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The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
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Prof. Lough Discusses the
Unfortunate Dream of Mr. John
Hutchinson Which Landed
Him in a Divorce Court and
Explains What Science
Knows About Our Sleep Talk
Testimony in the Divorce Suit of Mrs.
John J. Hutchinson Against Her Husband
LawyerWere any facta brought to rjrour attention in the early part of thfc
year that caused you to queition your husband In regard to his conduct' v
Mrs. Hutchinson Yes, because one night I heard him calling a girl's name.
Lawyer Where was he ; explain to the Judge Just what took place, and where?
Mrs. H, In bed It was.
The Judge In his sleep?
Mrs. II. Yes, he was fast asleep.
Lawyer Tell the Judge just what ha said.
Mrs. XI. I got up one night to get a drink of
water, and my husband was calling "Minnie, Minnie,"
in his sleep, fast asleep. I kept quiet and didn't wake
Lira up at alL
Lawyer Did you speak to him about it?
Mrs. IL Yes, sir.
Lawyer What did he say?
Mrs. K. I said, "Who is this Minnie you are call,
ing in your sleep?" and he got white, he hesitated for
a while and he said; "I didn't say 'Minnie," I said,
'How many,' I thought we were having some drinks
at the club."
(Dirorce was granted Mrs. Hutchinson).
What Science Has to
Say About Dreams
By James E. Lough
Professor of Experimental Ptyoholofly,
t Nsw York University.
VTTYHAT 1 a dreamt Why do ire .
X dream? How do we dreamt
VY what do our dreams mean?
That all men dream there can be no
question.
Many psychologists are convinced that
we do not have such a thins as dream
less sleep. Aristotle admitted that
horses, oxen, sheep, goats and dogs and
all viviparous quadrupeds dream. Dar
win notes in his Descent ot Man that
dogs. cats, horses and probably all the
higher animals have vivid dreams.
Romanes gives the same opinion in his
Mental Evolution in Animals.
Homer declared that dreams were sent
fey the gods. Socrates and Plato believed
la dreams. Xerxes invaded Greece be
cause ot a dream. Camhyset killed his
brother because of a dream warning.
The Egyptians and Babylonians ap
pointed men ot the highest learning to
Interpret dreams.
job complained, "When I say. my bed
shall comfort me, my couch shall ease
my complaint, then thou scarest me with
dreams, and terrlflest me through vis- .
ions."
The Greek Hippocrates In the fifth
century B. C. attributes the msss of
dreams to 'the influences of the mind
upon the body. He was the first to ap
proach a rational solution of dresm prob
lems. The higher animal kingdom prob
ably spends a third ot Its life In the
mysterious process of dreaming. Whet
is the meaning and purpose ot this world
ot illusion t
The little domestic trsgedy printed
above on this psge from the court rec
ords of a New Jersey court, contributes
an interesting case to the psychologist
How far should a Jury go In considering
sleep tslk. which at best is made ot the
stuff ot dreams? In this particular In
stance abundant corroborsUve evidence
made it plain that the sleeper was re
peating In his dream a real incident of
his waking life. How far ran we go
generslly in accepting sleep talk as evi
dence ot facts? We do not know.
There la a plausible and interesting
theory thst the senses go to sleep
separately. Our sense ot smell may be
asleep when our sense of hearing Is
alert, or tbe other way round. 8o our
sense ot touch may be awake when our
taste is asleep, l'rofenor Bargent Hoff
man In bis book. Psychology and the
Common Life (psge 10). points out
thst Csbsnls has attempted to show
thst there is a natural and regular order
in whirl) our senses fall asleep. First,
the sight becomes quiescent, snd then
tbe sense or taste. After thst the sense
ot smell snd that of hearing, last ot all
the sense ct touch. Hoffman doubts this
theory, sad believes thst probably no
two times of going to sleep or ot awak
ening are prtclaely alike in any Individ
ual Hoffman accepts, however, the the
ory that one sense may fall asleep while
all tie others are active, or that on
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alone may re
main awake. Sol
diers often sleep
at sentinel duty
11 their pow
ers are asleep
except the mus
cles of the legs.
Bailors sleep
clinging to tbe
mast.
