Dream

(drēm.) [D. droom ] (Physiol.) A series of mental impre ions occurring to sleeping persons, and which, therefore, are not under the command of reason. D. have been referred to various causes; among others,to direct impre ions on the organs of sense during sleep; to the absence of a power to test the inaccurate conclusions drawn from one set of impre ions by other impre ions; to a disordered state of the digestive organs;to a le restrained action of the mental faculties; to the suspension of volition while the powers of sensation continue, . In health there is a le tendency to dream than in disease; in the earlier than in the later periods of life; and the very act of dreaming shows that the brain is not enjoying a complete stato of rest. The phenomena of D. are yet too little studied to enable us to attest much with certainty regarding them. The popular belief has frequently ascribed them to supernatural agency, especially where there has been any coincidence between adream and an external event; and it maybe said that if many of the instances of remarkable dreams may be explained by natural causes, there are others so well authenticated that we cannot altogether discredit them, that are manifestly unexplained by any natural means. [s. 302]