WHERE AND HOW WE REMEMBER. 617 



This can be readily explained by a review of what occurs in answer- 

 ing a simple question. When you answer a question, the following 

 processes have taken place : 1. You have heard the words of the 

 question. 2. The words have been recognized as known words, and 

 have awakened a corresponding concept. 3. The concept has started 

 a train of thought which has led you to a conclusion. 4. You have 

 formulated your conclusion in words. 5. You have voluntarily set in 

 motion a mechanism consisting of your throat, lips, and tongue, to 

 speak the words. 6. This mechanism has responded to the effort, and 

 has produced the sound of your reply. Now, any one of these pro- 

 cesses may be interfered with, in which case you will not answer the 

 question. If you are deaf, you may not hear it. If it is spoken in a 

 language which you do not understand, the words will fail to be 

 recognized, as the sounds will not awaken any memory or concept. 



But the words addressed to a child are at first mere sounds to him, 

 and it is only by repeated reiteration of the word in connection with 

 the object or act indicated by it that the child has acquired a knowl- 

 edge of its meaning. If these acquired bits of knowledge stored up 

 in the memory in childhood are blotted out, the meaning of the word 

 will be lost, and the effect will be the same as if the word had never 

 been learned, or as if it were spoken in an unknown language. This 

 is the condition known as word-deafness, or loss of memory of the 

 sound and meaning of words. It is not an uncommon form of brain- 

 disease, and the symptom and the location of the disease have been 

 connected in so many cases that it is now possible to state that in 

 right-handed persons such a condition is due to disease of the left 

 temporal region, and in left-handed persons to disease in the right 

 temporal region. But such a defect will not only prevent one from 

 recognizing a word when spoken, it will blot out the memory of 

 words, and the power of recalling the words which you desire to use. 

 Therefore you will be unable to answer the question, not only because 

 you do not understand it, but because, if you did understand it — as 

 you might be made to do by appropriate gestures — you could not find 

 words in which to reply. Here, then, another special class of memo- 

 ries, to the exclusion of all others, is blotted out by a localized disease. 



But let us follow the process a little further. Suppose you have 

 heard the question, and understood its import, and the concept awak- 

 ened has set in motion a train of thought which has led you to a 

 proper conclusion, since it is to be supposed that you are neither an 

 idiot nor insane, both of which conditions might interfere with this 

 part of the process ; and suppose that your conclusion is formulated 

 in words in your mind. You have still to speak the words before 

 your reply is heard. We will pass by a paralysis of the muscles of 

 the throat or tongue, which would, of course, prevent your speaking, 

 and consider the process of setting in action the voluntary centers 

 which govern speech. You have learned to speak by repeated efforts. 



