45o 



SCIENCE. 



The conditions are as follows : 



" ist. The essay must be written in plain language, 

 each term to be defined in brackets immediately fol- 

 lowing, and must not exceed 3000 words. 



" 2nd. Each essay must be signed with a nom de 

 plume, and a sealed envelope must accompany the 

 essay superscribed with the nom de plume, and con- 

 taining the real name of the author. 



"3rd. All the essays must be filed with Dr. Lewis 

 Swift, Director of the Warner Observatory, Rochester, 

 N. Y., by November 1, 1881, and he will submit them 

 to the judges. 



"I hope that this prize will produce valuable addi- 

 tions to popular astronomical literature." 



We regret that Mr. Warner was not better advised 

 when he arranged the title of the essay and named the 

 conditions. By "plain " language we presume he 

 calls for "simple" language, but we are unable to 

 explain his desire that " each technical term shall be 

 defined in brackets immediately following." For 

 whose benefit is all this defining to be offered ? Is 

 it to aid Professor Swift and the judges ? If to aid 

 readers, when the essay is subsequently published, 

 would not a simple glossary of the scientific terms 

 used, added at the end, be more appropriate ? If 

 " each technical term is to be defined," we fear that 

 a large percentage of the 3000 words permitted will 

 be used for this purpose. 



Again, would it not be a more creditable arrange- 

 ment, that the essays be filed with some independent 

 person, instead of Professor Swift, who is at least 

 a beneficiary of Mr. Warner, and is both a compe- 

 titor and the judge in these prize gifts ? (We think 

 Professor Swift awarded the first Warner prize for 

 comets to himself.) 



Lastly, we find that no names are given of those 

 who are to be judges of the value of the prize 

 essays. This omission is very important, and seems 

 to raise a doubt whether any judges whose opinion 

 is worthy of respect can be secured to connect them- 

 selves with a scheme proposed under such conditions. 

 Again, what disposition is to be made of the essays 

 received by Mr. Warner? nothing is guaranteed in this 

 respect; and will Professor Swift once more announce 

 to the essayists that " no conclusion can be reached 

 which is scientific and satisfactory ?" 



We do not wish our remarks to be interpreted in a 

 sense which implies that either Mr. Warner or Professor 

 Swift are desirous of acting improperly in this matter, 

 although their behaviour may, in some quarters, be 

 severely criticised; we rather lean to the view that 

 their judgment and discretion is at fault, and that 

 they require the counsel of some friend who can so 

 advise them, that they arrive at " conclusions which 



are scientific and satisfactory." Mr. Warner hopes 

 that his prize "will produce valuable additions to 

 popular astronomical literature we fear that under 

 the conditions he offers, he will be inundated with 

 vulgar scientific trash. 



In conclusion, we offer Mr. Warner one word of 

 advice. If he honestly desires to encourage real 

 scientific work and literature, let him permit such 

 men as Hall, Newcomb, Pickering, Young, Stone, 

 Holder or Draper to arrange the title of his prize 

 astronomical essay, and request them to name the 

 conditions, and be the judges, of the merits of the 

 papers submitted. The decision of any two of the 

 gentlemen we have named would be satisfactory to 

 those who are likely to be competitors, provided 

 they acted independently, and untramelled by Mr. 

 Warner or any of his Rochester friends. 



HYPERMNES1A OR EXALTATIONS OF 

 MEMORY* 



[Translated from the French by the Marchioness Clara Lanza.] 



Until now our pathological study has been confined to 

 destructive forms of memory. We have seen the latter 

 diminished, sometimes completely destroyed. There are 

 however, precisely contrary cases, in which the appar- 

 ently abolished memory comes to life again as it were, 

 and faint recollections become intensely vivid. Is this 

 exaltation of the memory (called technically hypermnesia) 

 a morbid phenomena ? It is at least certainly an an- 

 omaly. When we remark further that it is always con- 

 nected with some organic disorder or bizarre condition, 

 we cannot deny that it comes within our province to dis- 

 cuss it. There are other subjects, amnesia for instance, 

 which are more instructive, but we should not neglect it 

 for that reason. We will see therefore what there is to 

 learn about persistence of recollections. 



Hypermnesia is divided into two classes — general and 

 partial. 



General exaltation of memory is difficult to determine, 

 because the degree of excitation is quite relative. The 

 force of this faculty varying to a great extent in different 

 individuals we cannot measure it by any common stand- 

 ard. The amnesia of one person may possibly be the 

 hypermnesia of another. It is, if we mav employ the 

 word, a change of tone in the memory, such as occurs in 

 every other form of psychological activity, thought, 

 imagination or sensibility. Moreover, when we say that 

 the excitation is general, it is nothing more than a prob- 

 able induction. Inasmuch as the memory is subject to 

 the condition of our consciousness, and as consciousness 

 is only produced in the form of succession, all that we 

 can affirm is, that in the course of a period more or less 

 extended a mass of recollections spring up in every 

 direction. 



General exaltation seems to depend exclusively upon 

 physiological causes, particularly the rapidity of cerebral 

 circulation. It is therefore apparent very often, in cases 

 of acute fever. It is also produced in insanity, ecstasy, 

 and hypnotism, sometimes in hysteria and in the begin- 

 ning of certain mental diseases. 



Besides these purely mental pathological instances 

 there are others of a more wonderful nature which de- 

 pend probably upon the same cause. Numbers of per- 

 sons who narrowly escaped drowning have stated, that 

 in the moment when asphyxia began, they seemed to see 

 all at once their entire life in all its details, even the most 



* See Les Maladies de la Me'moire by Th. Ribot, Paris 1881. 



