St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1889-12-07
CERE0RAl WONDERS


CERE0RAl WONDERS
0saAltieos Us~ee which Ms0osy Rlayo,
Taatastie Treohs
Sir Ashley Cooper gives an accoun
Of remarkable instance OF cerebra
eccentricity. A soldier who had bee.
wounded in the head fell into loui
stupefactiOn. until he was restored 4
speech by an operation in the hospital
But when he did speak 1t was in an un
known tongua which none about him
could understand. BY and by Welsh
woman was brought into tho hospital
and she at once recognized the Ian
guage Of the sick soldier as her ow,
tongue He had not been in Wales
for thirty years. yet he now spoke hil
long-forgotten language fuently. and
could. in fact, not recollect any
other. And. strange to say. when
completely recovered. the English
came back TO him and the Welsh wa
once more forgotten. Dr. Carpenter
tells Of another case almost a. remark.
able. A man who had left Wales in
his childhood had so entirely forgot.
ten his native tongue that he could moi
oven understand his compatriots when
they visited him. But during an at.
tack Of fever this same man. after
sixty years forgetting. spoke in dilirium
continuously in Welsh. On recover.
ing health he again lost the language.
Even at the very entrance Of the '.val-
ley Of the Shadow" the memory plays
strange tricks. Gothic told Ecker
man that he once knew an
old man who in his very last
moments began to recite beauti-
full Greek sentences. These he had
been made. as q boy. to learn by heart
for q special purpose. but for fifty
years had not uttered them. They
were there In his memory. though. all
tho same. and some unexplainable Ger.
ebal action suddenly gave them form
and expression. A dying peasant was
heard by DR.. Steinbeck to pray In
Greek and Hebrew. Questioned about
1t when conscious, he said that a. q
boy he had often heard the parish
priest use the same words, without
knowing what they meant As illus
trating phenomena Of memory of an.
other sort. We may recall the case OF
Linnaus. who. in decay of his mem-
ory in old age, was delighted
by the reading OF his own works
without recognizing them. Not to 60 SO
far away. there is tho experience Of
Sir Walter Scott as related by Lock.
hart THE Bride Of Lammermoor"
was composed and published while
Scott was confined to q sick bed; and
he assured Ballantyne that when il vac
first put into his hands in q complete
shape he did not recollect one single
incident, character or conversation it
He recollected all the in.
cidents OF the story upon which the
romance was founded. but ''he literally
recollected nothing else; not . single
character woven by the romancer; not
one Of the many scenes and points OF
humor. nor any thing with which he
was connected as the writer OF
the work." A still more remark
able case Of lapse OF memory in
another way is related by DR..
Pritchard A man was engaged In
splitting wood with . mallet and
wedge Previous to going homo in the
evening he hid his tools in q hollow
tree. and told his sons at night 70 20
for them in the morning. But the
same night he became insane. Several
years afterward his reason returned
suddenly. and his first question was
his sons had brought home
The tools They told him they had not
been able to find them. whereupon he
rose. went to the field where he had
been working years before. and took
'ut Of their hiding-place all that was
eft Of the tools-the iron parts. for the
rood had moldered away.-All the
Year Round.