The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-01-07
The Plans of Mice and Men

4
An Irishman once referred to what has
been called pseudo-memory as the memory
that he had of things that never happened
| 10 him. but a more exact definition tells Us
| that it consists in the belief that new
state has been previously experienced, SC
that when the state is produced for tbs
first time it seems familiar. Or, as Wen
dell Holmes says, AL at once conviction
flashes upon US that we have been in the
same precise circumstance as at the present
instant once or many times before"-a SORT
OF feeling that makes some people think
they are ghosts. He adds jocularly tina,
| the feeling cannot be the memory OF a
| previous state OF existence. for he gives the
case of a student who when backing his
shoes had the conviction that he had often
done so before, and be mentions as an ex-
PLANTATION the fact OF the brain being a
| double organ. One side of the brain re-
| ceives the impression before the other, and
1 in the second case there is the memory OF
the first impression. But to this view it may
! objected that there is conviction that
(, the former state was experienced a long
! time before sometimes, too, with the be-
lief that it occurred in remote and other
| wise forgotten past. Sometimes. no doubt.
there is an actual memory of circumstances
nearly resembling the present, at other
| times there is a memory of dreams. The
! latter is most often the case when some
| incident during the day recalls dream OF
| the previous night that had been forgotten
1 on awaking in the morning. Another ex-
| PLANTATION founded on the theory of heredi-
! tary memory is not impossible. This would
| include the case of the student who black
| ed his shoes. From a scientific point OF
view this explanation is perfectly rational.
| A memory of things that our ancestors
have done is consistent with strict reason
| ing, and We have something almost amount
ing to memory of this kind in the case of
animals. Darwin tells of dogs that We're
taken 10 Central American and taught to
hunt deer IN a particular way; and the
progeny of these dogs, when they were
taken out without their parents. hunted at
once according to the particular method
without being trained.
This kind of memory occurs in different
forms. A sudden turn of the road in a
strange country brings us face to face with
a landscape that seems familiar. Meeting
a person for the first time. we feel as if
We had already seen him. Reading a book
that we have never seen before, the
thoughts or language or both seem as If
mind. Again, when we are witnessing
some ceremony. funeral service, a pro-
cession, or some pageant. all at once the
whole scene seems familiar.
Many remarkable cases Of this kind OF
memory are told. An inhabitana Of New
s England when on visit to England, went
to see the home of his ancestors. He
thought he recognized the village church
and the landscape, but he believed he must
have seen picture of them before. How
ever, on passing through the churchyard,
his attention was especially attracted by
tombstone on which the name inscribed
seemed familiar. On inquiry he discover
ed that the young girl who was buried
there had been negaged to one of his an
cestors. who according to an account given
In book written on the family, used often
to pay visits to the tomb of his loved one.
Hereditary memory is the only clue in this
case. if We except a vivid imagination. A
similar story is told of Yorkshireman who
went on visit to Somerset. and there rec
ognized and remembered well hunting the
red deer. He had never done so himself
before, but his father had hunted the red
deer in Somerset for several years in the
early part of his life.
A celebrated artist tells story Of how,
when he was playing with his pencil and
paper, he suddenly began to draw a por
trait Of a face that he seemed to remember.
But he never discovered the original until
when, on a visit to a country house, he
discovered the face among the portraits
of the ancestors of the family. On in
quiry, he found that his grandfather had
once been engaged to be married to the
girl, but he had been obliged to give her
up on the pressure of her relatives. OF a
different kind is the story told of the late
DR.. Butcher of Dublin, the eminent sur
geon. His fellow students used to say
that when he commenced work in the dis
Secting room, he seemed to show memory
of similar processes used by an ancestor
Wigan, an author who wrote on the |
duality OF the mind, relates that when he
was present at the funeral of the Princess |
Charlotte in Windsor chapel, he suddenly |
had the conviction that he had witnessed |
identically the same scene somewhere be- |
fore. In such a case. no explanation seems |
and indeed most occurrences |
Of pseudo-memory come under this head. |
Lander. German writer, tells of an in |
valid who, being told of the death of a |
friend, was seized with an undefinabIe ter
ror, and replied, Mueller has been dead |
some time, he cannot die twice" 1t SEEM
ed to him that some time previously, while
lying in bed, he had been informed of Null
er's death. DR.. Arnold Pick tolls of a
man who had chronic attacks of pseudo |
Whenever he was present at
social gathering. or visited any place that
was new to him, the incident, with all its
attendant circumstances, appeared so IA
niliar that he was convinced of having re-
ceived the same impressions before, or hav-
ng been surrounded with the same objects
lnder the same conditions Of weather etc.
II he undertook any new occupation, he
seemed to have gone drought ii at some |
previous time, sometimes at the end OF .
lew hours, and sometimes not until the
md of the next day, but always with great
In this case an explanation |
nay perhaps be found in the mans pos
session of very powerful ina gination, |
which. being constantly exercised on a nun
Der of possible situations led TO the recogni
ion afterwards of similarities in actual ex-
,erience.
As an sxpianatio ton in other cases II may
'e that there is an actual memory of events
hat occurred in early childhood, and re-
named for long time forgotten by the
Individual himself and his friends. Carpen-
er tells OF clergyman who went with a
'arty of friends 10 visit a castle that he did
lot remember he had ever seen before. As
e approached the gateway he became con-
cious of very vivid impression OF having
cen il previously and he seemed to him
elf 10 see not only the gateway itself but
lso donkeys beneath the arch and people |
II the top OF Il, and ne was for some time
n the belief that he was the victim OF de-
1son OF prank of memory until on in
uiring OF his mother. she Informed him
hat when he was eighteen months old. she
sd gone 10 the castle with large party
nd taken him in the panier OF a donkey, !