WHEN YOU FORGET YOUR OWN NAME.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 90, 21 November 1911, Page 2

WHEN YOU FORGET YOUR OWN NAME.

Everybody who reads the daily press must have come across cases of mental lapse.' For instance, a few days ago a well dressed young man sat on the kerbstone of a city street in the afternoon, and, when approached by a policeman, was unable to give any account of himself. He did not even know that he was sitting on the kerb ; in short, his mind was absolutely a blank when It came to considering the slightest detail of himself or his behaviour. He was otherwise intelligent, normal, and able to answer questions on many topics. By a process of suggestion he was finally able, but only after several days, to give an account of himself and establish his identity.

This is an instance of what is known as aphasia, or amnesia, or, to be plain, sudden forgetfulness of things concerning ourselves. It is growing to be more and more common, and alienists all over the world are at a loss to account for its prevalence. Its increase, however, suggests that it is caused by the strenuosity of modern life, the exalted state of the average mind in these days of nervous and continual worry, with- the lack of rest that we undergo. What is it, anyway, this strange suspension of the faculties of memory ? Simply this The brain stores away as in a filing cabinet millions of little facts to which it feels that it may some day refer. Dates, figures, arithmetical formulae, names, statistics of various kinds — anything, in short, which it feels it may ever need. This filing cabinet is called the memory. There is practically no limit to the number of things that can be stored away there, for though the filing space is very small, the number of drawers, or cells, It contains is incalculable. There the facts and figures, the knowledge of all sorts that human beings possess are kept, and they are all at instant call when they shall bo required. A of wires runs from the various cells to a central office called the corpus callosum, which in turn runs wires to the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the ears—the branch offices which may at any time call on the filing cabinet for, information.

i We use this marvellous telephone system a" million times a day. We do not even look with our eyes, but the action is flashed back to the corpus callosum and thence to the filing cabinet, which immediately gives us the information concerning what we are looking at. We do not think without calling on this filing cabinet for every word, every idea, every suggestion of any kind. Not one action do we perform that we do not use this filing system. It is a busy place. And the most remarkable thing about it is the perfection with which it works. It replies' to us instantly, as a rule, though sometimes its service is a little slow, as, for instance, when we call suddenly on it for information which we have not used for a long time. Take the occasion of meeting an old friend whom wo have not seen since childhood. Instantly we call on our filing cabinet for bis name. Sometimes it comes immediately, and again the cabinet (which works automatically so far as digging out the desired itopic is concerned) takes a long time |to find the person’s name. Often {we have to adopt some form of au-|to-suggestion to help the system in its work. It is a favorite resource 'of some men .whose memories are "bad” for names to begin with A and work down the alphabet until they come to the letter which suggests the desired name. Often this method will bring the required name.

It is not always the case, however, that it is the little used information which IS hard to get. If the filing cabinet is in* perfect order it will give you old facte,, long stored' away, as promptly as a newly learned subject. When the system gets out of order the accident is as liable to affect it one way Sometimes the most frequently used drawer of the cabinet will stick, ; Actors who have playe'd the same part for years, for example, often fir:d themselves on the stage with the lines of the part entirely gone fjoni their mind's when they can remember everything else. What has caused this sudden aberration ? Merely that the system isn’t working just right. There is a little break or tangle in the wires somewhere, that is all. Maybe the particular wire handling this particular subject has become worn out through too much use. At any ra f e, business is suspended for a while, and the damage must be repaired.

VORD BLINDNESS : A SHREWD TRAP.

But why is it, you may ask, that jwe forget our own na ues and re- ' member everything else, as is the icasc in the ordinary a-tack of ap|hasia ? The explanation, as given iby a leading physician, is simplicity ) itself ; j How much eSort have we ever iexerted to remember our names 7 none. They come to us jat an ago when we are filing infor<mation away by the ton, infor.majtion on every conceivable subject ; ywhen there is plenty of room in our 'filing cabinets, and no need of any particular system of tabulation. They are a part of us, our names are, and jwe never have to try to remember /them. The wires in their case grow Vust J t maybe, from disuse. And then,

suddenly, these wires which have never been inspected because there has never been a suspicion that they were out of order, refuse to work, and you have never examined the portion of your filing cabinet in which these facts are buried to see whether they are all ready for use or not.

“Word blindness” is another form of aphasia. People will suddenly become unable to read. There is no accounting for this disorder, except that the filing cabinet in which we keep our knowledge of words suffers a mix-up of some kind. Dr. William H. Thompson was recently called to testify to the mental condition of a rich man who was about to make his will. The merchant had suddenly become word blind, and his lawyer and friends thought that it was form of insanity. _ Dr. Thompson very cleverly tested the man’s mental condition by purposely misreading several words in the will, which had already been prepared. The rich man called his attention to this misreading, showing that while he himself could not read the words he knew their meaning. The will was duly filed and there never was a contest over it.

Rest, sudden shock, careful suggestion and relaxation are among the most sure cures for aphasia in any of its forms. It is not necessarily dangerous. It is merely a breakdown of a part of the system, a lesion of wires that may be repaired,' —“Popular Science Siftings.”