3i6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 307 



improve it only in that direction. The exercise of the ear in hear- 

 ing does not improve the power of vision, nor, while we strengthen 

 the memory for sounds, do we improve that for sights. Even in a 

 single sense or faculty, we find different forms and degrees of 

 memory, as in sight for persons, places, forms, colors, and the like. 

 Hence we may cultivate the memory for persons without at all 

 improving that for places, and a good memory for colors may 

 afford little help toward the remembrance of forms. . . . Another 

 ■error that may be traced to the same cause is that of regarding the 

 memory only or chiefly as it is manifested in its lower forms, and 

 hence depreciating or undervaluing its importance. . . . The mem- 

 ory for names and words is the lowest form of memory, and fools 

 and even idiots are sometimes found to manifest it in a very remark- 

 able degree. Hence to judge of the value and importance of memory 

 simply from the lower aspects of it is manifestly unfair. The mem- 

 ory for words is only one form of memory, besides which there are 

 memories for ideas, for processes of reasoning, for creations of the 

 imagination ; and to say that memory interferes with efficiency of 

 any of the other faculties is to regard as one thing what is in reality 

 many things, and to confound the lower forms of it with the 

 higher." The author distinguishes three kinds of forms of memory. 

 The first, or lowest, is the local or verbal memory, which is the 

 power of remembering facts in the order in which they occur, or 

 words in the order in which they were addressed to the individual. 

 This form of memory is very ready, and more or less imposing ; it 

 is nevertheless a manifestation merely of a mind which is very recep- 

 tive to sense-impressions, and which consequently recalls them with 

 great accuracy. 



The second and higher form of memory is that in which not 

 merely an individual past state of the mind, with its attending cir- 

 cumstances, is recalled, but where a number of past states having 

 some resemblance to each other are reproduced at the same time. 

 In the first kind of memory the associative principle at work was 

 ■contiguity ; in the second form it is similarity. The third and 

 highest form of memory is that in which past ideas or past sensa- 

 tions are, as it were, imaged forth as if they were objects of actual 

 perception. Wherever we find this power of imagination most 

 highly developed, there we have memory in its most perfect form. 



It will be seen that Mr. Kay is writing strictly on physiological 

 lines when he makes this division of memory and his estimate of 

 the importance of its various manifestations. He proceeds from 

 the fact that there is a nervous discharge to correspond to every 

 mental change, and that in the case of memory the discharge in 

 •question takes place in the same tract as it did when the presenta- 

 tion, now recalled, was originally perceived. He does not, how- 

 ever, confine himself to the opinion generally held by physiologists, 

 that the movements on which our recalled sensations depend are 

 ■confined to the brain, which may therefore be regarded as the sole 

 seat of the memory. Mr. Kay says that this is the case in many 

 instances ; for instance, where the previous sensation is but imper- 

 fectly recalled. He contends, however, that where the previous sen- 

 sation is brought back with any degree of vividness, as in the highest 

 form of memory, the motion is not confined to the brain, but is con- 

 ducted " also to the connecting nerves, and often to the special organ 

 ■of sense, as in the original sensation, with this difference : that in sen- 

 sation the motion originates in the external organ, and travels inward 

 to the centre ; whereas in recollection it originates in the centre, and 

 passes outward to the outer organ " (p. 33). He supports himself in 

 this opinion with a quotation from Professor Bain, and with some 

 interesting experimental cases which we have not space to record. 

 As a result of this opinion, the author can conclude that the senses 

 are not only necessary for receiving impressions, but are necessary 

 also for imaging them m the memory ; and the muscles are not only 

 necessary for the performance of actions, but necessary also for 

 the full remembrance of them. Hence not the brain alone, but the 

 whole body, is the true seat of memory. 



We have given this rather full digest of Mr. Kay's views, be- 

 cause it is necessary, in reading and estimating the book, to know 

 on precisely what foundation it builds. We cannot follow him 

 over the remaining chapters of his book in as much detail, but we 

 most cordially recommend his pages to the attention of all students 

 of memory, and all who are engaged in the practical work of teach- 

 ing. What he says about attention and association is, of course. 



well known to all save those who spend large sums of money in 

 endeavoring to train the memory according to some secret and 

 newly discovered " physiological " process. A careful study of 

 Mr. Kay's book will dispel all illusions concerning such memory- 

 training, and also make it plain that mnemonics as popularly under- 

 stood is a self-evident absurdity ; in that, instead of grasping a nat- 

 ural and real association, it calls up an artificial one, and makes it 

 necessary for the mind to retain not merely the things associated, 

 but the artificial bond of association which has been placed be- 

 tween them. 



