OF VITAL MOTION. 131 



The phenomena of disease aiFord other arguments, 

 which confirm and support this position The memory, 

 for example, is suspended when the brain is pressed 

 upon by the finger, and returns again when the pres- 

 sure is removed ; and hence we may argue, from this 

 recovery, that the memory was not obliterated, but 

 simply that its active manifestations were suspended. 

 In like manner, also, we may account for the absence 

 of memory in apoplectic and paralytic seizures ; for in 

 these cases the faculty returns as the effects of the 

 disease wear away. In delirious excitement, on the 

 other hand, the preternatural activity of the brain is 

 often accompanied with a corresponding development 

 of the memory ; and these cases afford the strongest 

 possible proof that nothing which has found its way 

 into the mind is ever forgotten. In delirium there are 

 many well-authenticated instances of persons talking 

 in a language which they had known in their youth, 

 but Avhich they had completely forgotten before this 

 particular illness, and which they forgot again, as 

 completely as before, on recovery. Coleridge, also, 

 has recorded a case where, in delirious fever, sen- 

 tences were spoken in a language which was never 

 understood, and where the sounds had been retained 

 without any knowledge of their meaning; and so 

 remarkable is this case, and so well calulated to show 

 the indelibility of memorial impressions, that I copy 

 it, and the comments which follow, as a most fitting 



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