606 Mr. Cliarles Mercier [May 3, 



that, whatever its precise nature may be, it is at any rate an active 

 condition. It is a condition in which more free motion exists in the 

 brain, the cerebral elements are in higher activity, the molecular or 

 particular motion is of greater amplitude, than in states of inattention. 

 And correspondingly we find that there is no means at our disposal 

 so effectual for increasing the endurance of memories as giving 

 attention to the experiences that we wish to remember. 



There is a third influence which decreases the inertia of the 

 cerebral particles, and makes them more mobile, more easily dis- 

 placeable, and more apt to receive a set, and this is the habit or 

 custom of being displaced. It is easy to understand that by frequent 

 displacement their connections may become loosened, so that dis- 

 placement may become more easy, and thus we account in part for 

 the very great influence that practice or cultivation has in improving 

 the memory. I fear it may be disappointing to find that all our 

 researches lead to no easy specific for acquiring a good memory. It 

 remains as true now as in past ages that nothing worthy can be 

 achieved without labour, and to improve the memory there are but 

 two means known to us — attention and practice. The more closely 

 we attend to things, the better they are remembered ; the more we 

 practice and cultivate the art of remembering, the more will the 

 memory improve. 



A question which has often been mooted is whether we ever 

 forget. Many cases have been recorded, of which the most striking 

 and the best known is that related by Coleridge, which seem to 

 indicate that structural memories may remain inert for an indefinite 

 time, and may at length be revivified and become active. In 

 Coleridge's case, an illiterate servant girl in the delirium of fever 

 recited for hours together in Greek and Hebrew. She had been in 

 the service of a learned pastor, who was accustomed to read the 

 Greek and Hebrew classics aloud in her hearing. All unknown to 

 herself these impressions had created structural memories in her 

 brain, and upon a stimulus of exceptional intensity, these structural 

 memories had become active. We may get a satisfactory answer to 

 this question, I think, by considering the behaviour of the stick after 

 distortion. If the distortion is within the elastic limit, undoubtedly 

 the tissue returns to the status quo ante, and no structural memory 

 whatever is retained. But if the distortion is sufficient to produce a 

 temporary set, then, after a pause and a start, the set gradually 

 diminishes. The tissue returns with continually diminishing speed 

 to its original shape. But if this is so, and the experiments that I 

 have made seem to indicate that it is, then the return of the tissue 

 towards the status quo ante is an asymptote ; that is to say, it con- 

 tinually approaches the state of rest, but never reaches it ; and some 

 degree of structural memory will always be retained. And so long 

 as a structural memory exists, so long will an active memory remain 

 possible. But with respect to the slighter distortions, to those which 

 are within the elastic limit, undoubtedly they are completely forgotten. 



