"Lasegue remarks that in the delirium of alcohol, visual hallucinations predominate, that these are varied and incessant, constantly changing into new and fantastic shapes as the figures in a kaleidescope." - Manacetne.

Tissie and de Sanctis alike mention the voices that haunt the dreams and delirium of the alcoholic addict. These voices are peculiarly prone to accuse the husband or wife of the dreamer of infidelity. Flames and blood sometimes accompany the voices that accompany the alcoholic dream.

The specific property of alcoholic stimulants in disassociating the subconscious from the conscious faculties has led to the gross excesses attending the religious rites of archaic times. The worship of Bacchus and the Dionysaic mysteries consisted largely in the quaffing of wine or other fermented liquors.

Pulque, or mescal, the intoxicant of the Mexicans, bears an origin clouded by Toltec and Aztec legend; it rouses fiery dreams that consume the dreamer's very soul.

Prescott mentions soma, another Mexican drink, made from corn; the Incas indulged in it to excess, but it was forbidden to the common people by reason of its peculiar effect and its excessive strength. Alcoholic derivatives have in some instances the effect of aphrodisiacs, and affect the dreams accordingly.

Clouds of fancy gather at the bare mention of the eastern magi with their fumes of narcotizing incense, as mysterious and unknown to us of this day as they were to the awe-stricken multitude in days of yore. Camphor is one of the few of these with which we are familiar. "Jahr's Manual" tells us that: "It conjures strange figures before the eyes which do not disappear on awaking." A fairly useful drug we may guess in the practice of ancient magic, especially if we combine it with a further description from Herrick's "Materia Medica," "Anxious, fearful dreams; suffocation, oppression." Who knows then what evil may have been wrought, what nightmares of terror inflicted by the magicians of all time, who were wont to mutter their incantations while clouds of camphor smoke created dreams autosuggestionized in the victim's brain. Images that would not vanish with the opening eyes, but that lingered on.

Among the East Indians tradition insists upon accompanying the gathering of camphor with certain rites. The gatherer of camphor must not search for it, instead he must lie down and dream where it is to be found. During his quest he must abandon the speech of daily life, and when the tree is cut he must wrap it in a cloth that the crystals from the heart of the tree may not escape.

The extract of Anhalonium Lewinii, or the mescal button, is one of the most peculiar and potent narcotics. Its effects are described at length by Dr. Weir Mitchell in an article in the British Medical Journal, December 5th, 1896.

"My eyes being closed, I began to see tiny points of light, like stars or fireflies, which came and went in a moment. The star points became many and then I began to observe something like fragments of stained glass windows. The glass was not very brilliant, but the setting, which was irregular in form, seemed to be made of incessantly flowing sparkles of pale silver, now going here, now there, to and fro, like, as I thought, the inexplicable rush and stay and reflux of the circulation seen through a lens. These window patterns were like fragments coming into view and fading.

"The display which for an enchanted two hours followed was such as I find it hopeless to describe in language which shall convey to others the beauty and splendor of what I saw. . . ."

"Especially at the close of my experience, I must I think have been for a while in the peculiar interval between the waking state and that of sleep - the 'praedormitum' - the time when we are apt to dream half controlled stories; but as to this 1 am not sure. . . .

"My first vivid show of mescal color effects came quickly. I saw the stars, and then, of a sudden, here and there, delicate floating films of color - usually delightful neutral purples and pinks - now here, now there. Then an abrupt rush of countless points swept across the field of view, as if the unseen millions of the Milky Way were to flow a sparkling mirror before the eye. In a minute this was over and the field was dark. Then I began to see zigzag lines of very bright colors, like those seen in some megrims. I tried to fix the place and relation of these tints, but the changes were such as to baffle me. One was an arch of angled lines of red and green, but of what else I could not determine. It was in rapid, what I may call minute, motion.

"The tints of intense red and green altered and soon were seen no more. Here again was the wonderful loveliness of swelling clouds of more vivid colors, gone before I could name them, and, sometimes rising from the lower field, and very swiftly altering in color tones from pale purples and rose to grays, with now and then a bar of level green orange, intense as lightning and as momentary.

"When I opened my eyes, all was gone. Closing them I began after a long interval to see definite objects associated with colors. The stars sparkled and passed away. A white spear of gray stone grew up to huge height, and became a tall, richly finished Gothic tower of very elaborate and definite design, with many rather worn statues standing in the doorways on stone brackets. As I gazed, every projecting angle cornice, and even the face of the stones at their joinings were by degrees covered or hung with clusters of what seemed to be huge precious stones, but uncut, some being more like masses of transparent fruit. These were green, purple, red, and orange; never clear yellow and never blue. All seemed to possess an interior light, and to give the faintest idea of the perfectly satisfying intensity and purity of their gorgeous color-fruits is quite beyond my power. All the colors I have ever beheld are dull as compared to these.