Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-04-21
MEMOIR
Sore Q seer Freaks that Disease Plays with
Mans Intelligence.
INFLUENCE OF OPIUM on THE
MEMORY.

Fatigue in any form, superinducing
as it does an abnormal cerebral con-
dition, is detrimental, and sometimes
fatal, to memory. Explicit testimony
on this point is supplied by the ex-
perience of Sir H. Holland, who de
seconded, on the same day, two very
deep mines in the Hartz mountains,
remaining under ground some hours
in each He tells lis that while in the
second mine, and exhausted both
from fatigue and inanition, he found
it utterly impossible to talk longer
with with the German inspector who
accompanied him; every German
word and phrase deserted his recol-
lection, and it was not until he had
taken food and wine and had been
some time at rest that he regained
them. The cases where that amnesia
has been observed to follow cerebral
shocks are also explained by most
psychologists as resulting from de
fective nutrition. 1t has been noted
bv Mr.. Spencer that highly nervous
subjects, in whom the action of the
heart is greatly lowered, habitually
complain of loss of memory, a symp
tom which diminishes as fast as the
natural rate of circulation is regained.
Again, in fevers, where the rapidity
of the circulation is excessive, the re-
productive faculty is often raised to a
high point of excitation, the most re-
mote and trivial impressions being
easily recalled. Exaltation of the
memory ensues also when the circu-
lation is increased by stimulants,
such as opium. De Quincy tells us
that under the influence of this drug
he sometimes seemed to live for
seventy or a hundred years in one
night, the minutest incidents of child
hood, or forgotten scenes of later
years, being wildly reproduced. On
the other hand, bromide potassium.
which, taken in large doses, retards
the circulation, produces amnesia;
the case is cited of clergyman who
was obliged to discontinue the use of
it, having very nearly lost his memo
ry, which returned when he ceased
TO take the medicine.
There are cases of temporary am
nesia of destructive character which
seem to be only explicable upon the
theory that the group of cells in
which particular impressions were
recorded have been destroyed or to-
tally transformed. In such instances
it is not the reproductive faculty
which is enfeebled, but there is an
actual loss of conversation; some
thing which once existed in the mem
ory. and formed.an important part of
its capital, has disappeared. Among
the cases of incurable partial anne
sia where the loss was absolute. and
complete re education was necessary,
is that of a young married woman,
who was seized during confinement.
with prolonged syncope, at the end of
which she failed to recollect any of
the events which had occurred Stree
her marriage, inclusive of that cere-
mony. She never recovered recol-
lection of this period of her life, and
although she accepted, on the testi-
mony of her friends, the fact that she
was married and had son, she was
never able to realize how she gained
a husband and gave birth to child.
Another interesting instance is re-
ported by Prof. William Sharpey.
The patient was young married
woman, who for about six weeks re.
mained in a continuous state of SOM
nolence. Upon her recovery from the
torpor the record of her previous ac-
quirements seems to have been com
pletely expunged from the cerebral
cells, and. she had to be completely
re-educated, it being requisite, for
example, in teaching her to read, to
begin with the alphabet About this
and some analogous cases, however,
there is an element of obscurity, for
the process of re education common
ly requires but few months. a result
which seems to justify the inference
that the old cerebral records were
rather faint than extinct. But the
explanation of such temporary peri
DDS of oblivion remains one of the
unsolved problems of cerebral
pathology. a