Sir William
Hamilton tells of
a postman at the
University ot
Halle who car
ried the mall to
a village eight
miles distant
This post ma a
used to go to
sleep after leav
ing Halle, keen
the right road,
wake at the little
The End of
tbe Dream
By Damp
bridge he had to
' cross Just before reaching the end of his
Journey. Hoffman quotes Erasmus In a
story of his friend Professor Oporinus,
of Basel., He once took a long Journey
. with a distinguished bookseller, and Just
before they reached the inn where they
' were to spend, the night an old manu
script in Bsnskrlt was found that so
greatly Interested tbe bookseller that ha
persuaded Oporinus to sit up and read
it to him. The result was thst the pro
fessor fell asleep as to all other powers
but kept on reading for a long time, not
knowing when he awoke anything about
what he had been doing.
He bad to all intents and purposes
been talking in bis sleep. Dogs bark and
growl in their sleep. A coon dog, with
on bark tor the chase and one for the
stand, can sometimes be followed
through an exciting dream rhase by the
nature ot his sleep talk. Parrots often
chatter in their sleep. Canary birds
have been known to twitter their songs
in sleep.
The human animal Is a notorious
sleep talker. It is all pan of the dream
process. As in sleep walking, the emo
tions and nerves and motor centres are
cumulated in the dream state Just as
they are in a state ot consclousnesa
The physiological processes seem to be
similar. . If. then, in our sleep talk we
make no exception to the rule that our
dreams are always msde up ot those
things that we have bad something to do
with in our past experience, are we to
accept sleep talk as vital to truth? By
all means, not .
In dream talk we may chatter on In
an ldlotlo manner, following pretty
closely the chaotic state ot our mental
vision. We are no more liable to be tell
ing tbe truth In dreams than we are to
be acting the truth when we walk up
the aisle ot a church to plsy chief
mourner at our own funeral A man
might know a woman by name and go
through the most compromising situa
tions la a dream state, with his tongue
creating aU sorts of material for divorce
court evidence, and yet be entirely In
nocent of wrong doing. Most men and
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Some of the Popular Superstitions of the Meaning of Dreams
Dream of Sheep and Fortune
Will Be Yours,
most women will admit such Instances
out of their own experiences.
Most people are convinced that their
dreams are Influenced by their state of
health. The welsh rabbit, lobsters, all
indigestible food is accused of dream
meddling. Henry Maudsley in his book.
The Pethology of the Mind (page 29),
comments upon this phase of dreaming:
"There are particular dreams which I
have from time to time, and which I feel
sure originate in certain states of the
abdominal viscera. I Uke it for granted
hera that each internal organ of the body
bas. independently ot its Indirect action
upon the nervous system through chsnges
In the composition of tbe blood, a specific
action upon the brain through its inter
communicating nerve fibres, the con
scions result whereof is a certain modi
fication of the mood or tone of mind. We
are not directly conscious ot this phys
iological action as a definite sensation,
but none the less its effects are attested
Copyright 111. by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved.
by states of feeling that we are often
perplexed to account for."
In these pathological states of mind
Maudsley thinks we rightly discover the
occasions ot many dreams. He further
says:
"When the breathing is not free in
sleep and the heart's action is op
pressed, as it eventually is in such case,
the sleeper Is apt to wake up suddenly
In the greatest apprehension of some
thing terrible being about to be done to
him in his dream. The natural and in
voluntary motor expression of an op
pressed heart is such action of the
muscles of the face and of respiration
as betokens fear and apprehension but
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Dream of the Moon and You
Will Fall in Love.
this action cannot take plsce in sleep, and
an equally involuntary expression of the
physical state is shown in the terrifying
dream and in the frantlo but bootleaa de
sire which is felt to escape from the
threatened danger."
As several psychologists point out a
heavy and indigestible meal eaten shortly
before retiring often results In dreams in
which we find mountains or huge mon
sters sitting on our chests. Maudsley
questions whether these dreams are the
direct result ot the action of the over
loaded stomach upon the brain or an in
direct effect of the oppression of the
functions ot the lungs and the heart.
Tbe troubles of indigestion seldom tail
to cause troubled sleep. It is not known
whether the spleen ever gives color to
a dream. There Is little doubt however,
that disorders ot the liver and ot the
intestines both oocasion dreams and af
fect their character. "Every stage of
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'Mrs. Hutchinson heard
hie dream, and on this slender clew she based
successful action for divorce."
the passage of food through the alimen
tary canal may indeed affect the Impres
sion made upon the brain," Maudsley ex
plains.' Under the head of Muscular Sensibility
the text-books give some interesting
dream demonstrations. For instance,
who has not dreamed of flying? We
arise from our bed on wings of air and
float and dip about the room with ease.
