PRANKS THE MEMORY SOMETIMES PLAYS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 66, 25 August 1911, Page 2

PRANKS THE MEMORY SOMETIMES PLAYS.

WHY DRUNKARDS USE BAD . |; LANGUAGE. To the layman it may seem mysterious that anyone should forget his 'or her own name, but such cases are by no means rare, and the victims of these strange freaks of memory often have most unusual experiences and' adventures before they succeed in being found again. They are suflering from what scientists would call partial amnesia. , Just what is amnesia ?

In common parlance, it is a loss of memory due to some lesion, softening or partial degeneration of the brain. Physicians know that in the initial stages of amnesia suflerers forget first proper names, then substantives afterwards adjectives and verbs, then the language of the emotions, and finally gestures. One would think naturally that our most recent ideas or memories, being much more vivid than our older notions, would be forgotten last. But such is not the case. For thousands of centuries our hearts have beaten and 1 our blood has circulated, until the memory of their functions has become automatic ■ and so firmly established that death alone can suspend their operations. Again, the oldest human way of communication was by gestures ; the next oldest, by the language of the emotions ; while the present civilised way is by modern speech. Once more, proper names which are arbitary, are never ingrained in us so solidly as is ordinary language. Whence it is not in the least surprising that, when our memory begins to fail, we forget first our own names, where we live and what we have just set out to do. ,An odd and deplorable fact is that we remember how to swear (a language of the emotions) long after we forget how to talk.

In double personality we have, in the same individual, two distinct memory conditions with their respective associations. Thus some persons can be housebreakers at night and honourable and respected citizens by day. Or they can bo cranks at home and the souls of good nature abroad. Their two diverse personalities are the result of different external conditions. A man’s wife may be estimable, and yet her personality may bring out in his character traits which lie dormant while he is in the presence of congenial friends. But Jet us go back to amnesia. A man, when intoxicated, is said to display his true disposition ; and that statement is scientifically true. Liquor stupefies the h ra * n i causing a partial amnesia. Hence, a drunken man forgets first his urbanity and polish which, being acquired traits, have not the stability of his innate emotions. In his peculiar condition, therefore, he is usually profane, overbearing and rude. When so far gone as to be unable to converse coherently he can still swear and will often continue to mutter oaths with fluent persistency. The story of the drunken man who lost something and could not find it till he potdrunk again, is an illustration of the distinct second personality induced by intoxication. Many cases of amnesia, however, are, happily, ,due to only a temporary inhibition of certain functions of the brain ; and these are curable by the quiet of a worry-free environment. Grant the overtaxed brain a rest and the degenerate cells may soon be replaced by young and vigorous ones.