dreams of most persons a mental vision is vividly produced during sleep, in which they perceive their friends moving about and conversing as in the ordinary real business of life. Now it is very obvious that such a dream cannot occur to a blind man $ he cannot recall form and colour of which he knows nothing, and which an ordinary person has gained through impressions on his retina; his dream can extend no further than can be furnished by the faculties which he has retained. He may recall a

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... on or a place, but the recollection can only be commensurate with what he has obtained by the senses of touch, hearing or smell. A blind boy dreamed of his brother who was dead. He knew him by his voice, and he also knew he was in the fields with him, for he felt himself treading upon the grass and smelling the fresh air. His idea of a field could not possibly reach much beyond this. Another man dreamed he was in his workshop; he knew this by sitting on a box and by the tools which were in it. A blind tramp said when he dreamed it was just the same as when he was awake, he dreamed of hearing and touching. Mr. Johns mentions the case of a man who dreamed of a ghost. This suggests a question of very great interest. Do the blind believe in ghosts, and if so, in what manner do they come, and how are they recognised ? A ghost is an apparition or ethereal being, generally resembling some person known in the flesh; it cannot, however, be felt, for it is transparent; a bullet may pass through it, and if sitting in a chair, it does not prevent another person occupying the seat at the same time. It is therefore generally admitted with Herbert Spencer that touch is the only reliable sense as a test of reality, is the one indeed into which the others may be reduced. When Macbeth could only see the dagger but could not feel it, he called it a dagger of the mind. How then can a blind man believe in a ghost known only by hearing and touch? It seems to us a contradiction, and yet Mr. Johns has a ghost story. A blind man dreamed he went to a house where he met a comrade who had beeu ABSTRACTS OF BRITISH AND FOREIGN JOURNALS. 273 sent to prison, and he thus described his dream. " I heard a voice at the door, and I said, 'Bless me, if that ain't John,' and I took him by the sleeve, it was his shirt-sleeve I felt, and I was half afeard of him, and surprised he was out weeks before his time. Then (in my dream) I dreamt that he tried to frighten me, and make believe he was a ghost by pushing me down sideways, &c, after that I waked and heard no more." This is a very curious account of the blind man's state of mind; he recognized his friend, but the latter behaved in so strange a way as to make the blind man believe he was a ghost. The pushing him down sideways, however, does not suggest a spiritual being to an ordinary mind. It would be a matter of great interest if Mr. Johns, or other persons coming in contact with the blind, would make further investigations into the subject of ghosts as conceived by the blind. The well-established ghost, clothed in white and quite impalpable, can scarcely have a place in the blind man's imagination.