its chief 
conclusions are these : 
Nearly three-fifths of the normal adult sub- 
jects, and many of the hysterical and neur- 
asthenic subjects, have dreams which are 
distinctly influenced by daytime emotional ex- 
periences. Chronic emotions, rather than un- 
expected and sudden feelings, and emotions of 
uncertainty, like doubt, suspicion, fear and 
hope, rather than feelings of settled grief, are 
reproduced indreams. And, finally, De Sanctis 
records his conviction that only emotions of 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von. X. No. 245. 
medium intensity are radiated out into the 
dream-life, since, as he observes, extreme feel- 
ing ‘consumes force’ by the organic excitement 
which accompanies it. For this reason, and 
also because suspense rather than certainty 
marks the dream-feeling, we so seldom dream 
of the dead at times of recent bereavement. 
Cases in which the dream emotion is carried 
over into the waking life are carefully consid- 
ered. De Sanctisis of opinion that many cases __ 
of the fixed idea and of paranoia are directly 
traceable to dream experiences, and the extent 
of his observations lends force to his remark > 
thata suggestion, given for instance in the hyp- 
nogogic state, which should effect the dream- 
life, might indirectly influence the abnormal 
waking condition. 
The experimental observations undertaken 
by De Sanctis were few in number and are in- 
sufficiently reported. The results, such as they 
are, confirm those of the few published records. 
and of certain unreported experiments of the 
writer of this notice, all of them tending to 
show the possibility of artificial modification 
of the imagery and the emotion of a dream | 
through artificial stimulation. The experimen- 
tal study of dreams should, however, be widely 
extended, though the difficulty “of accurately 
reporting the dream experience by the waking 
memory affects the most important factor of 
the experimental solution of psychic problems. 
De Sanctis briefly summarizes and very justly 
estimates the physiological theories concerning 
sleep and dreams, He himself lays stress upon 
the comparative absence of peripheral stimuli, | 
during periods of cerebral excitation, as at 
least a sufficient basis for the explanation of the 
dream experience. 
Mary WHITON CALKINS. 
WELLESLEY COLLEGE. 
GENERAL. 
THE International Institute of Bibliography 
at Brussels has published a pamphlet discus- 
sing the plans of the Royal Society’s Cata- 
logue of Scientific Literature. These are criti- 
cised somewhat severely, it being claimed that 
the Royal Society’s plans are defective owing to 
lack of experience in bibliography and the fail- 
ure to consider catalogues already in operation. | 
