scientific material it is simple to picture the possibilities of a dreamer who might find himself borne by spirits far into the ethereal blue, away from the dreaded evil eye and the machinations of witch and wizard.

Solanum, or belladonna, has held its fascinating, half repulsive mystery through Biblical lore and mediæval magic to the stern, straight-laced science of to-day. The Bible refers to it as the vine of Sodom, Deuteronomy xxii, 32, although its more recent name of solanum is derived from solamen, meaning solace or consolation, in that it induces sleep. Its modern portion is belladonna, or atropine. Tanner describes its visions as wild and fantastic, while Herring and Jahr ascribe to the dreams, "merry craziness, dreams of undressing and of walking through the streets undressed. Walks around the churchyard gathering herbs and in his dream converses with his late sister in the churchyard."

The male fern was also used in enchantments and in inducing visions and dreams, but modern medicine does not describe the dreams induced thereby.

Henbane has a medieval lilt that wakes the thought of magic dead and gone. Its recent name, hyoscyamus, though more scientific is less appealing to the imagination. Double vision, presbyopia, lights flashing before the eyes, are symptoms ascribed to it by Tanner, who further recounts a quaint story of some monks who partook of the roots of henbane, under the impression that they were eating parsley. They rang the matins bell at midnight, and those who waked from their dreams sufficiently to attend, read what was never printed in any sacred book. The usual dreams of henbane are of persons far away and the delusion of the presence of the absent ones continues after the waking. Visions of persecution attend these dreams, imaginary wrongs and a burning desire to right their injuries by punishing those about them with an undercurrent of jealousy and licentiousness, render the victims of this drug dangerous.

Absinthe or wormwood was first brought to Europe from

Algiers by French soldiers. Oil of wormwood is one of the chief ingredients of absinthe. The plant wormwood (Artemisia absinthum) is mentioned in the Bible; its acridity has made it the symbol of bitterness. As drug, intoxicant or narcotic its use is very ancient; its effects upon the moral character are regarded as peculiarly deleterious, it rouses weird, unnatural dreams and hallucinations.

"Here, for instance was a field of scarlet poppies,—I walked knee-deep among them, inhaling the strong opium odor of their fragile leaves-they blazed vividly against the sky, and nodded drowsily to and fro in the wind. And between their brilliant clusters lay the dead!-bodies of men with ghastly wounds in their hearts, and fragments of swords and guns in their stiffening hands, while round and about them were strewn torn flags and broken spears. . . . The sound of a sweet song sung at midnight and lo, the moon is there, full, round, and warm! Grand gray towers and palaces rise above me on all sides,—and out on that glittering yellow water rests one solitary gondola, black as a floating hearse, yet holding light! She, that fair siren in white robes, with bosom bare to the amorous moon-rays,—she with her wicked, laughing eyes and jewel-wreathed tresses,-is she not beautiful, wanton enough for at least one hour's joy! Hark!-she sings... when all at once the moon vanishes,-a loud clap of thunder reverberates through earth and heaven,—the lightning glitters aloft and I am alone in darkness and storm. Alone, yet not alone, for there gliding before me in aerial phantom-shape is Pauline,-her thin garments wet,—her dark locks dank and dripping,—her blue eyes fixed and lusterless,— but yet she smiles! A strange, sad smile! she waves her hand and passes; I strive to follow, but some imperative force holds me back;-I can only look after her and wonder why those drops of moisture cling so heavily to her gown and hair! She disappears!-good!-Now I am at peace again, I can watch to my heart's content those little leaping flames that

sparkle round me in lambent wreaths of exquisitely brilliant green,—I can think! . . ."-Wormwood, Marie Corelli.

Lobelia, established in modern pharmacopoeia, likewise has a creditable share of antiquity, dating back to the days of the Crusades. It brings restless sleep and many dreams. There is a sensation of falling, and the limbs, suddenly leaden seem dragging the sleeper into fathomless abysses, in which there is no light nor hope of light. The limbs are amputated, or perhaps the sleeper dreams of a bullet passing through the head from one temple to the other.

