732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" audists " those whose memories were of things heard, whose au- 

 ditory sense was paramount ; and " motors " whose powers were 

 greatest in acts of expression, whose memory depended upon 

 writing a thing down, whose talents lay in action. One can easily 

 determine to which class one belongs by ascertaining in any act 

 of memory whether he sees or hears or feels the thing remem- 

 bered most easily, and by watching one's habitual references to 

 memory. It may be remarked that such a discussion as that con- 

 cerning universals in logic, in which the logicians ranged them- 

 selves in the rival camps of nominalists, realists, and conceptual- 

 ists, probably had its origin in the various methods of habitual 

 thinking in different minds. And in view of the facts of localiza- 

 tion already described, it may be asserted that these inherent dif- 

 ferences of thinking depend on various degrees of development of 

 various districts of the brain cortex, or of the association fibers in 

 these districts.* 



Fourthly : From this type of mental development presenting 

 an excess in one direction, with or without defects in other direc- 

 tions we will pass to another type of defective mind which has 

 of late been most carefully studied, especially by M. Magnin, of 

 Paris, the foremost French alienist. 



There are certain persons in the community, usually the chil- 

 dren of nervous or alcoholic parents, who present mental pecul- 

 iarities which force upon us the conviction that there is a lack 

 of equilibrium in their mental acts. They are not defective in 

 faculties of sensation, memory, reasoning power, or action. They 

 are often persons of brilliant qualities in certain directions, and 

 perhaps have attained distinction in art or in the professions. 

 But they may be the victims of sudden, unreasoning impulses, 

 desires, doubts, or fears, which so dominate for the time their 

 thought and acts as to lead one to the conclusion that their minds 

 are not well balanced, though it can not be said that they are 

 insane. 



Let me give some examples from my own experience. A nerv- 

 ous woman began to notice her breathing, and for three months 

 was beset with the fear that it would cease to continue if she did 

 not watch it. She moved one of her fingers synchronously with 

 her respiration ; or else rocked in a chair, keeping time with the 

 act of breathing. It was impossible to take her mind off of it. 

 If she talked of something else, she was thinking of it all the 



* The examination of Laura Bridgman's brain supports this assertion. For this woman, 

 who was unable to see or to hear, but whose means of communication with the external 

 world was entirely by touch and by motion, had a brain whose visual and auditory regions 

 were undeveloped, but whose sensori-motor region far exceeded in size that of a normal 

 brain. 



