Arizona republican., 1904-10-24
SOME FREAKS OF MEMORY.
Forgetting Ones Name t heLeast of
 Some Strange Instances.


 
 Curious cases of entire lapse of mem cry are not by any means as rare as is generally supposed, and there are many authentic incidents About thirty years ago a young man called at the police barracks of Melbourne and asked to be informed of his identity. The first idea was that the man was a lunatic, but it soon became evident that the statement of his loss of mem ory was genuine. He was kept in the jail and was the object of much inter est, not only to the wariens, but 10 the physicians as well One morning he was observed listening intently to the singing. When questioned about 1t he said that he had heard it somewhere before, and aske6 what it was. BeiaG told 1t was music he showed no iutelli- gence. but at the close of the service wa9 taken close to the organ and shown that the sounds he heard came from the instrument.
 The man struck a few notes uuintel- ligibly and then chord or two in hsr- mony, then in an instant. with a look of pleasure. he commenced a selection from Creation" which he played cor rectly and we'll
 Dr. Usher cites some instances of al-
 
 ory which are almost past belief He tells of man, a temperate drinker. who to drive away a fit Of the blues one day drank some champagne and felt much better. From this moment his memory became confused, and when a couple Of weeks later he re- covered he found he had married a French lady and was on his wedding trip Except that during the whole time he drank steadily of champagne and showed a tendency to fall asleep whenever his surroundings became dull, nothing unsual was noticed in his behavior. And yet of the marriage itself or the events connected with f. he professed to have no memory what ever, an assertion which was confirmed by subsequent occurrences.
 In a Roman Catholic town in Ger many young woman was seized with fever and was declared by the priests to be possessed Cf a devil because. though she could neither read nor write. she was heard speaking Latin. Hebrew and Greek Whole sheets Of her rawlings were written down and were found to consist of sentences in telhgible in themselves, but having no connection with one another. Of he- Hebrew sayings only one or tv-o could bC U cCcu lD lIlE 6lDles ana most seem ed to be in the RlbbinicaI dialect. Any thing like trick was out of the que5- tton, for the woman was a simple minded creature and there was no doubt about the fever It was long be- fore the explanation was reached.
 It occurred to the physician to trace the girls history, and after much trouble h. discovered that at the age or she had been charitably adopted by an old Protestant pastor. a great Hebrew scholar, in whose house she lived till his death. It appeared that it had been the old mans custom fo.. years to walk up and down the passage in his house, into which the Kitchen opened, and to read to himself in Q loud voice from a book The volumes were ransacked and among them were found several of the Greek and Latin fathers and a collection Of Rabbinical writings. In these books many of the passages taken down at the young wo- mans bedside were traced to their source.
 The Bride of LausnermoOr'' was written by Sir Walter Scott during an illness, and it was found that he had forgotten entirely what he had created The book was written and published before its author was out Of bed, and when hrst put into his hands he as- sured his friends he did not recollect slnsle character or conversation il contained. The original incidents he had been familiar with since his boy hood he still remembered, but he knew no more of the story than he did before | he began to write or even think about writing 1t.
 
 Whom a woman looks in the glass