Volume 1

The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others].

Date:
1908-1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    396/430 (page 362)
    Dover's Powder Dress THE STAXDARD PHYSICIAX 362 elder-llowers, camomiles, ])epi:)ermint, or melissa. These teas are prepared like ordinary tea, and one or two cu})S are taken (with sugar) before retiring. DOVER’S POWDER (PULVIS IPECACUANHi^l ET OPII).—A compound ])owder consisting of ten parts of ipecac, ten parts of opium, and eighty ])arts of ])otassium sulphate. It is used as a pain-allaying remedy in many non-febrile affections. In dysentery and diarrhoea its action is often very grateful. The dose is from 5 to 15 grains. A warm drink taken after the dose insures more rapid action. DREAM.—Our mental activities are not suspended during sleep, and the connection between sleeping consciousness and waking consciousness is not entirely interrupted. We usually dream of things that we have busied ourselves with while awake, and our sense perceptions go on to a certain degree. Two characteristics, however, differentiate dreaming states from wakeful states : in the first place, the fantastic transformation of the sense impressions ; and, secondly, the confusion of the course of thought. Free, easy l)reathing creates in the dreamer an impression of Hying ; heavy breathing creates a feeling of fear ; splashing rain becomes a flood ; a fly bite a dagger thrust ; a hot-water bottle, a promenade in the tropics ; the buzzing of a fly, a hurricane ; a gleam of light, paradise and all its angels ; the uncovering of part of the body, a sleigh ride ; etc. The confusion of the course of thought causes the abrupt changes of the dream visions. The picture changes without interruption and without causing any surprise. This incoherency in the train of thought, and the lack of judgment it carries with it, refers also to ideas of time. Dreams which last only a few seconds or minutes may appear to last an eternity. Wdiether deep sleep is dreamless, as is claimed, seems doubtful, even improbable. The dreams of light sleep are generally more senseless and disjointed than those of deeper sleep, in which entire dramatic scenes may be reproduced. Movements of the muscles are not a rarity in dreaming states. Generally they are the muscles of speech and of the face (speaking, laughing, and crying during sleep); but at times other muscle groups become active, and in such cases the dreamer will get out of bed, walk about, and perform customary tasks. After awakening, there is no remem- brance of what has gone before. These cases are instances of somnam- bulism. Many stories are told about these somnambulists. The most wonderful feats are ascribed to them ; for instance, walking along the ridge of the roof of a house. Most of these stories are fictitious, but it cannot be entirely gainsaid that somnambulists at times evince remarkable dexterity. 1 his is explained by the fact that the dreamer’s consciousness is limited, and that his attention is directed to such an extent to a given undertaking that the thought of a dangerous position, which would at once arise in the wakeful mind, falls aside. Somnambulism is also called moon-sickness ; but the moon has very little to do with the condition, excepting that its rays