Some Phenomena of Memory.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1905, 18 June 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

Some Phenomena of Memory.

And whab is memory? Briefly id maybe defined as tbe impr^Bsion of the past in tha foim of latent images in the mind. It is a oondeiousnesa of the present. It is a cerebral record of the p3et experiences, which is mora or less quickened by the environment of the moment. The poaeeasion of perfect memory implies perfect sanity ; for, with tha insane, mentor? is always distorted or disturbed, if it is not wholly lost.

What wo call abEent-rnindedness is temporary BUspension of the faculty of memory. The mind, intent upon some present thought, obliterates or obscures the reoord of the past, We may even regard it as a temporary and partial form of insanity ; and if we find ab-sent-mindedness most common with persons of great mental powers, we may accepi the faot aa another illustration of the near allianoe been the great genius and madness. Certain it ia that Bruyere's " Absent Man " wae no mero creature of fertile imagination. The original is said to have been the Count de Br&neas, of whom a curious story is related.

Ono day he was reading by the fire in his study, when tho nurse brought him a child newly-born to him. The Count threw away the book, and took the ohild on his knee to pl&y \?ith it. By-and-bye a visitor was announced, end the Count, forgetting all about the child, and remembering only that he had been reading a book, threw the poor infant carelessly oa to the table. What a meroy he didn't throw it into the fire !

It is recorded of La Fontaine, noted for his absent-mindedness, that he once attended the funeral of ono of his mcßt inSimate friends, and shortly afterwards called to vieib that friend. When reminded by the astonished servant of the recent death, ho was at first terribly ahooked, and then remarked : " True ; of course, I recollect now 1 went to his funeral."

To come back to memory, however, we may find a more scientific definition. It ia the faculty when tbe physical organism has of reviving as a mental representation an impression of sense formerly experienced. It is combined with imagination, and it ia the common source of reproduction and recollection. But recollection must have also recognition to become memory. How, then, is it that we only remember some of our past experiences, thoughts, observations, impressions, and general mental pictures! If memory is only reproduction and resollection, why does it not reflect every thing which has flitted aoroee the brain in tbe #aai ? Bacarzsa the faculty of memory is also associated with the faculty of will. Sohopcohaur states the matter thus : "If IV6 Conner tbe thing deeply, we shall arrive at tho resuli that memory in general needs the support of a will, as of a point of attachment, or rather of a thread on which the CQOajcii23 are strung, and which holds them together ; or that ihe will is the ground to which individual memories cleave, and without which they could not endure, and ibat, ;hex£fore, for a merely knowing, quite will* less being, memory c&nnoi. be conceived."

More recent writerp.in the iigbt of evolution moved by varioua scientific theoiies, niive questioned, qualified, extended and -.mplifiul Sehopc'uh&ui'H definition ; bub it is \n\tQ EuGicifni for cur purpose. What we ' Hut now to do ia merely to trKoa eomc phesiu .i-r.a of mercery. Atd fii» l *\h&t is the operation of lbs

memory in sleep ? It is common to think of eleep as forgetfulness— more or less blissful; but forgetting is of two kinda; it may be either partial, with the possibility of reproduction without recollection, or complete, when neither reproduction nor recolleotion wi\l revive the impression. And it is a remarkable faot that we often reoall in our sleep that whioh we have forgotten in our waking moments. A curioua instance of memory in sleep is related by a French writer on dreamß. He Bays he once saw in a dream a number of men passing out from a feaßt. He observed them all very attentively, and the face of one struck him bo much, that he remembered it after waking. Exeroising his thoughts as to where he had seen the face before, he at last recollected having seen it some days previously in a .book of fashions, whioh he had carelessly glanced at and oast aside. The same writer tells that another time he saw in a dream a fair youDg lady in company with his own sister. He thought ho knew her ; but on waking with the image still in his mental visage, he could not recolleot h6r. Falling afsleep again, almost immediately, the same lady reappeared, and he reoolleoted in his sleep that he bad not reoolleoted her when awake I Surprised, even in his dream, at this, he went up to the lady and asked where he had the pleasure of making her acquaintance. She at onoe reminded him by naming a watering-place where they had met ; and tbe whole circumstance came back to him in his eleep, and remained in his memory when he awoke again. Beiobenbaeb, a German writer on mental phenomena, says : 11 Wakicg, I oannot with whatever effort recall the features of my wife, who died some twenty years ego } but, if 1 think of her in dream, and her imago is represented, I get tho same with such accuracy that I have again before me every expression of her fine features in all their loveliness." And Beichenbach's experience, we venture to think, ia by no means exceptional. The present writer has oertainly had vivid dreamimages of long-departed friends, whoso features he can hardly reoall when awake, and, doubtless, many of our readers have had similar experiences. Fichia, a German psyohologiefc, mentions the cas9 o! a musician, a good composer, who once omitted to note down a melody whioh occurred to him. Afterwards he could not recall it ; but later, he recollected it in a dream, with full harmony and accompaniment, and on waking, was able to retain it until he wrote it down. Thare (seems to be practically no limit to the reach of dream-memory into tbe past, fo? tha eccnea of eavly childhood are frequently reproduosd in the very aged. We qaofce the following example from tho Baron au Prel, author of " Tho Philosophy .of Jiyaticism : " A friend of Maury's had bseu brought up at Montbrison. Five-and-twenty years later he proposed a visit to the t'cenes of his childhood. Tha eight before ths journey be was transported in dream to Montbrieon, and he wus there met by a gentleman who introduced himself aB K. T., and bb a friend of his father's. Ag a child ho had seen this person, but recollected no more about him than tha name. Now, when h9 actually got co Montbrison, he was much astonished to neat thera the genilenmn he had seen in the c'roain, wlkjes faafcarss, Lcvvever, were somewhat altered." This latter circumstance shows that this dream-figure was meraly a recollection from youth. There are endlesa etories of tho hidingplaces of missing deeds, and so forth, being twealed in dreara3. Let us take one as •■ypioftl : A landed proprietor in England was involved in a lawsuit in consequence of a claim upon hia father's estate, which he was firmly convinced had been discharged. Judgment, however, was about to go against him, as no voucher could be found. But one night, ia dream, his father appeared to him, and eaid that tho paper relating to this sfLiir had been placed in the hands of a solicitor ha had noil generally employed, but who happened to be engaged for this particular bud' ores. In the dream the father eaid that il tula person had forgotten a matter whioh v&n already old, he would be reminded of it by the mention of a Portugese gold coin, conearning the value of which there was a dispute at the time. The dream was curiously verified, as the solicitor only did recollect tho circumstance on mention of the gold coin. He was then able to produce the missing papers, and the son gained the suit alter all. Now, a dream of this kind is only explainable in one way. The non had either been present at the interview, or bad been made acquainted with the circumstance by his father in the lifetime of the latter. Then be had forgotten all about it, until "latent memory "was awakened in this happy manner in Bleep. Both Plato and Aristotle have noted that in old ago the recollections of childhood are renewed ; and it is recorded of Kant, that in his old age, when general memory was decayed and infirm, he had vivid reoollections of his youth. Da Frel tells o* an old man, at Gottingen, cevsntysix years of age, who only knew his wife and children for the day if they were pointed out to him in the morning; but had eaoh day to ba reminded who they were. Yet at the same time he could sing all the songs of his ohildhood, and narrate the incidents of his youth, although later 6venta were completely forgotten.