The Death of Richard Semon 79 
to a memory in the species.’ But he 
was laughed at, and gave up instead 
of developing his idea. Taking up this 
suggestion from Hering, Semon tested 
the question by a study of the effect 
of irritations on living matter, and the 
persistence of this effect as an ‘engram,’ 
either directly in the cells or indirectly 
through the nerves and the brain; not 
only in the individual, but, passing 
through the germ-plasm, in heredity. 
“Thus in 1904 he came to write his 
fundamental work on the ‘mneme’ as 
the conserving principle of organic 
life; and in 1909 followed a supplement 
on ‘mnemic sensations’ in which the 
terms ‘engram,’ ‘ecphory,’ “homophony,’ 
and the like were applied to the hered- 
ity of all living beings as well as to 
human mentality. 
“Persons as small as they are super- 
ficial, slaves of prejudices and phrases, 
have been unable to see in all this any- 
thing more than ‘new names for old 
ideas,’ when as a fact their own lack 
of ideas—that is, the routine of their 
old psychology and biology—was over- 
thrown from top to bottom by Semon.” 
“Tn addition,’ Dr. Forel continues, 
“Semon had clearly proved the inherit- 
ance of acquired characters (which 
amount to the ‘mutations’ of de Vries) 
by his researches on the origin of the 
sole of the human foot, etc. More- 
over, he prepared during recent years 
a book on the pathology of the mneme, 
which I would rejoice to see published. 
But he had suffered profoundly from 
the death of his wife, which occurred 
in 1918. He cherished her the more be- 
cause, having no children, they worked 
together. In addition, Semon, a de- 
clared foe to all chauvinistic hatred 
between peoples, had suffered deeply 
from the war. 
“On December 27, 1918, the day on 
which he shot himself, he wrote me the 
following letter: 
“My very dear friend, it is to you 
that I write my last letter. I strongly 
suspect that you will blame me for vol- 
untarily ending my life. I would not 
have done so—I would have sought 
and found in my work the needed 
strength, strength which I possess, to 
endure the atrocious isolation in which 
I was plunged by the death of my wife, 
the incomparable companion of my ex- 
istence. We lived together in the loft- 
iest mental intimacy. But work has 
become impossible to me, for my mind, 
especially its mneme, is failing more 
and more. In others, that begins only 
at the age of eighty; with me, twenty 
years sooner. In this domain I am 
marked by heredity. 
“Having tasted of the fruit of the 
Tree of Knowledge, and noticing in 
myself the first traces of evil, I do not 
wish to stain the work of my life by 
a termination of inferior value. On 
the other hand, I cannot exist with- 
out work. 
““Having no one to support, I leave 
no vacancy. Forgive me, then, in un- 
derstanding me. 
“‘T owe you much, dear friend— 
stimulation of ideas, great encourage- 
ment of my efforts and of my achieve- 
ments. I leave my last work, ‘Self- 
consciousness and Brain,’ half finished. 
But as it clearly contains, in my opin- 
ion, a useful nucleus in the first six 
chapters, already completed, I have ar- 
ranged for its publication, at least as 
a ‘torso.’ I regret that I shall no 
longer be able to have your counsels on 
this work. 
““Adieu! May you and yours live 
happily. My heart remains full of es- 
teem and gratitude to you. 
““Your faithful 
““R, SEMON. 
In the early years of its appearance, 
Semon’s theory attracted much atten- 
tion in the biological world. While it 
gained a number of eminent adherents, 
most geneticists considered it highly 
mystical in nature and attached little 
value to the experimental and other 
evidence which its author cited in its 
support. In recent years not much 
has been heard of it. 
399 
ilq 
