The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-04-01
Curious Mental Relations Of Self. Con.
seriousness.

personality has long been one of the
hardest nuts for metaphysicians to
crack. There was famous instance
in the early part of the seventeenth
century, on which both Descartes and
Spinoza sharpened their wits. A Span
ish nobleman received blow on the
head, from which he apparently re-
covered completely. but with total for
getfulness Of everything and everybody
that he knew previous to his injury.
He was obliged to learn the language
anew, and could not be brought into
any mental relation with his former
self, though in other ways quite sane.
Spinoza does not hesitate to say that he
was a different person than before,
another individual.
His argument is subtle; in modern
version it may be stated thus as we rec
Ognize personality to continue, although
all the matter of which the body is
composed changes every few years, or,
as some say, every few months, the ele-
ment of personality must rest in the
continuity Of psychical impressions;
when this is absolutely discovered, then
personality ceases; otherwise, if we
maintain that it does not. because the
body remains, we are in the position OF
the man who claimed his knife was the
same after he had got new handle to
the blade and q new blade to the ham
die!
Physiology comes to the aid of meta
physics by defining the sense of person
ality as one of the cerebral forces de-
pendent on nervous action at once con-
tinuous and related. There are exam
Piles where it is continuous, but not re-
lated. A famous example occurred in
the Franco German war. A soldier
wounded in the head recovered with
the odd sequel of double mental life;
fox several weeks he would live one
life, then pass into another, with no
recollection of the former one, but with
its own Independent series of acquisi-
tons and impressions; then he would
revert to his first life again without a
shadow of memory of his intermediate
existence, and so on, alternately.
This duplicate existence is quite COM
mon in epileptics, and the clinical rec
ords of that malady offer a number of
carefully-recorded cases. In a less de.
gree it may be said to be the case in
dreams. 1t is explainable on the sup
position that certain portions of the
brain are active at one time, dormant
at another, or that during one period
one half of the brain is at work while
the other half is not; and that, when
this condition is reversed, total forget
fulness Of the intervening period en-
sues.
Several recent cases have been re-
corded in the medical journals analo-
gous to those we have referred to. In
one, a man of about fifty years, with
some money, well dressed, and with a
travelling bag, found himself in q small
city in Ohio, without any knowledge of
who he himself was, whittier he was
going, or whence he was from. On
other subjects he was perfectly sane.
proving quick at figures and an expert
penman. of good education and pol
ished manners, altogether competent
man of business. except this one extra
ordinary and remarkable trick of menu
ory. What is unusual and q little sus-
picious was the fact that nowhere about
him was any old letter, note book, mark
on his linen or clothing anywhere,
which bore q name, initials, or mono
gram. It looked as if he had prepared
himself to lose himself. It were well,
If this thing grows common, for every
prudent man to have a line in his pocket
book to this effect: MEM: am John
Smith, of Smithville," so that when he
forgets who he is, he can remind him.
self of the fact.
In one of the recent numbers Of Lip
pincotfs Magazine is case, probably an
imaginary one. but quite consistent
with facts, where man believes he has
lived two distinct lives, remembering
zach with equal certainty; one as we'll
tO-do lawyer, the other as needy New
England farmer. As he was in truth
the latter, the remembering happier
things was constantly to him, as the
poet says, "a sorrows crown Of sor-
row, "-N3dicol and Surgical Reporter,