114 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It was not possible in any of tlie cases in wliicli the point was 

 mentioned to fix the time of the incident recollected, except it was re- 

 lated to other events, the date of which was learned afterward. Thus, 

 a scene is remembered that took place in a certain house; it subse- 

 quently appears that the parents left that house when the subject was 

 three years old, and the conclusion is drawn that the event occurred 

 before that age. It also seems impossible to fix the date relatively, or, 

 in other words, of several events recollected, to determine the order 

 in which they happened. Thus, M. Binet furnishes a list of twelve 

 events remembered which took place when he was perhaps less than 

 six years of age, most of which acted on the emotions, and which he 

 believes are remembered because of the feeling they excited. He 

 remarks that the memories form complete detailed visual pictures, 

 in which he sees the persons and their positions, and even trifling 

 things like the stones in the wall in one of them. But he is not able 

 to fix their order, or to say this one happened before that one, except 

 in the case of three, which he has localized in time without know- 

 ing how. 



The answers are unanimous concerning the conditions under 

 which these recollections of infancy come to mind. They are 

 recalled when we are thinking of our childhood, or of the places 

 where we lived in childhood, or when we meet the names of per- 

 sons who were concerned with us at that period, or when we see a 

 thing or a scene similar to one which formed a part of the event 

 recollected. In some persons the event is recalled by an emotional 

 condition like the one we felt when it happened — in all these cases 

 by some form of association by resemblance or contiguity. 



In most persons a considerable interval exists between the first 

 and second recollections; it is generally more than a year; in some 

 cases it reaches five years; and in a few instances it is only a month 

 or two, in which cases the subject does not know which is first or 

 second. After the first, many isolated facts and scenes are usually 

 remembered, but not in any known chronological order, and with- 

 out connection with one another. Usually our connected recollec- 

 tions and power to recall our life in chronological order begin at the 

 more advanced age of between seven and eleven years; and with 

 many persons the period coincides with some change in the life, such 

 as a removal of residence, entry into the lyceum, or something of the 

 kind. 



The characteristics of the posterior recollections are the same 

 as those of the earlier ones — emotional, visTial, presenting them- 

 selves as complete pictures with many secondary details, and corre- 

 sponding to events of short duration ; while auditive images are rare, 

 but less so than in the earliest recollection. 



