120 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP. 



persons, plants, places, &c. ; good for subjects 

 connected with others ; not bad for numbers. 



"Father A most marvellously retentive 

 memory ; he could relate minute details of his- 

 torical occurrences, names of actors in politics, 

 almost all he had ever read (he was a great 

 reader), and was in consequence a most lively 

 companion. Mother Not very good." 



.Bad memory. 



1. [A physicist informs me that his memory 

 is unable to retain even the commonest constants 

 in habitual use, and that the selection of his 

 special line of investigation was governed by his 

 sense of this disability.] 



2. " Bad memory ; from boyhood incapable 

 of learning school tasks by heart, though retain- 

 ing a knowledge of principles and methods." 



3. "I have a very poor memory ; I was 

 once a whole fortnight in recovering the name 

 of . . . . , but I got it at last. I consider that 

 all attempts at making me learn poetry, and in 



