620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are located in the frontal region. It is therefore a mistake to speak of 

 memory as a single faculty of the mind. It is really an assemblage of 

 distinct memories which we possess, each kind of memory being as 

 different from the others both in its nature and in its location as are 

 the different organs of sense through which the original perception 

 came. These various memories are associated with each other, and 

 this association is secured by means of fibers passing between and 

 joining these different areas. It is also a mistake to give memory as 

 a whole a location in one place as the phrenologists do. Our various 

 memories are scattered over the brain in different regions, being dis- 

 tributed at the time of the perception of the sensation remembered in 

 accordance with the anatomical connection of the percipient organ. 

 It is, finally, a mistake to speak of a good memory or a bad memory. 

 The degree of power to remember differs in our various kinds of mem- 

 ory. One man can remember things seen ; another can remember 

 things heard ; a third is skillful in the performance of certain motions, 

 and may be said to possess a good motor-memory. A fourth acquires 

 languages readily. So each of us has a stronger and a weaker kind 

 of memory, and it is important to recognize this, in order to train and 

 educate the weaker memory up to the level of the stronger one. The 

 memories which we possess are our actual memories. But around 

 these are areas of gray matter still unoccupied by memory-pictures, 

 and in these potential areas new memories can be stored up. The act- 

 ual area is always extending, the potential area is diminishing, as we 

 acquire new facts. The wider and more varied our knowledge, the 

 greater the actual area of any one memory, and the more complete our 

 command over our inherent brain-power. 



THE ASTEONOMT OF PEIMITIVE PEOPLES. 



Br G. MtJLLER FRAUENSTEIN. 



THE geographical ideas of the lower races, as well as those of civil- 

 ized people, are of both ethnological and psychological interest, 

 and it is my purpose to devote a few lines to the little-worked field which 

 here presents itself to view. The special subject of ray essay will be 

 the ideas concerning the earth and the world formed by primitive 

 peoples, especially the ideas of the form of our planet and of the most 

 important sidereal phenomena ; and among primitive peoples I shall, 

 for the purpose of this review, include such half -civilized nations as 

 the Toltecs and Aztecs, and the ancient Peruvians. 



Men form different notions of the sky and the earth according to 

 their different points of view. The first appearance of the earth is 

 that of an unbounded surface, and the constructive mind forms a cor- 



