IMAGINATION. 59 



A year aud a half previous to examination, after business-anxieties, 

 loss of sleep, appetite, etc., he noticed suddenly one day an extraordi- 

 nary change in himself. After complete confusion, there came a violent 

 contrast between his old aud his new state. Everything about him 

 seemed so new and foreign that at first he thought he must be going 

 mad. He was nervous and irritable. Although he saw all things dis- 

 tinct, he had entirely lost his memory for forms and colors. On ascer- 

 taining this, he became reassured as to his sanity. He soon discovered 

 that he could carry on his affairs by using his memory in an altogether 

 new way. He can now describe clearly the difference between his two 

 conditions. 



Every time he returns to A., from which place business often calls 

 him, he seems to himself as if entering a strange city. He views the 

 monuments, houses, and streets with the same surprise as if he saw 

 them for the first time. Gradually, however, liis memory returns, and 

 he finds himself at home again. When asked to describe the principal 

 pttblic place of the town, he answered, " I know that it is there, but it 

 is impossible to imagine it, and I can tell you nothing about it. " He has 

 often drawi] the port of A. To-day he vainly tries to trace its principal 

 outlines. Asked to draw a minaret, he reflects, says it is a square 

 tower, and draws, rudely, four lines, one for ground, one for top, and 

 two for sides. Asked to draw an arcade, he says, ' ' I remember that it 

 contains semi-circular arches, and that two of them meeting at an angle 

 make a vault, but how it looks I am absolutely unable to imagine." The 

 profile of a man which he drew by request was as if drawn by a little 

 child; and yet he confessed that he had been helped to draw it by look- 

 ing at the bystanders. Similarly he drew a shapeless scribble for a 

 tree. 



He can no more remember his wife's and children's faces than he 

 can remember the port of A. Even after being with them some time 

 they seem unusual to him. He forgets his own face, and once spoke 

 to his image in a mirror, taking it for a stranger. He complains of his 

 loss of feeling for colors. " My wife has black hair, this I know; but 

 I can no more recall its color than I can her person and features.'* 

 This visual amnesia extends to dating objects from his childhood's 

 years — paternal mansion, etc., forgotten. 



No other disturbances but this loss of visual images. Now when he 

 seeks something in his correspondence, he must rummage among the 

 letters like other men, until he meets the passage. He can recall only 

 the first few verses of the Iliad, and must grope to read Homer, Virgil, 

 and Horace. Figures which he adds he must now whisper to himself. 

 He realizes clearly that he must help his memory out with auditory 

 images, which he does with effort. TJie words and expressions which 

 he recalls seem noio to echo in his ear, an altogether novel sensation for 

 him. If he wishes to learn by heart anything, a series of phrases for 

 example, he must read them several titnes aloud, so as to impress his 

 ear. When later he repeats the thing in question, the sensation of in- 



