The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-10-03
TRICKS OF THE MEMORY
CURIOUS CASES OF DROPPED
STITCHES OF TIME"
rhe Strange Forgetfuiness Which Medical
Men Have Named Amnesia--some ABB
normaiities That Are Uncanny in the
Extremc-DuaI Personality.

LXtremc-Dual FersOnantY.
A few weeks ago the newspapers
reported the case of n young girl who
went out one morning from her home
in London suburb for short bcy-
Gle ride, and was heard OF no more
until she was found in the evening
wandering about the neighborhood of
Tunbridge Wells in dazcd condition,
having entirely forgotten who she
was and where she lived. Happily,
such a prank as this ON the part of
the memory of a sane and healthy
person is not a common experience;
but instances of q similar kind, of
which neither the physician nor the
psychologist have hitherto been able
to give us any satisfactory explana-
ton, have happened much more fire.
quently than 1t is pleasant to think
of.
One of the most curious cases on
record was communicated to the Ian
Get in 1915 by DR.. Dunn. A young
woman of robust constitution, and in
the best of health, fell into river and
was nearly drowned. After her res
cue from the water she was insensible
for six hours, and ten days later she
was suddenly seized with stupor
which lasted four hours. On awaken
ing from this her friends were amazed
to discover that she was unable to
recognize any of them, and that she
oil ,f ,.,,
taste and smell, as well as all power
of speech. She was quite passive, re-
mained in any position in which they
placed her, and ate automatically of
any food which was placed between
her lips with a spoon. Various at
tempts were made to interest her, and,
after little instruction in the use of
n needle, she found some amusement
in doing patchwork, or working with
worsted, the bright colors of which
her. But she lost all recollection of
what she had done from day to day,
and, so to speak, began life afresh
every morning. Two things only con-
nected with her past seemed, even in
the falntest way, to touch her recol-
lection. When the lover to whom
she had been engaged came to pay
her visit she showed a slight access
of pleasure; and at the sight of water,
though it were only a small quantity
poured from jug into basin, she
exhibited signs of distress and fright.
Bit by bit, however, her mind came
back. But she had absolutely no rec
objection OF anything which had TAX
en- place since the fit of insenslbility
which had followed her immersion,
twelve months previously.
Unconsciousness due to disease OF
injury, epilepsy, hysteria, concussion
of the brain, or coma induced by al
cohol, opium or other poison, have fire.
quently been known to produce this
strange forgetfulness, which medical
men have named amnesia, and of
which they eow recognize several dis
tinct varieties. Its effects are some
times highly curious. DR.. Forbes
Winslow tells Of a man of scholastic
attalnments, who, after an attack of
acute fever, lost all knowledge Of the
letter 'f''; and of a soldier, who, after
the loss of some part of his brain by
trepanning, was found 10 have also
lost the power to recolleet or recog-
nize the numbers "5' and a." DR..
Abercrombie cites the case of lady
seized with apopleXy one Thursday
evening while playing cards. who lay
in state of stupor until the following
Sunday, when, on suddenly recover
nothing had happened in the mean
time, "What are trumps" And the
phrenologist, Combe, tells an amusing
story of porter who, in state of in
toxicatlon, left parcel at a wrong
house and, when sober, was quite un-
able to remember what he had done
with it, but the very next time he got
drunk, at once recollected what had
become of the parcel, and instantly
set off to recover it.
1t is remarkable peculiarly of am
nesia which results from accident that
the patient usually loses all memory
of the accident itself as well as of
those circumstances which Immediate
ly preceded 1t. The Rev. S. Hansard,
whose case is cited by DR.. Carpenter,
was driving his wife and child in u
phaeton when the horse bolted, and
he was thrown out, suffering a severe
concussion of the brain. On recov-
erlng, he found that he had forgotten
all the immediate antecedents of the
accident; the last thing he remem-
bered being that he met an acquaint-
ance on the road two miles away. OF
his efforts to stop the horse, of the
terror Of his wife and child, he had
no remembrance, and he never remem-
bered them to the end of his days.
A strange and interesting instance
of this partial amnesia which proved
permanent. and which may be COM
mended to some Of our problem novel;
lists as calculated to produce dom
estic situation of some perpleXlty, is
thus related by an eminent French
psychologist: A young woman mar
ried to a man of whom she was pas
sionately fond was, at the time of the
birth of her first child, seized with u
prolonged syncope, and when her un-
consciousness ended 1t was discovered
that she had lost all memory of her
marriage and married life, although
all the rest of her past, previous to
that time was quite fresh In her recol-