VAGARIES OF THE MEMORY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue III, 18 January 1896, Page 57

VAGARIES OF THE MEMORY.

The case of the woman who has been found at Brighton, suffering from, it is said, an absolute inability to recollect her own name or any of the events of her life, is by no means so rare as some of the newspapers appear to imagine. The woman may be an impostor, but many genuine cases of the kind are known. Complete loss of memory is a well-known disease, and very curious examples of it are on record. Dr. Gowers had a patient, a clergyman, who had completely forgotten the events of twenty years of his life. No amount of argument could convince him that his age was really sixty years, or that he had done thirty years’ clerical work. He obstinately maintained that he was only forty, and that he had been only ten years in the ministry. The perplexities attending his delusion can be imagined. Some of his children, for instance, would probably be over thirty years old, which would necessitate his having been married at the age of ten. His schoolfellows, if he should meet them, would appear to have grown old at a tremendous pace ; he could hardly understand why he had married a woman so much older than himself; and, altogether, his position must have been one not to be envied. Another doctor describes the case of a woman who had forgotten that she had been married, and who obstinately refused to live with her husband. One old gentleman, while in familiar surroundings, had a perfect memory for faces, but when in a strange place could not recognise his own wife. Old men who search for the spectacles they are wear ing are very numerous, and no one is more than amused by them. But there are inexplicable and often terrifying cases. Men have been known to leave home for a few days, commit some serious crime, and return quite oblivious of what they had done. Very interesting is the case so common among soldiers who have fought a battle, and who, when it is over, cannot recall the events for several hours. The same thing happens to those who have escaped from shipwreck and to aeronauts who have just descended from the clouds. This is the temporary loss due to strong emotion. Then there are curious examples of temporary loss of memory owing to fatigue. Sir Henry Holland, when down a mine iu the Harz Mountains and suffering from fatigue, completely forgot his German, and could not remember a word of it until he had rest and refreshment after ascending. We all experience this in a less degree. Sometimes it is an injury which causes the blank in the backward gaze. An English professor once received a violent blow on the head, and at once forgot all his Greek ; and a musician lost all memory of music from the same cause. Mr Whymper, in his book on the Alps, tells how he fell over a frightful precipice, 200 feet high, with the result that his past was for a time wholly blotted out of his memory. The most singular cases of memory-loss are in connection with language. It is quite common in our hospitals to see a sick German unable to speak a word of the English he had thoroughly mastered A very singular instance of this is reported from New York. Many vears ago a Doctor Scandelli died in a hospital in that city. When first admitted he could speak only in English ; as the illness progressed he forgot that language and could now only converse in French ; but on the day of his death another change occurred, and he could speak nothing but his own language—ltalian. One of the most extraordinary of all memory losses is when a person forgets how to write with his right hand, but still has the power to do so with his left hand. In such a case, after he has written with his left hand the desired sentence, he can copy it with his right hand. When the memory of words is gradually lost it invariably progresses in one particular order. First the proper names go, then common nouns, then adjectives ; and this stage is followed by failure of the power to recollect events. Very many people suffer from the first degree—excessive smokers, for instance, it is said, sometimes find it difficult to recall proper names. Drunkenness is a well-known cause, and there is the very curious case of a man who mislaid a package while drunk, forgot where he had put it when sober, and had to get drunk again to find it.