BRAIN TROUBLES. 



273 



where lie had hid his treasure ; things which they 

 regard, old men remember the securities they have 

 out, and who are indebted to them, as well as to whom 

 they are indebted." And so forth. The points to be 

 noticed here are, first, that memory is seen to be in 

 large degree a question of attention as well as of re- 

 tention ; and, secondly, that decay of memory implies 

 a change in the mind analogous to that which makes 

 the old incapable of great bodily efforts. So that 

 when the memory of a person who is not old becomes 

 impaired, we may infer that unless there is actual 

 disease, the symptom indicates overwork of the mind, 

 precisely as bodily weariness indicates that the body 

 has been overwrought. We may, perhaps, be led to 

 inquire here whether a distinction should be drawn 

 between loss of memory, as shown by a weakening of 

 the power of committing to mind new matter (of 

 whatever kind) which we may wish to remember, and 

 the passing away from the mind of matter which had 

 been already committed to it, and retained so long 

 and so recently that its being forgotten can be ex- 

 plained only as due to some marked and recent change 

 in the state of the mind. Suppose, for instance, that 

 after carefully noting a number of facts, which under 

 ordinary conditions we should remember thencefor- 

 ward for weeks, we find that they have left no 

 sufficient impression on the mind ; here we obviously 

 have evidence that the power of attention on which, 

 in the first instance, memory depends, is for the time 

 being enfeebled. Can we, however, infer that it is 



T 



