Vagaries of Memory

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 485, 2 July 1890, Page 6

Vagaries of Memory

Curious Results of Certain Diseases of the Brain.

When disease affects the brain the alterations of word memory are something very strange, says a writer in the “ Century ” for March. In the most complete form of this so-called aphasia the person cannot understand words, he cannot think in words and cannot talk words. Usually, however, words are remembered sufficiently to be recognised when heard or seen, bub, although the idea is there, tho person cannot speak in words. I recall the case of an old German woman who had aphasia. When asked how old sho waß,she would indicate 60 with her fingers. If asked how many children she had, she would indicate seven. If tvvo of the fingers were turned down, she tvould get angry and insist upon tho seven. She \va3 able to understand questions. She knew What the figure *7’ meant, but had not the power to say the word ‘ seven.’ It is a very curious fact that in these forms of aphasia the language of the emotions may be preserved while the language of the intellect is destroyed. Very often a profane man, when he has aphasia, is able to swear. This German woman, when excited, could say ‘Gott in Himmel!’ Besides this there was left to her but one little fragment of each of the two languages which she had known. She could not say the English * no,’ bub could say the Gorman ‘ nein ’; sho could not say the German ‘yah,’ but could splutter out tho English * yes.’ The forms of aphasia known as word blindness and word deafness are very strange. The sufferer from word blindness can write and will understand what is said to him; be will talk to you and perhaps talk you to death ; but hand him a book, a newspaper, or even the letter he himself has written, and he cannot read a word. Thus an active man of business having written a letter, giving directions for an important matter, attempted to read it, in order to see if it was correct, but was astounded to find that he could not make out a single word ; he had been suddenly stricken with blindness. The sounds of tho words and the words themselves had remained to him, but the recollection of the written forms of the words was gone. In a case of word deafness the person can talk and write, but although his hearing is perfect he cannot recognise the spoken words. The sound of the voice is plain to his sense, but conveys no thought to him. The records of the past—the unconscious memory so to speak—exist in the brain; but for conscious recognition these must be dragged out before the consciousness. It is doubtful whether there is such a thing as a bad memory, i.e., as a badly kept brain record. The difference in individuals as to tho power of recollecting probably consists in the relation between consciousness and memory. One man has the power of going into the library in his brain and picking up at once the leaf he wants, and glories in his good memory. Another cannot in a moment find what he desires, bub when the floods of disease come, then spontaneously float up those things which he had thought gone forever.