The Republican journal., 1870-07-21
THE RECORD ON THE BRAIN.

before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at
Harvard College last week, we copy the fol-
lowing curious speculations respecting the
possible existence Of literal record within
the chambers of the brain:
The problem of memory is closely connect
ed with the question of the mechanical rea-
ton between thought and structure. How
intimate is the alliance of memory with the
material condition of the brain, is shown by
the effect of age, of disease, OF blow. of
mtoxication. | have known an aged person
repeat the same question five, six or seven
times during the same brief visit Every
body knows the Archbishop's flavor of apop-
leXy in the memory As in other mental pow
er. [ was once asked to see to woman
who had Just been injured in the street On
coming to herself, ''Where am |? What has
happened ?" she asked. '.knockel down by
q horse, ma'am-stunned u lttlc-that is
all" A pause-''while one with moderate
haste might count q hundred"-and then,
again, Where am |? What has happen
ed?" "Knocked down by a horse. ma'am-
stunned lttle-that is all" Another pause
and the same question again, and 50 on dur
ing the whole time was by her. The same
tendency to repeat Il question indefinitely has
been observed in returning members of those
worshipping assemblies whose fayoritc hymn
is 1--WE won't 90 home till morning"
Is memory, then. 4 material record9 is the
brain, like the rocks of the Snaitic valley,
written all over with inscriptions left by the
long caravans of thought rs they have pass
ed year after year through its mysterious re-
cesses?
When we see . distant railway train slid
ING by us in the same line, day after day, we
infer the existence of Il track which guides
it. So when some dear old friend begins
that story we remember 50 well. switching
off at the accustomed point of depression,
coming to 4 dead stop at the puzzling ques-
ton of chronology, off the track ON the mat
ter of its being first or second cousin of
somebody's aunt; set on it again by the
patient listening wife, who knows it all as
she knows her Wpll-worn wedding ring how
can we doubt that there is track laid down
for the story in some permanent disposition
of the thinking marrow?
need moi say that no microscope can find
the tablet inscribed with the names of early
loves, the stains left by tears OF sorrow or
contrition, the rent where the thundcr-bolt OF
passion has fallen. or any legolc token that
such experiences have formed part of the
life Of the mortal, the vacant .emple of
whose thoughts it is exploring 1t is only as
an inference, aided BY an Illustration which
| will presently offer, that | suggest the
possible existence in the very substance of the
bran-tissuc, of those inscriptions which
Shakespeare must have thought OF when he
wrote,
Pluck from the memory rooted sorrow;
Rae out the written troubles of the brain.
The objection to the existence of such Il ma
teliai record, that wc renew our bodies many
recollectons, is entirely met by the fact that
ly through life, in spite of all these same
changes, rs we have not far to look to find
instances.
| must promise that million of the starry
brain-cclls could be pa cked in a square inch,
and that the surface of the conyolutons has
been estimated at six hundred and seventy
square inches and their depth at one-fifth of
an inch. My illustration is derived from
microscopic photography. have 4 glass
slide on which is 4 minute Photographic pic
ture which is exactly covered when the head
of q small pin is laid upon it. In that little
speck are clearly to be seen, by n proper
magnitying power, the following objects =
The Declaration Of independence, with easily
recognized fac-simile autographs Of all the
signers; the arms of all the original thirteen
otdlCH tic titpilol III w dSlllSloH, Iil'l very
good portraits OF all the Presidents of the
United States from Washington to Mr.,
James X. Polk. These objects are all dis
tinguishable as u group with power Of fifty
diameters; with u power OF three hundred
any one of them becomes a sizeable picture.
You may see if YOU will the majesty Of
Washington on his noble features, or the
will of Jackson in those hard lines of the
long face crowned with that bristlng head
of hair in 4 perpetual state of electrical di-
vergence and centrifugal self assertion. Re
member that each of these faces is the record
of life
Nov recollect that there was IN interval
between the exposure Of the negative in the
camera and its development by pouring a
wash over it, when all these pictured objects
existed potentially, but absolutely invisible
and incapable of recognition, in q space of
collodium film which 4 pins head would
cover; and then think what Alexandria
libraries - what Congressional-docum
loads of positively Ineligible characters
such as one look of the recording angel
would bring out, many OF which we can oug
selves develope at will, OF which come be-
fore our eyes unbidden like Meme, Meme
Tekel Upharsin might be held in these
convolutons of the brain which wrap the
talent entrusted to us, too often Us the folded
napkin of the slothful servant hid the treas
urc his master had lent him.