The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-03-12

Ahh1fehthh ehAJtcts
An Irishman once referred to what has
been called pseudo memory as che memory
that he had of things that never happened
to him, but a moro exact definition tells
us that it consists In the belief that a new
state has been previously experienced so
that when the state is produced for the
first time it seems familiar. Or, as Wen
dell Holmes says, "All at once a conviction
flashes upon us that we have been in the
same precise circumstances us at the pres
ent instant once or many times before -
a sort of feeling that makes some people
think they are ghosts. He adds iocularly
that the feeling cannot be the memory of
a previous state of existence, for he gives
the case Of a student who, when blacking
his shoes, had the conviction that he had
often done so before, and ne mentions as
an explanation the fact of the brain being
q double organ. One side of the brain re
ceives the impression before the other, and
in the second case there is the memory Of
the first impression. But to this view 1t
may be objected that there is a conviction
that the former state was experienced o
long time before, sometimes, too, with the
belief that It occurred in remote and 9TH
erwise forgotten past Sometimes, no
doubt, there is an actual memory Of
dreams. The latter is most often the case
when some incident during the day recalls
a dream of the previous night that had
been forgotten on awakening in the morn
ing. Another explanation founded on the
theory of hereditary memory is not impos-
sible. This would include the case of the
student who blacl1ed 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
amounting to memory Of this kind in the
case Of animals. Darwin tells of dogs that
were taken to Central America and taught
to hunt deer in 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 Il
strange country brings us face TO face
with landscape that seems familiar
Meeting a person for the first time, we
feel as if we had already seen him. Read
ing 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, u
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 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 n picture of them before. How
ever, on passing through the churchyard
his attention was especially attracted by a
tombstone on which the name inscribed
seemed familiar. On inquiry he discovered
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 memory is the only clew in
this case, if we except a vivid magma
ton. A similar story is told of York
shireman who went ON n visit to Somerset
and there recognized and remembered well
hunting the red deer. He had never done
so himself before, but his father had hunt
cd the red deer in Somerset for several
years in the carly part of his life
A celebrated artist tells "A story of how,
when he was playing with pencil and pa
per, he suddenly began to draw a portrait
of face that he seemed to toromember. But
he never discovered the original until
when, on q visit to 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 a man who had
chronic attacks of pseudo memory. When
ever he was present at a social gathering
or visited any place that was new to him,
the incident, with all it's familiar circum-
stances, appeared so familiar that he was
convinced Of having received the same i'm
pressiOns before or having been surround
cd with the same objects under the same
conditions Of weather, etc. Ii he under
took any new occupation, he seemed to
have gone through it at some previous
time and under similar conditions. This
feeling sometimes appeared at the time,
sometimes at the end Of a few hours, and
sometimes not until the next day, but al
ways with great distinctness In this case
an explanation may perhaps he found in
the mans possession of a very powerful
Imagination, which, being constantly ex-
ercised on a number of possible situa.
tions, led to the recognition aftcrward OF
similarities in actual experience
AS an examination in other cases 1t may
be that there is an actual memory Of events
that occurred in early childhood and re-
mained for a long time forgotten by the
individual himself and his friends. Car
penter tells of a clergyman who went with
a party of friends to visit castle that he
did not remember he had ever seen before.
As he approached the gateway he became
conscious of a very vivid impression OF
having seen 1t previously, and he seemed
TO himself to see not only the gateway it.
self, but also donkeys beneath the arcf
and people on the top Of 1t, and it was fol
some time in the belief that he was tn,
victim Of n delusion or prank of memory
until, on inquiring Of his mother, she in
formed him that when he was Is months
old she had gone to the castle with large
party and taken him in the pannier Of
donkey, and that the elders of the party
having brought luncheon with them, atC
Vt on the roof of the gateway.
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