The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-13
ABOUT PSUED0 MEMORY
IT'S MANIFESTATIONS IND CAUSES
THAT Are ASSIGNED.
Curious illustrations That Have il Fa-
milIar Appearance to Us-What Some
Famous Men Have Said Concerning This
Interesting Subject.


Interesting Subject
An lrishman once referred to what
has been called psuedo memory as the
memory that he had of things that
never happened to him, but a more eX-
act definition tells US that it consists in
the belief that new state has been
previously experienced, so that when the
state is produced for the first time it
seems familiar Oh, as Wendell Holmes
says, "Ali at once a conviction flashes
upon us that we have been in the same
precise circumstances as at the pres
ent instant once or many times before
"a sort of feeling that makes some
people think they are ghosts. He adds
Jocularly that the feeling cannot be the
memory of previous state ofeXistence,
for he gives the case OF a student who
when backing his shoes, had the cou-
Viction that he had often done so be-
foreand he mentions as an explanation
the fact of the brain being a double or
gan, one side of the brain receives the
impression before the other. and in
the second case there is the memory of
the first impression. But to this view
it may be objected that there is q con-
Viction that the former state was OK
perienced long time before. some
times, too With the belief that it oc-
CURED in d remote and otherwise for
gotten past. Something's no doubt, there
Is an actual memory of dreams The
l.
some incident during the day recalls,
a dream of the previous night that had
been forgotten on awakening in the
morning. Another explanation founded
on the theory of hereditary memory is
not impossible. This would include
the case of the student who BACKED
his shoes. From scientific point of
view this explanation is perfectly ra-
tional
"A memory Of things that our an
Ccstors have done is consistent With
strict reasoning, and we have some
thing almost amounting to memory Of
this kind in the case of animals, Oar
win tells of dogs that We're taken 10
Central America and taught to hunt
deer in particular way and the pro
geny 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 differ
ent forms. sudden turn of the road
in q strange country brings us face to
face with a landscape that seems fami-
liar, Meeting 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 the
language. or both. seem as If they had
already been presented to the mind.
Again, funeral service. a procession
or some pageant all at once the whole
scene seems familiar.
Many remarkable cases of this kind
OF memory are told. An inhabitant of
New England, when on a visit to Eng
land. went to see the home of his an
cestOrs He thought he recognized the
village church and the landscape, but
he believed he must have seen a picture
of them before. However on passing
through the churchyard his attention
was especially attracted by a tomb
stone on which the name inscribed
seemed familiar On inquiry he dis
covered that the young girl who was
buried there had been engaged to one
of his ancestors. who. according to an
account given in a book written on the
family. used often to pay visits to the
tomb of his loved one. Hereditary mem
DRY is the only clew in this case, if We
except a vivid imagination. A similar
story is told of Yorkshireman who
went on a visit to Somerset and there
recognized and remembered we'll hunt
Jug 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 a story of
how, when he was playing with pencil
and paper, he suddenly began to draw
D portrait of a face that he seemed to
remember But he never discovered the
original until when on visit to a
country house. he discovered the face
among the portraits of the ancestors of
the family. On inquiry he found that
his grandfather had once been engaged
to be married to the girl. but had been
obliged to give her up on the pressure
of her relatives.
DR.. Arnold Pick tells of man who
had chronic attacks of pseudo memory
Whenever he was present at a social
gathering or visited any place that was
new to him. the incident with all its
familiar circumstances, appeared so
familiar that he was convinced of hav-
ing received the same impressions be-
fore or having been surrounded with
the same objects under the same con-
ditions of weather etc. IF he under
took any new occupation, he seemed to
have gone through it at some previous
time end under similar conditions
This feeling sometimes appeared at
the time sometimes a the end of a few
hours and sometimes not until the
next day. but always. with great dis
tinctness In this case an explanation
may perhaps he found in the man s
possession of a very powerful Magma
ton. which being constantly exercised
on a number OF possible situations. led
to the recognition afterward of similar
ties in actual experience
As On examination in other cases
it may be that there is an actual mem
ory of events that occurred in early
childhood and remained for a long time
forgotten by the individual himself
and his friends. Carpenter tells of a
clergyman who went with party of
friends to visit castle that he did not