The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-09-22
PHENOMENA OF MEMORY.
PEOPLE WHO NEVER FORGET AND
SOME WHO COULDN'T REMEMBER.

uezrofanti Was "a Walking Poiygiot" and
Master Of Languages-Curious Instances
of Memory ln sleep-The Impressions
an Average Brain Holds
The varieties of memory are as re-
markable as its vagaries. There Is, LOT
instance. so wide n range between Me
buhr. the great statesman, and certain
divine. that one can scarcely recognize
the same faculty in each. IL IL said OF
Niebnhr that he remembered everything
he had read at any period Of his liie'
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
orv. and at s.. even. it was still vigor-
Gus. Andrew Fuller could repeat poem
of five hundred lines after hearing IT
read once OF 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 a descrlp-
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
inc 10 debate. would reproduce the
whole without taking n single note. Inc
same power was possessed by William
Radcliffe. tho husband Of Mrs. Radcliffe
the novelist.
Both Macaulay and Sir Walter Scott
had prodigious memories. yet neither OF
them could compare with Boronicious,
of Niddleburg. who knew by heart the
works of Virgil. Cicero, Juycnal, Homer
Aristophanes and the two Pilnys. II
this was an example Of "rote' only we
have in Mezzofanti, the celebrated lin
guist Of Bologna, one of the most strlk-
ing instances on record of what, by dis
tinction, we call intelligent memory. lie
was described 10y Lord Byron as "a
walking polvgot. master of languages
anda Briarcus of parts of speech" AT
the AGO of ID no was thoroughly versed
i'm fifty language perfect in pronuncia-
ton. iiiom. grammar aud colloquialisms
and before his death he added twenty
or thirty moro 70 the list lie used to
say himself that lac never forgot any
thing chat he either heard or read.
Ii is recorded Of la Fontainc, noted
for his Observation-Disclosures. that he once
attended the funeral Of one Of his most
intimate friends, and shortly aftcrward
called 10 visit that friend. When re
minded by the astonishcd servant of the
recent death he was al first terribly
shocked. and thon remarked, .:True; Of
course. / rccolloct now that | went to his
funeral"
A curious instance Of memory in sleep
is related by a French writer on dreams.
lie saws be once saw in a dream a mum
Der Of men passing out from feast.
He observed them all very attentivcly.
and the face OF one struck him SO much
that he remembered it after waking
Exercising his thoughts rs to where he
had seen the face before he at last rec
objected having seen it some days previ-
ou.ly in a book of fashions, which he
had carelessly glanced at and cast aside.
Roichenbach, German writer on
mental phenomena. says
Waking, I cannot with whatever
effort recall the features Of my wife, who
died some twenty years ago; but if l
think OF her in q dream, and her image
is represented, l get the same with such
accuracy that l have again before me
every expression of her fine features in
al their lovcliness.'
There are endless stories Of the hiding
places Of missing deeds, and so forth,
being revealed in dreams. Let us take
one as typical
4 landed proprietor in England was
involved in lawsuit in consequence Of
a claim upon his fathers estate, which
he was firmly convinced had been dis
charged. Judgment. however, was about
10 eo 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 % this affair had been
placed ia the hands of a solicitor he had
not generally employed, but who hap
penal to Dc engaged for this particular
business. In the dream the father said
that If this person had forgotten matter
which was already rather old he would
bereminded Of it by the mention OF o
Portuguese gold coin, concerning the
value OF which there was adispute at the
time. The dream was curi0usly verified.
as the solicitor only did recolloct the cir
cumstauce ON mention Of the gold coin
lie was then able to produce the missing
papers. and the son gained the suit after
all
Both Plato and Aristotle have noted
that n old age the recoilections Of child
hood are renewed: and il Is recorded Of
Kant that, in his old age, when general
memory was decayed and iniirm, 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 a mind almost blank to the present
This is latent memory reawakened, but
with powers Of consciousness limited by
On enfccoeI brain.
Even &C the very entrance Of the "val- /
lev 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 a 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 a second suiiices TO produce I
al impression" in 100 years a man /
must have collected in his brain 9,467, /
$50 600 copies Of impressions; or, if we I
take OF one-third Of ,he time for sleep, 1
Obi .j20 600 This would give 3,15j,- F.
10000 separate waking impressions 70 I
the man who lives 10 the age Of 90 years. /
Allowing a weight OF four pounds to the 7
brain, and deducting one-fourth for F.
blood and vessels and another fourth for /.
external integument, it is further COM /
putcd that eachgrain Of brain substance /
must contain eOj,Jl2 traces or impress /
4 n fIa N.nr Pound