The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-06-04

til hs he'd appsaled 70 this reminaer
could hei recall the proper name Tie
features Tor the inscribed name Would
suffice, but without one or the other of
these the recollection refused to do its
work.
An instance of an affecting kind il
mentioned BY Dr.. Connolly, relstink 10 Z
young clergyman who sustained an In.
Jury Of the head Just when he was about
to be married. He became permanently
deranged, and lived In this condition %
the age OF eighty. One thought, and one
only, seemed to remain in his poor shat
tered mind. He talked of nothing but
his approaching wedding, and expressed
eager anticipations for the arrival OF the
happy day.
DR.. Abercrombie was once called upon
TO render medical aid TO q boy who had
fallen from q wall and struck his head
againses tone which lay at It's foot. He
was carried home in q state of insensi.
bility, from which he soon recovered, but
with his memory twisted q little awry.
He had no recollection Of the accident
which had befallen him. He felt that
his head was hurt but had no idea how
he had received the injury. After q time
the facts dawned upon him one by one.
He recpllected that he had struck his
head against a stone, but could not'recall
to mind how he had come to do so. After
another interval he recollected that he
had been on the top of . wall, and had
fallen from it and struck against stone,
but could not remember whore the wall
Was. After some time longer he eFecol.
lected the locality of the wall and the
minor incidents of the mishap. The
memory seems to have buckled to its work
step by step, using each stage as start
ng-pOint tor further advance.
Memory alike of persons, things and
words has sometimes been blunted or
blinded by temporary malady, and then
recovered by degrees. Wepfer relates
that q gentleman, recovering from an
spoplectic attack, was found to know no
body, and to ,xemember nothing. After
several weeks he began to know his
friends, to remember words, and to learn
or re-learn q little of his native language
and little Latin. When urged to read
more than few words at time, he said !:
I formerly understood these things, but
do not now" 1t was hard thing to
bear, this consciousness of former power
no longer possessed.
Sometimes the thing forgotten is not
one particular language, but the whole
range Of events within q particular num-
Der OF months or years. Very curious in.
stances of this have been placed upon
record. In one instance morbid state of
the brain had brought on complete obliv-
ion of all the events of four years, leaving
the mind possessed of recoflections con.
corning earlier and later facts. A shock,
not amounting to a mental injury, has
been found in similar way to expel the
recollection of a portion of time.
One instance of forgetting a language
has been narrated by DR.. Rush, and is un-
questionably very curious. An American
student, of considerable attainments, was
stricken down with fever. On slowly re.
covering, it was found that he had lost all
his acquired knowledge. When his health
was restored, he bravely resolved to be-
gin over again, and pick up that which
he had lost He took up the Latin gram
mar, went through the elementary part,
and was beginning to construe, when,
one day, in making strong effort to
recollect a part of his lesson, the whole of
his lost impressions suddenly flashed
upon his mind; and he found himself at
once in possession of all his former &C.
quirements.-ANt the Year Round.