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A MONOGRAPH
ON
SLEEP AND DREAM:
THEIR
PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY.

BY
Edward W. COX,
President of the Psychological Society of Great Britain;
AUTHOR OF
“The Mechanism of Man,” “Heredity and Hybridism,” &c.

LONDON:
LONGMAN AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW.
1878.

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Some papers on the Phenomena of Sleep andDream, read before The Psychological Society ofGreat Britain, having excited much interest andcaused considerable discussion, I was requested toput them into the more formal shape of a treatise.For this purpose I found it necessary to recast andrewrite the whole.

The modern endeavour to pursue Psychology, asall the physical sciences are now pursued, by thestudy of facts and phenomena, instead of bymetaphysical abstractions, consulting of innerconsciousness and argument à priori, has investedthe subject of this monograph with extraordinaryimportance, because Sleep and Dream arefamiliar physical and psychical conditions, disputedby none and which cannot be ascribed to prepossession,[iv]dominant ideas, or diluted insanity.Therefore a profound, fearless, and searchinginvestigation of their characteristics, causes, andoperations could not fail to throw a flood of lightupon many of the seeming mysteries of mentalphilosophy and psychology, promising a solution ofsome most difficult problems of life and mind, andrevealing to us—as do the phenomena of dream—muchof the structure and action of the Mechanismof Man.

The marvel is that such obvious means of accessto hidden springs of that mechanism should havebeen so long neglected by Physiologists and Psychologists.

In dealing with a subject so old and yet so new,I can do little more than suggest explanations ofphenomena. I do not venture to assert them.Those suggestions are submitted to the readerto induce him to think and as subjects forfurther examination and discussion rather than asdogmatic assumptions of ascertained truths. Thefacts and phenomena reported are vouched for sofar as my own means of ascertaining their truth[v]enable me; but causes and conclusions can ofnecessity be little more than conjecture until amuch larger collection of the facts be made. Tothe gathering of such facts I hope this little bookmay stimulate many observers. I shall deem thecommunication of them a valuable contribution toscience, and a favour to myself.

EDWARD W. COX.

Carlton Club, 1st January, 1878.

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