WHAT IS "FORGETTING."

North Otago Times, 1 November 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHAT IS "FORGETTING."

Loss of memory, or something masquerading under the name, has been sensationally prevalent of late. .Men and women have been found wandering, utterly olilivious of their pasts, of their names, of their very identities .even.

These instances, of "forgetting" naturally bring up the quest ion what is science's explanation of memory ? What is this occult power men have of turning Intck the pages of their minds, finding the right paragraph, and reading o(T, more or less correctly, what was written thereon'weeks, months, or years ago

The answer given by science to this question is' that the brain is a mass of minute cells connected with all parts of the body by thread-like nerves along which every impression is carried to jt. These cells have a faculty for recording these impressions and giving them out again when properly called upon to do so, something as the wax cylinder of a phonograph receives a record and gives it out again when the proper machinery is set in motion.

The wax cylinder corresponds to the memory, the needle to the recollection, for the dilference between memory and recollection. must be kept well in mind. .Memory is the storing of sensations ; recollection is the recalling of them,