DOCTRINE OF MATERIALISM. 97 



constant flow and change ; and, that animals, 

 whose bones had been tinctured and colored 

 red, by the madder with which they had been 

 fed, had recovered their usual complexion in 

 the course of seven years, after the madder had 

 been discontinued. We may, from this infer, 

 that as the more tender parts of the system are 

 more rapidly carried away, that, consequently, 

 the recollection of past events could never ex- 

 tend beyond that period. Cases have also oc- 

 curred, when patients, in consequence of dis- 

 ease, have forgotten recent events, and, never- 

 theless, possessed a perfect recollection of 

 those which had happened long before. A cu- 

 rious instance of this kind happened to a man 

 brought to St. Thomas's Hospital, with a con- 

 cussion of his brain, who, by proper treatment^ 

 recovered. It was observed, during the pro- 

 gress of his cure, that although he spoke to the 

 attendants, it was in a language which none of 

 them understood ; a Welsh milk-woman, who* 

 came into the ward, having heard him speak,, 

 entered into conversation with him ; it was then; 

 found that the man, by birth, was a Welshman, 

 that he had left his native land in his youth, 

 that he had forgotten his mother tongue, and 

 that, for the last thirty years, he had spoken the 

 English language alone. Since the accident 

 from which he had recovered, he only remem- 

 bered the events of his younger days, and 



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