LAPSES OF MEMORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2253, 6 May 1897, Page 49

LAPSES OF MEMORY.

Perhaps the moat amusing instance of temporary failure of memory is that of a wellknown doctor of divinity in the commercial capital of Scotland. "Would you 'be kind enough," he asked of a passing stranger, " to tell me where Dr B lives 1 " " Why, Bir, you're Dr B yourself 1 " " I know that well enough, only I've forgotten where he liveß." The information was duly furnished, and the inquirer Eoon found himself once more at home. Nor was he known to experience again a similar lapse.

With others the forgetfulness is farther reaching and more serious in its results. It is not so long since the advertising columns »

of the London morning papers afforded a striking example. A gentleman had been found wandering in Oxford, who, though perfectly sane, was nnable to give any account of himself. He was described as welleducated, speaking French and able to read Spanish, conversant with business and political matters, and yet he had forgotten his own name, where he came from, and whither he was going.

A similar experience was that of a lady in Eastbourne a little time ago, who was discovered to have forgotten her own identity. The report of the case happened to meet her husband's eye in a London paper, with the result that the lady was restored to her home.

Probably some of the disappearances reported from time to time by local journalists, or advertised with more or leas directness in the Agony Column of the papers, are owiDg to similar causes, and it does not always happen that the search is successful.

Not quite so tragic, though annoying enough, is the adventure of a well-known actress of great experience and repute in her profession. At the final rehearsal of a forthcoming piece, she was dismayed to find that ejrery word of her part had escaped her memory, though for weeks previously Bhe had been " letter-perfeot." Her only resource was to begin to learn it all over again.

Another authentic instance, though less recent, is the case of a German nobleman, once Envoy to Madrid, and • afterwards to St. Petersburg. Calling at a friend's house to pay a formal visit, he found himself unable to tell the servant his own name. He turned round to a gentleman who was with him, and said with much earnestnesß : " For goodness sake tell me who I am." His friend laughed at what he considered a joke, and nothing more, but the other's manner Boon convinced him that it was no laughing matter. Baron yon E was informed of his own proper designation, and the visit came off satisfactorily.

Public speakers, even the most practised, sometimes suffer from a momentary failure of memory. It is frequently merely verbal and due to a passing want of correlation between tongue and ear. Consonants or vowels belonging to one word are given to another with, ao often as without, the consciousness of incorrectness. " The frights of rughteousness " the writer once heard a well-known clergyman give utterance to without perceiving his mistake. An actressmanager mentions the case of one of her staff declaiming about " a nosey cook," but that is rather a slip of the tongue than of memory. Stage fright is a much more serious visitation, and due probably to temporary paralysis of some of fche nervous centres.

Occasionally the loss of memory has proved } so complete that re-education has been found necessary. A governess hat been known to have become entirely ignorant o£ . the use of the pen ; another had go acquire ■ reading as well as writing- % A clergyman of rare talent and much energy having been thrown from his carriage was found on restoration to consciousness to have the intellect of a naturally intelligent child, t Although in middle life, he commenced his I English and classical studies under tutors, 1 and was making satisfactory progress when, j after several months' Btndy, i£ was found ; that the memory of his old acquisitions was ! gradually returning, and his stores of previous \ learning came back fco him without further j effort;.