Out of the window we go and into the
streets, where we attempt to demon
strate to our astonished friends how very
easy It is to imitate the birds. Mauds
ley relates that it is reported of several
holy persons that in their spiritual rap
tures, or ecstasies, they rose bodily from
the earth and floated in the air. And
there can be no doubt but what some
ot them felt and believed that they did.
St Philip Neri. St Dunstan. St Christina
could hardly be held down by their
friends.
It is told of Agnes of Bobemia that
when walking in her garden one day she
was suddenly raised from the' ground
and disappeared from sight ot her com
panions, making no answer to their
anxious inquiries but a sweet and ami
able emlle on ber return to earth after
her flight
"The explanation." says Maudsley, "la
Which Have No Scientific Basis
Dream of Ruins and You Will
Be Honored.
not far to seek, A person may have a
motor hallucination and Imagine that he
makes the movement which he does not.
Just as he may have a sensory hallucina
tion and imagine he sees or hears the
thing he does not We are the victims
of motor hallucination when we suffer
from vertigo and the room seems to turn
round. . . . These sensory disturb
ances play a vital part in the phe
nomena of dreaming."
It has been suggested that the rhythm
of breathing may suggest the rhythm
of flying. Dr. Gregory dresmed ot walk
ing up Mount Etna, suffering intensely
from the heat when be had a bottle ot
hot water applied to his feet Aristotle
mentions that people csn be made to
dream of thunderstorms by making a
slight noise in the ears when they are
asleep.
Alfred Maury once conducted a num
ber ot testa upon himself to determine
her husband say 'Minnie, Minnie in
the influence of Impressions made upon
him when he was asleep. He detailed a
person to make various experiments
upon his senses without informing him
in advance what he was about to do, and
to wake him after each test His nose
and his lips were first tickled with a
feather. He dreamed that a pitch plaster
had been applied to his face and later
torn away so violently as to bring with
it the skin from his face. A pinch at the
back of the neck made him dream of a
blister and brought to his memory a
doctor who had attended him when a
child.
Psychologists often have to consider
the very common dream ot a person go
ing about the streets and other public
places without clothing. Most people
have had this dream experience. It
probably arises from a sensation of cold
following an insufficiency of clothing or
following the loss of bed clothing. A
feverish condition followed by chill
might also produce this dream effect
When the skin is particularly sensitive
through Illness the smallest impressions
may be perverted into hammer blows,
attacks from wild animals, etc
Maudsley, in his most interesting chap
ters on sleep and dreaming in The Path
ology of the Mind, attributes many dream
causes to cerebral circulation (page 89).
When the brain is thinking, he explains,
there is a more active flow ot blood
through it than when it is at rest, but
this flow must not be too active, or sound
thinking is impossible. An excessive or
a defllclent flow ot blood through the
brain is adverse to successful thought
When these conditions are applied to the
brain at sleep we obtain interesting
dream results. Nightmares which awaken
one and then return again with sleep are
ot this nature. Local fluctuations of the
circulation also may be the cause of dis
turbed dreams. It is easy to conceive,
ays Maudsley, that some trivial dis
order of an organ may affect temporarily,
through vaso-motor nerves the circula
tion In the cerebral area In which it is
represented; the particular vascular area
will blush or become pale, as it were, In
sympathy with the state of the organ.
The quality of the blood is also an im
portant factor in dreams. Lack of iron
In the blood or a deficiently carbonized
blood will have the same effect upon the
sleeping brain as upon the waking mind.
Overwork is a well-known cause of
bad dreams. Physical and nervous ex
haustion affect the brain centres and
react in sleep as they do when you
are awake. Moral shocks disturb the
brain cells and produce disordered sleep
consciousness.
As scientists experiment more and
more with dreams, the more we work
away from tbe old superstitions and at
tain a correct pathological reason for
consciousness In sleep. The ancients
tried to draw prophecy and portent and
guidance from their dreams. We are be
ginning to analyze and run to the doc
tor. It is a normal thing to dream the
mind goes on with its curious working
when Judgment drops its band in sleep
and is no longer at the rudder. Most
dreams seem to be nothing more nor less
than harmless reassoclatlon ot impres
sions flitting before us like a moving pic
ture film gone mad. Those dreams
which tell us of physical disorder, we
are Just beginning to note. They usu
ally are due to derangements following
lack of physical exercise and ordinary
watchfulness ot the functions of elim
aaattna.
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