The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1889-09-11
PHENOMENA OF MEMORY
PEOPLE WHO NEVER FORGET AND
SOME WHO COULDN'T REMEMBER.


of Memory in sieep-The Impressions
an Average Brain Holds.
The varieties of memory are as re.
markable as its vagaries. There is, for
buhr, the great statesman, and certain
divine, that one can scarcely recognize
the same faculty in each. 1t is said of
Niebuhr that he remembered everything
he had read at any period of his life;
and it is said of the reverend doctor that
he forgot he had been married within an
hour or two Of the interesting event.
John Wesley had a remarkable mem
Dry, and at S5, even, it was still vigor-
GUS. Andrew Fuller could repeat poem
of five hundred lines after hearing IL
read once or twice, could recite verbatim
a sermon or speech, and enumerate the
names of the shop signs from the Temple
to the end of Cheapside, with descrip-
ton of the principal articles displayed
in each shop window.
Before the days of shorthand report
ing, Memory Woodfall' used to attend
the house of commons, and, after listen
ing to a debate, would reproduce the
whole without taking a single note. The
same power was possessed by William
Radcliffe, the husband of Mrs. Radcliffe,
the novelist
Both Macaulay and Sir Walter Scott
had prodigious memories, yet neither of
them could compare with Beronicious,
of Middleburg. who knew by heart the
works of Virgil, Cicero, Juvenal, Homer,
Aristophanes and the two Pilnys. If
this was an example of "rote" only we
have in Mezzofanti, the celebrated linz
guist of Bologna, one of the most strik-
ing instances on record Of what, by dis
tinction, we call intelligent memory. He
was described by Lord Byron as "a
walking polygot, master of languages
and Briareus Of parts Of speech" AT
the age of so he was thoroughly versed
in fifty languages perfect in pronuncia-
ton, idiom, grammar and colloquialisms
and before his death he added twenty
or thirty more to the list. He used to
say himself that he never forgot any.
thing that he either heard or read.
1t is recorded of La Fontaine, noted
for his Observation-Disclosures that he once
| attended the funeral of one of his mosi
intimate friends, and shortly afterward
called to visit that friend. When 70
minded by the astonished servant of tht
recent death he was at first terribly
shocked, and then remarked, "True; OF
course, recollect now that went to his
| funeral"
A curious instance OF memory in sleeI
is related by French writer on dreams.
He says he once saw in dream a mum
Der of men passing out from feast
| He observed them all very attentively
and the face of one struck him 80 much
that he remembered it after waking
Exercising his thoughts as to where h,
had seen the face before he. at last rec
| objected having seen II some days previ
ously in book OF fashions, which h,
had careiessly glanced at and cast aside
Reichenbach, a German writer on
mental phenomena, says:
| "Waling, / cannot with whatever
| effort recall the features of my wife, VIII,
died some twenty years ago; but IL
think of her in dream, and her image
is represented, get the same with such
accuracy that have again before mt
every expression of her fine features In
| all their loveliness."
There are endless stories of the hiding
places of missing deeds, and so forth,
being revealed in dreams. Let us take
one as typical
A landed proprietor In England was
involved in a lawsuit in consequence OF
claim upon his fathers estate, which
he was firmly convinced had been dis
charged. Judgment, however, was about
to go against him, as no voucher could
be found. But one night, in a dream, his
father appeared to him, and said that the
| papers relating to this affair had been
| placed in the hands of a solicitor he had
not generally employed, but who hap
pened to be engaged for this particular
business. In the dream the father said
that il this person had forgotten matter
which was already rather old he would
be reminded OF 1t by the mention of q
Portuguese gold coin, concerning the
value of which there was dispute at the
time. The dream was curiously verified.
as the solicitor only did recollect the cir
cumstance on mention Of the gold coin.
He was then able to produce the missing
papers, and the son gained the suit after
all.
Both Plato and Aristotle have noted
that in old age the recollections OF child
hood are renewed; and 1t is recorded OF
Kant that, in his old age, when general
memory was decayed and infrm, he had
vivid recollections Of his youth.
Most of us, probably, have witnessed
some affecting instance of an aged per-
son living in the scenes of the long past,
with mind almost blank to the present
This is latent memory reawakened, but
with powers of consciousness limited by
an enfeebled brain.
Even at the very entrance Of the "val-
ley Of the shadow" the memory plays
strange tricks. Goethe told Eckermann
that he once knew an old man who in
his very last moments began to recite
beautiful Greek sentences. These he had
been made, as a boy, to learn by heart
for special purpose, but for fifty years
had not uttered them. They were there
In his memory, though, all the same, and
some unexplainable cerebral action sud
denly gave them form and expression.
1t is computed by scientists that, since
one-third OF second suffices to produce
an impression" in 100 years a man
must have collected in his brain Q, 467,-
$50, 900 copies Of impressions; or, II we
take off one-third of the time for sleep,
8,311 $4,000 This would give 1885,
780, 900 separate waking impressions to
the man who lives to lineage of 90 years.
Allowing weight of four pounds TO the
brain, and deducting one-fourth for
blood and vessels and another fourth for
external integnment, 1t is further COM
puted that eachgrain Of brain substance
must contain 205, 542 traces or impress
sions--All the Year Round.