Mr. Kay's chapter on "How to Improve the Memory" is the 

 shortest in the book, and reasonably so. If a clear impression of a sen- 

 sation increases the likelihood of its being remembered, it is evident, 

 that, in order to train the memory, we must begin by training the 

 attention ; if an idea can be the more readily recalled according as 

 it is more easily associated with other ideas, then it is evident, that, 

 after training the attention, we must train the power of associating 

 ideas — not in an artificial and superficial way, but in accordance 

 with the real connection existing between the ideas themselves ; 

 and, lastly, if there are memories, and not a memory, practice and 

 exercise of any particular kind of meniory is necessary in order to 

 make it efficient. These are the practical rules resulting from Mr. 

 Kay's treatment, and they are rules fully justified by physiology 

 and psychology. The author has given us the best and most com- 

 pact, the most accurate and the most practical, treatment of mem- 

 ory that we know of. 



Case of Empei-or Frederick III. Full Official Reports by the 

 German Physicians and by Sir Morell Mackenzie. New York, 

 Edgar S. Werner. I2°. $1.25. 

 This volume of 276 pages gives a complete account of one of the 

 most celebrated cases of modern times, beginning with the month 

 of January, 1887, when the Crown Prince of Germany felt the initial 

 symptoms of his fatal illness, to June 15, 188S, the day on which 

 as emperor he succumbed to its ravages. Twenty-two illustra- 

 tions serve to make the reports of the physicians more intelligible 

 than they otherwise would be. These represent the growth in the 

 larynx at different stages of its progress, and the trachea after the 

 operation of tracheotomy had been performed, with the canula 

 through which air was admitted to the lungs. A perusal of this book 

 leaves the disputed questions no nearer a solution than before, and 

 we must be content to wait until sufficient time has elapsed to per- 

 mit the subject to be considered from a purely scientific standpoint, 

 without bias, either national or professional. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The January number of The Chautauquati is replete with 

 valuable and interesting matter. The following is the table of con- 

 tents : ' Gossip about Greece,' by J. P. Mahaffy, M.A., of Dublin 

 University ; ' Nicias,' by Thomas D. Seymour, M.A., of Yale Uni- 

 versity ; ' Greek Mythology,' by James Baldwin, Ph.D.; ' Sunday 

 Readings,' selected by Bishop Vincent ; ' Music among Animals,' 

 by the Rev. J. G. Wood ; ' The Effect of Explosives on Civilization,' 

 by Charles E. Munroe, chemist of United States Torpedo Corps; 

 ' Hospitals,' by Susan Hayes Ward ; ' The Indians of the United 

 States,' by J. B. Harrison ; ' An Autocrat in Feathers,' by Olive 

 Thorne Miller; 'Educate the Hand,' by Dr. T. L. Flood; 'The 

 Chinese in the United States,' by Wong Chin Foo; 'Finland and 

 the Finns,' by Bishop W. F. Mallalieu, LL.D.; ' Temperance Laws 

 in the States and Territories,' by the Hon. H. W. Blair, United 

 States Senator from New Hampshire ; ' Working Girls' Societies,' 

 by Grace H. Dodge; 'Alexander Hamilton,' by Coleman E. 

 Bishop; 'Chapultepec,' by Eugene McOuillin ; besides the usual 

 editorial and C. L. S. C. departments. The poetry of the number 

 is by Ada Iddings Gale and Hjalmer Hjorth Boyesen. 



— The December number of The Canada Educational Moftthly 

 opens with an article on ' Some Antecedents of Montreal,' by Sir 

 J. William Dawson, followed by the second part of the annual con- 

 vocation address of President Sir Daniel Wilson of University Col- 

 lege, Toronto. The first instalment of a brief history of^Knox 

 College, from the pen of Professor Gregg, next appears ; then an 

 article by Professor Fletcher, of Queen's, on ' University Matricula- 



