The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-04-16

twenty years lived partly in America and
partly In England, speaking English he
bitually, French scarcely ever. She then
became iii, forgot her English, and oil
about her married life, and If asked who
she was gave her maiden name, and men.
toned, in French, the street in Paris in
which she had lived a. . girl. So CON-
pletely had she forgotten her English
that it was necessary to change an English
for French maid. In some of the cases
of partial loss of memory from injury OF
disease of the brain it would be very
puxzling TO account satisfactorily for the
nature and the very limited extent of the
loss. Thus, q fever obliterated from the
memory Of q learned man the letter |" +, J"
without apparently committing any other
injury. A soldier who had undergone
the operation Of uepan, and lost slice Of
brain-matter, lost with it the power to re-
call the numbers SIS" and "7' and was
only able to FL. them in his mind by la
boriously learning them ikea child. Sir
BENJAMIN Brodie mentions the case of .
groom in the service of George ~: who
was in the oct of cleaning it. The
groom did not fall, nor was. he at
all stunned or insensible; but he entirely
forgot what he had been doing at the time
the blow was inflicted. There was an in
terval oftime blotted out, as Il were, from
his recollection. He inferred, in fact,
that during that period he had been
asleep. A young lady who had been
present at catastrophe in Scotland, in
which many persons were killed by the
fall of the gallery of church, escaped
without injury, but with the complete
loss of the recollection of any Of the cir
cumstances; and this extended not only to
the accident, but to everything that had
occurred b her certain time before
going to the church. A gentleman mem
toned by DR.. Beattie lost his knowledge
of Greek from q blow ON the head, whilst
his other mental stores were left intact.
Sometimes, however, disease appears to
make . clean sweep of all acquired
knowledge of every kind. The following
extraordinary case was published in an
American medical work many years ago:
The patient was . clergyman who, at the
termination of q severe illness, lost the
recollection of everything, even the
names of the most common objects.
When his health was restored he began
to esquire knowledge just as child does.
After learning the names of objects he
was taught to read, and after this began
10 learn the Latin language. He had
made considerable progress, when, one
day, in reading his lesson with his,
brother, who was his teacher, he suddenly
stopped and put his hands to his head.
Being asked why he did 80, he replied:
feel . peculiar sensation in my head
and now it appears to me that
knew all this before" From that time
he rapidly recovered his faculties. It is
recorded by Ballsntyne of Sir Walter
Scott, that when the Bride of Hammer.
moor" in ib printed form, was submitted
to him after an illness, he did not recOg-
nize as his own one single incident, char
acter, or conversation it contained; yet
the original tradition was perfect in his
mind. When Mrs. Arkwright sang some
verses of Sir Walters one evening at
Lord Francis Egerton's, the author of
them whispered to Lockhart: "Capital
words. Whose are they? Byron's, sup
pose; but don't remember them" For
q voluminous author to forget some of
his own writings does not appear 80 re-
markable; but one can hardly conceive
of q person failing to recollect his own
name; but cases are on record of this ne
plus ultra of forgetfulness. A man of
mot very strong intellect, who held an
Office the sole duty of which consisted In
signing his own name to . number OF
papers, had one day 80 much business of
this kind to do that at last he was incapa-
bic of recollecting the word he ought to
sign. A writer of the last century relates
that Mr.. Won b, Envoy ct st. Peters
burg, went one morning to pay . number
Of visits. Among other houses at which
he called there was one where the ser
wants did mot know him, and consequent
.ly he was under the necessity of giving
in his name; but this he found he had
entirely forgotten. Turning round to q
gentleman who accompanied him, he
said, with very much earnestness: For
Gods sake, tell me who I amr' This
odd request excited laughter, but he in
sisted on being answered, adding that he
had entirely forgotten his name.
The power to recall past impressions is
perhaps more than any other, mental
faculty dependent on the physical condi-
ton Of the body. Sir Benjamin Brod;e,
in view of this fact conceived it possible
By series of accurate observations to
discover the temperament or physical
conditions most favorable to memory.
Some of the conditions conducive to the
exercise Of the recollective faculty are
obvious enough. Violent action ) is
generally inimical to it. To convince
ones self of this, it is only necessary for
person to try to recall faded impress
sion while running rapidly. Excessive
fatigue 10 equally Incompatible with good
powers of recollection. Sir Henry HOl-
land mentions that he descended on the
same day two very deep mines In the
Harz Mountains, remaining some hours
under ground in each, and at the end was
exhausted both from fatigue and hunger.
I then felt," Gays be, !" the utter impOssi-
biliH Of talking longer with the German
inspector who accompanied me- Every
German word and phrase deserted my
recollection, and it was not till l had
taken food and wine, and been some
time ct rest that regained them -
But in addition to the physical condi.
lions Of the recollective faculty there
rosome mental ones of equal importance.
Perhaps the foremost of these Ia indicated
in what Sir Philip Warwick says of Lord
Stafford: His. memOry wt6 9reat, and
he made It greater by conlfding In IT,
There il perhaps nothing which more
surely leads to failure of memory than an
unreasonable distrust of it. The doubt Of
success begets mental distraction, and
thus the mind loses its hold of those links
of association on which recollection de
ponds. Sir Walter Scott had an absolute
faith In his power of memory IN The morn.
ing, when his brain had been refreshed
by sleep.s, He stats, in his diarysthal
during soo6p position VAen he fund him
self or sloss, he WoAld sqg:. News
mind; We shall have it all at seven O'Clock
tomorrow moFning!''
There Il . curious illusion or phaptasm
0fmem0ry which OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
some time or other In their lives, the
cause Of which Ii mot very easily ex.
planned. A person goes into company,
f1nd thsthOughec oRnss over him tlz1k thu
tsna1e g1lroundinga arg femiliarre him
He has TIE feeling that The e1Sca Sit6ation
| in which he finds himself existed at come
former time. Many had adduced this q
IN evidence Of former state of exis
tanC1{ hnd y1kbm e sA1eConfs NnifG more