The American Indians likewise understood the value of lobelia as a narcotic, hence its name, Indian tobacco, derived from the propensity of the braves to seek oblivion in the fumes of lobelia.

Laudanum and morphine, or morphia are alike derivatives of opium and the substance of these dreams is virtually the same, although they are probably more acute and clearly defined in the dreams resulting from morphine, as the latter drug is the most efficacious anodyne known to science, even as it is the most deleterious alike to the mental, moral and physical system of the patient. The flying, swimming and falling dreams are especially common to morphia addicts. Laudanum, the predecessor of morphine, was discovered by Paracelsus.

That the typical dreams induced by narcotics and anodynes are due to the physical effects of the drugs themselves is obvious to the modern dream analyst. Impeded heart action, the effect of certain stimuli upon the various nerve centers and organs, the retina, the lungs, the bladder, etc., all these are translated by the dream consciousness into terms of the individual temperament of the dreamer. They may, however, be forced to give a complete account of themselves as physical stimuli, hence their psychic value as dreams is of little or no importance.

CHAPTER X

DREAM ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

"A skilful man reads dreams for his self-knowledge."

-EMERSON.

Recent students affirm the existence of certain rules and laws that govern dreams. By applying these rules the dreamer's mental processes may be followed through the mazes of the subconsciousness and the dream analyzed and explained. However new the methods, the result is merely the recovery of a long-lost art, for dream interpretation is nothing new. By the modern processes human motives, unrecognized thoughts and forbidden desires are unerringly ferreted out and, in the case of a neurotic patient, frequently cured, but here the work ends. The older methods dealt in divination, prophecy and occult matters, warnings and admonitions were administered and heeded by the recipients thereof. At first glance the difference seems as vast as the distance that sweeps between the generations of the dreamers, but in reality the variance is slight. For while the modern method merely claims to dissect character or tendencies, and the ancient oneirocritics attempt to forecast the future, the scientists are confronted with the fact that "character is destiny," and thus despite themselves the ultra-moderns become prophetic.

In all ages students have divided the dream into various classes according to their form and meaning. This differentiation agrees in essentials, for excepting the divinatory and prophetic dreams that abound in the sacred literature of every race and creed, the universal classification of the dream rests upon the same basic principles. The symbolic, significant,

and curative dreams of Egypt find a replica in the symbolic, symptomatic and therapeutic dreams of modern medicine. The classification of dream stimuli, or causes, in Dr. Freud's work, "The Interpretation of Dreams," written in 1900 agrees in the salient points with the "Philosophy" of Paracelsus, an equally significant work in its day and generation, 1650 A. D.

The Medieval Philosopher has no hesitation in acknowledging the Greeks as his authority, while Freud, the modern scientist, actually over-reaches the older authorities by attributing vast importance to every dream, however trivial.

Comparison of Dream Stimuli according to the Classification of Freud and Paracelsus respectively:

Freud (1900)

1. External, objective stimulus

2. Internal, subjective stimulus

3. Internal, objective stimulus

4. Purely psychical excitations

Paracelsus (1493-1531)

1. Arising from physical conditions

2-3. Dreams resulting from psychological conditions

and astral influences 4. Those that are caused by spiritual agency

The more important visions Paracelsus attributes either to a natural cause or to a spiritual source, the latter being especially significant. Dreams arising from physical sources may originate from joy or sadness, from impurities of the blood or from internal or external stimuli, as when a gambler dreams of his cards, or when a victim of heart trouble dreams of toiling uphill. Supernatural or spiritual dreams can not be traced, as they arise from the spirit and they may be messages from God or warnings of danger. Only the wise pay attention to dreams, says Paracelsus, the foolish pass them by.

Modern students unhesitatingly accept the first three of the Freudian stimuli or dream sources: the fourth, however, at