Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1870 — Some Facta Coneerning Memory. [ARTICLE]

Some Facta Coneerning Memory.

The indestructibility of mental phenomena is remarkably exhibited by the experience of persons rescued from hanging or drowning, or who were suffering from the delirium of disease, or from In- . ury to the brain. It is related that a lady, who became delirious three hours before her death, was able to carry on an extended conversation in German—a language she had not spoken since her tenth year. Five years before, while visiting Germany, she had been unable to converse st all In her native tongue, although repeatedly urged to do so.

Here the memory of German must have existed during her whole life, but was only manifested under-the stimulus of the great mental exaltation of delirium. Dr. Rush mentions a lady whose paroxysms of Insanity were indicated by her conversing in Italian, which she afterwards discarded for French, and finally shifted to German—speaking them all fluently. Yet, when well, she spoke nothing but English, although she had once known something of these other languages. The Countess de Laval, during an illness, was observed by some servants to talk in her sleep in a language which none of them could comprehend. Upon waking, she herself knew nothing of the meaning of the words when they were repeated to her. Shortly after, she had a nurse from the province of Brittany, who recognized what she said to be in the language of that country, where the countess had been born and nursed in a family in which that language alone was spoken, so that she knew no other; but, when she returned to her parents, she had no opportunity of keeping up the use of it, and had, seemingly, forgotten it. All are familiar with the oft-quoted incident related by Coleridge, when an ignorant domestic, during the delirium of fever, repeated passages from Greek, Latin and Hebrew authors, which had been read years before in her hearing by a learned German pastor in whose family she lived, and of which she recollected nothing when she was well.

A clergyman of good mind and excellent education, we arc told, “ was thrown from his carriage and received a violent concussion of the brain. For several days he remained utterly unconscious, and at length, when -restored to health, his intellect was observed to be in a state like that of a naturally intelligent child, or like that of Caspar Hauser after his long sequestration. The good man again, but now in middle life, commenced his English and classical studies under tutors, and was progressing very satisfactorily, when after several months’ successful study, the rich storehouses of memory gradually unlocked, so that in a few weeks bis mind resumed all its wonted vigor and its former" wealth and polish of culture. For several years he continued his labors as a pastor and suffered no symptom ot cerebral disturbance.” Here, manifestly, memory retained the knowledge he had once acquired, but in some mysterious manner it was put out of the reach of the mind, until he had partly reacquired it by study. Without doubt, the principle of the association of ideas enabled him to recall his previous knowledge from these small beginnings, The Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, who attended the dying beds of many German immigrants, noticed that, shortly before death, in their native language, no matter how rarely they spoke it in common life, in a state of health. A physician, who had in early life renounced the principles of the Roman Catholic Church, during the attack of delirium which preceded his death, prayed only in the forms of the Romish Church, while all recollection of the prescribed formula of the Protestairt seemed wanting. In this case, the memory was acting in spite of the reason and will, reproducing scenes which the mind desired to forget. Another gentleman became unconscious from being thrown from his horse and striking on his head. When, after the lapse of a week, he was restored enough to articulate, he spoke only German, a language he had acquired in early life, but had not spoken in twenty-five years. Many similar examples might be given of the imperishable nature of mental impressions, notwithstanding they may lie dormant and outside the domain of consciousness for long years. Like the sleep--ing princess of Grimm’s wonderful tale, they may seem hedged out from the soul by imperishable barriers; but let the right word be spoken, and they awake and come forth radiant with youthful beauty If, then, theoretically we forget nothing, how does it happen that practically we fail to remember a variety cf things. We forget our little Latin and less Greek, our calculus and astronomy. We are not sure of the name of our next-door neighbor, although we may have heard it a hundred times, nor of the spelling of many a word, nor of the distance between our earth and the sun, nor of the number of the asteroids, not including the latest discovered. And yet we not only have had these facts brought to our knowledge, but have impressed many of them on our minds by diligent study and painstaking effort. This failure to recollect is due to the fact that we can never call up an idea by simply willing it; for it is a necessary condition of an act of will, that there should be in the mind an idea of what is willed: of course, not having the idea iteelf in the mind, we fix our attention upon some idea already in the mind, hoping to recall it by some association and interdependence of ideas. If the idea is an established one, not connected with any other, as an arbitrary number or name, the most strenuous effort of the will cannot bring it into the domain of consciousness, unless memory compassionately goes to work and “ delves the secret out” Upon reflection, it wDI readily appear that we fail to remember just those things which the memory has acquired by sheer effort—since they are solitary facts, unconnected with kindred facts. Now, if any clue existed by which they could be brought into relation with other facts, it is not too much to assert that we should remember them without difficulty.

This latent memory is sometimes moved by sudden shocks, or bodily enfeeblement with its attendant effect upon the brain —as witnessed by some of the incidents related above. Its disjunction from mental consciousness is well shown by the story of an Irish porter, who forgot when sober what he had done when drunk, but, being drunk again, distinctly recollected what happened during his former intoxication. On one occasion, he had mislaid a parcel of some value, and in his sober moments knew nothing about it. When intoxicated again, he recollected that he had left it at a certain house, where it had remained in safety, and was given up to the party who claimed it. Appleton's Journal.