Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-22
MI MORY'S MYSTERIES
Francisqus sarcey Writes Entertainingly
of Those BE Hag Observed
Some Mental peculIasitie. Which Are
Familiar to Nearly Every One
Store House of the Mind.

Francisque Sarcey wrote the following
for a recent number of the Paris Figaro:
"Who in conversation, when seeking q
name, a date, or any detail that flies be-
fore the memory and escapes has not cried
out in tone of Impotence, have it on
the tip of my tongue! and, true enough,
that name, that date. or that detail is on
the tip Of the tongue. 1t seems as il the
slightest effort would suffice to formulate
1t, but by what strange phenomenon does
it refuse TO allow itself to be captured?
Tho more you follow it the more it runs
back into the depths of the mind. Your
hands almost tremble with impaii ence and
your eyebrows knit in the effort to catch
it, but all is in vain That wretched name
you cannot seize, and you are obliged to
replace 1t by some other word. And what
is more extraordinary is the plain fact
that, if the name concealS itself, you have
present in your mind all the circumstances
which accompany it, which distinguish it.
and make it known.
There are people with whom these fail
ures of memory are frequent and insup-
portable. For my own part L am very
subject to them. In conversation when
suffer from them l have to be resigned,
but in public speaking find the nconver-
fence very painful / am never sure that
1 may not have ts stop short before the
rame of the author, or the book that
am talking about That name I have
pronounced already ten times in the course
OF my lectures. but suddenly it vanishes
from my memory / have it on the tip
of my tongue. but the tongue remains pow
eriess. The thing is a sort Of malady
OF the memory. which is often very pain
ful. What is the cause Of it? That is q
question which l have often asked my
self, and many others must have asked
themselves the same question, because in
reality this disease is very common, and
far u.4llV aro
scenes out of it.
Interesting Experiments.
Il have just read an article in the Revue
des Revues which throws some curious
light upon this defect of the memory 1t
is by Alfred Binet, and gives an account
of the Investigations that have been made
in this matter by some learned English
men. The author tells us that in the
laboratory Of psychology In Paris he made
some interesting experiments. For ex-
ample. list of fifty words was read to
patient or subject. and he was asked to
repeat them. He discovered about ten
IN his memory: it was rarely that any
body could repeat twenty. The thirty 9TH
ers were gone: But were they gone for
ever. destroyed? Not at ALL The per
son who heard them retained them in his
memory, but could not grasp them, and
here is the proof Of 1t. A list of sixty
words was made, among which were
thrown in the thirty words already read
This new list was read to the subject, with
the request that he would indicate the
words previously read, If he could discover
any. He was rarely deceived, and gem
orally Pointed out tine thirty words that he
had forgotten Now, IL he recognized
them. 1t is plain that he must have remem-
bered them.
This experiment in the scientific form is
ingenious But we are constantly repeat
ing 1t in everyday life. For instance vou
are sometimes invited to go to the theater
TO see an old piece that you have forgot en-
lou can hardly remember the title. You
are asked to give the substance of the
piece, because you ought to remember it,
Tor you saw the first representation of the
work. but no recollection of it comes to
your mind. and you can't answer. The
1rst scenes are played, and then suddenly
the whole play rises up from the depth of
the past and flows in upon The memory
And again, IL after thirty years of exile
you return to the land where your child
mood was passed, no sooner have your eyes
galed upon the old town clock than a
swarm of recollections that nave slept for
years becomes arc Ised and huns again.
Put Away in Drawers.
What are we to conclude from this, IL
not that OF all the recollections that are
stored in our mind about one-third are
constantly at our disposal for our daily
use, while the other two-thirds are put
away in drawers. whose keys we have lost
we are like those women who know well
that they have somewhere in the house
choice laces carefully put away, but can't
tell where they are. They ought to be in
this or That wardrobe. but the lock can't
De opened. Sometimes the good woman
even forgets that she ever possessed such
laces until some fine day, when the old
wardrobe IS opened by chance she utters a
cry of surprise: Why my laccsr
hn 1r,a ,ftl,
Is often astonished at discovering the sud-
den resurrection Of long buried memories
we often fancy that there is mystery sur
rounding the thing. but nothing is more
simple. The fact is that in reality those
memories were not buried or DESTROYED
Without our knowledge they remained pre-
served in the archives of the mind, but we
couid not bring them out, because we had
no need for them.
Maury, who published very remarka-
pie study OF dreams. gives fact that at
hrst sight seems marvellous. He returned
alier long absence to his native place
one night he dreamed that a gentleman
whom, in dreamland only he recognized as
an Old acquaintance, came to see him
men he awoke he remembered distinctly
me lace or the friend of his dream. but he
oidn trouble himself about it, and regard
ca the whole matter as one of those dreams
III which the imagination alone Is set in
motion, and which correspond with no
Ieshty. Inc next day, to his intense sur
the same name and the same face. 1t was
q friend Tor many years forgotten. The
phenomenon Is singular, but it is easily ex.
Iiained During the sleep Of Maury his
mind. aroused by the incidents of his voy-
age; opened the drawer where the memory
OF that friend was sleeping, and the chance
OF the meeting did the rest.
during the last few years there have
becn many experiments made In England
with what is called the magic mirror
These experiments consist in fixing the eyes
steadily for few moments upon any bril-
liant surface. glass, or even oil poured
upon a dish. The subject who fixes his
eyes upon this magic mirror falls into a
state OF hypnotism. There he sees, under
the form of images, long-Iost recollections
FOR instance, woman who had completely
forgotten an important address saw in the
mirror an envelope upon which she read it.
Another person found a mislaii object
Inc explanation of ii all is that the drawer
was opened. and that is the whole of It.
we should bear well in mind that we DO
not really know what our memory con-
tains' because we have Tot the power to
caii uD at will everything that it contains
ana to empty all its corners But, on the
other hand, those corners open sometimes
OF themselves and pitch out before our eyes
OBJECTS that we believed were lost In this
j,, fbo eli