Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1884 — Six Hours Without a Memory. [ARTICLE]

Six Hours Without a Memory.

~ The brain plays odd tricks with us at times, especially when ltd) as been subjected to a sudden shock; and scientific men who think that its various convolutions are the seats of various faculties of the mind derive some confirmation of their theory from the fact that the power of memory may fail in part without any failure of general intelligence, and may fail in part without being altogether impaired. A notable instance of this last mentioned peculiarity occurred about a dozen years ago. A lad in the country was accused of throwing another into a pond, and he ■was put on his trial before a bench of magistrates. His elder brother, who bore a high character in the village both for conduct and for mental shrewdness, l&d seen the previous struggle between the lads, and he was called upon to give evidence. He declared his belief that the fight was perfectly fair throughout, and that the immersion in the pond was an accident. Questioned as to what took place afterward, he could not speak to a single circumstance. “Did the prisoner attempt to rescue the deceased?” t|ie Chairman asked him. He could not say. “The bench understand that you leaped into the water and recovered the body. ” “They tell me so,” he said, “but I have no recollection of it.” “The constable has told ns that you dived twice, brought out the body, jmd carried it to the parents’house.” “T have not the slightest remembrance. I only know that I was at home imbed at 8 o, clock ’’—six hours later—“and the last thing I could remember was seeing poor Smith fall over the edge.” There could be no doubt that the witness was speaking the truth; and he could have had no object in doing otherwise. The shock which he had received on Feeing the fatal result of his brother’s quarrel had paralyzed his brain; the memory was interrupted by those few hours, though

in all other respects he had acted like a man ip the full possession of his senses.— Bos ton Traveller.