, 1888-10-24
PEcuLlARITIEs OF MEMORY.
Not One Only but ny Memories in Each
I'd.

Not Ono Only but r.aay Memories in Each
rid.
1t is NANTES; mat there is not one
memory only, but many memories, in
each mind, and that n kind of memory
is prominently developed in one person,
and another in another. Memory"
says Ribot, ''may be resolved into mem
cries, just as the life of an organism may
be resolved into the lives of the organs,
the tissues, the anatomical elements
which compose it." Referring exclu-
sively to the perceptive faculties, we need
only mention a few thoroughly recognized
facts in proof of this statement. Persons
having a strongly developed organ of
what the phrenologists call 'individu-
atty" receive peculiarly distinct impress
sions of external objects, and, therefore,
of persons; hence they Immediately re-
cognize them on seeing them again, and
easily picture them to themselves from
memory.
Persons abundantly endowed with the
organ of locality" exhibit an astonish-
ing power of finding their way in regions
previously unknown 10 them, and of re-
membering the character of those they
have visited. Persons thus endowed, when
strongly impressed by the contents of a
passage in a book they have read, re-
member exactly the part of the page in
which the passage occurs and whether the
page itself be a left hand or a right hand
page. The number of degrees of capa-
city of perception and recollection of col
ors is scarcely less remarkable-the
power of recollection of them being
always proportionate to the power of
perceiving them and signalling their
differences. Similarly, he who possesses
the musical faculty in an eminent degree
possesses in a like degree the power of
learning and remembering the pieces of
music to which his attention is directed.
A striking proof of the distinctively
individualized character of our various
faculties and memories is presented in
the often observed fact that the percep-
ton of musical sounds and the. per-
ception of time, though both alike essen
tialin the mental constitution of a good
musician, differ greatly in their relative
strength in different individuals-so that
while one may be a skillful musician he
may be an Indifferent timist, and vice
versa. In the former case the orderly
succession of notes of a musical passage
is easily remembered, but the time in
t~ervals, which are a distinctive feature
of 1t, are remembered less easily; whereas
in the latter case the memory of time is
stronger han is that of tune.
Equally notable is the fact that persons
who are especially able as calculators
recollect numbers with peculiar facility.
Moreover, persons especially gifted with
the faculty of language have a proper
Tomato facility of recalling words, and
of quoting from memory long passages
which they have previously heard or
read: Cardinal Mezzofanti, who is
said to have known more than 100
different languages, used to declare that
he never forgot a word that he had once
learnt. Westminster Review.
Reader of Puzzles in Penmanship.
Mrs, Patti Syle Collins, the reader of
blind handwriting in the dead letter de-
partment at Washington, is an expert.
She reads all written languages, except
Russian and Chinese, and does not read
these because, as she says. very few Rus
sian letters come to this country, and the
Chinese arc SO careful in preparing the
addresses, usually writing one in English
as well as Chinese, that she has found no
ueed.-New York Sun.