1 APRIL 1876, Page 3

Professor Ferrier's second lecture on "Sleep and Dreams" was delivered

at the London Institution on Monday, and in it he maintained that the theory of the continual Activity of the mind is inadmissible. Thought ceases or diminishes as the organ of thought takes partial or complete rest, and dreams are but the results of the partial activity of the brain, when the organs of attention are at rest. The most overworked functions rest 6 first, and therefore the consciousness due to the least hard- worked parts of the brain often goes on, when the will, and what is due to will, is in complete quiescence. If that be the case, how does Professor Ferrier explain the very common power to wake at any time you willed the night before? If the functions of attention are those which take the deepest rest, how is the mind aware that the hour on which attention was fixed before going to sleep has arrived?