Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/520

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
452
*

DREAMING. 452 DREDGE. undergo dissociutivi' iliaiigcs. Association is unc'untrollt'd, and has irw play. fj) On the other hand, dream ideas are intensive, and im- pressive. The sleeping brain is generally in- e.xeitable; when, however, un excitation makes its way to the corte., the result is out of all proportion to the intensity of stimulus. It is as if the active part of the brain drained the inactive part of a juirtion of its stored energy. .Moreover, the scenes in a dream come always in single lile. Consciousness has nothing of the 'thickness' and comi)le.itj-, the wealth of ■fringes' and marginal elements, that il lias in waking. The part of the brain stimulated is a strictly local area; the gieater |)art of the corte.x is still quiescent. Now this narrowness of con- sciousness means that we have no means of comparing the dream event with the data of our past experience : the event does not fall into relations, but stands alone. But an idea which is at once impressive and uncontradicted is, of course. acce])ted ami believed. Hence is it that the dream, despite its .absurdity when recounted in the normal environment of the waking life, pro- vokes no .scruples or hesitancies as we dream it. A word nuiy be added concerning the prophetic character ascribed to dreams, both in primitive belief and in popular superstition at the present day. While the genesis of the belief is not hard to trace — we have but to remember that a friend, known to be many miles away, may appear at our side in a dream ; nay, more, that our dead friends may seem to return and converse with us — it is scarcely necessary to say that it is wholly unfounded. Our dreams reflect, to some extent, the ^tate of our general health, and may thus be useful as warning us agiiinst overstrain; but there is no valid evidence that they give us insight into the future. Consult: W'undt, Human and Animal Psy- choloiiij (London. 18!)6) ; id., Grundziigc der phyxiologischcn Psycliologie (Leibzig, 1893) ; Delboeuf, Questions dc philosophic ct dc science: Jjc sommcil ct les revcs (Paris. 188.5); Maury, [,c sommcil ct les rfves (Paris, 18G5) ; Hammond. Sleep and Its Derangements (Phila- <lelphia. ISGO). DREAM LIFE. A Fable of the Seasons. A series of sketches by Donald G. Mitchell (1851), a companion volume to his RTcrics of a liache- lor. It is based on the seasons of the year, and consists of a number of sympathetic descrip- tions of human life from childliood to old age. DREAM OF EU'GENE A'RAM, The. A poem by iloml (lS2lt). detailing an imaginary dreiim narrated by Eugene Aram (q.v.). in making confession to a child of the murder of Clark. DREB'BEL, Cokkeus va.n ( 1.572- l(i.'J4). A Dulili inventor. A peasant by birth, he won the favor of the Enii)er(irs Rudolph II. and I'Vr- dinand 11., and of King .lames I. of JCngland. The last fourteen years of his life were spejit in London, where his discoveries in new processes for dyeing wool and silk (afterwanis used by the founders (if the (lobelin manufactures) and his clever inventions, auumg theni a compound miiniscope, and a machine for perpetual motion, •ave him the reputation of being a sori'erer. Drehbel has left two treatises, published in Dutch (lli08), in Latin (1021), and in French, under the title, Drtix Iruitis: Dc la nature des vkintiits; Ut la quintessence (lli73). DREBEB, dra'ber, Hei.nhru I'haxz (1822- 75 I. A Cerman landseape painter, burn at Dres- den. He studied at the Dresden Academy, and under Ludwig Liditer. and linally — as the sti- pendiary of the Dresden Academy — at .Munich and at Konie, where he liecame perm.mently es- tablished. His paintings are distinguished by beautiful coloring and a poetic conception. He frequently introduced antique ligurjs into his landscapes. Among his l>est |iroduitions are the following: '•.utumu in Salune Mountains" (Na- tional tJallery, Berlin) ; "Cood Samaritan" (1848; Dresden Gallery); '"Sappho" (Schack CJallery, Munich). DBED. A novel by Harriet Boecher Stowo (1850), cxposin<j the conditions of the Southern slave system. The title character is a fugitive slave. A new edition appeared, ten years later, entitled yiiia Gordon. DREDGE (assibilated form of dray, AS., Goth, dragiin, Icel. draga, OHC;. Irayan, Ger. tragcn. Kngl. </r<;ir, dray). Any device for re- moving and bringing u]i solid substances or ma- terial from under water. The simplest form of dredge is that used by oyster- fishers, which con- sists of a strong bag or net whose mouth is kept oiK'n by a metal ring, and which is operated by hand by means of a long ])ole to whose end it is attached. The deep-sea dredge used l>y scientists for cnllciting samples of the sea-bottom, with its plant and anitnul life at great depths, is a device similar in its general construction to the oyster-dredge, but is. of course, attached tn a long wire cable and operated by being dragged along the bottom until filled. (Tor illustration and description, see Deep-Sea Kxim.oratiox.) In engineering a <lredge or dredging-machine is an excavating device employed in deepening chan- nels aiid harbors, removing submarine <ibstruc- tions, such as shoals and bars, and for general excavating ojierations under water. Dreilges may be divided into several classes, the principal of which are dipiier dredges, endless-ehain bucket dredges, grapple dredges, and hydraulic-suction dredges. The Dipper Dredge is similar in its construc- tion to the ordinary steam shovel, except that the platform carrying the machinery consists of a barge instead of a car. In the ordinary dipper dredging-niachines a nuist or . frame is moimt- ed on tle front end of the barge, and serves to support the top end of an inclined boom whose bottom end is pivoted to a suitable casting on the deck of the barge, so that it can swing par- tially around like the boom of ;■. derrick. Be- tween the two parallel timlicrs of this boom is inserted a long timber carrying at its outer end a dijijicr or scoop open at the toj) and closed by a door at the bottom. By means of suitabl'e mechanism this dipper is "thrust down to the liotloni aiiil given a seiMipiug motion which tills the dipiier: the next o|)eration is to raise the dippir, and by swinging the boom to one side bring it over an attending barge, when the latch holding the bottiun door is unliK'kcd and the contents of the dipper are discliarge<l into the barge. By successive repetition of these opera- tions the bottom is excavated to such a depth as may be desired. To resist the digging thrust of the dipper, the scow is provided with vertical