452 



SCIENCE. 



Italian. When at the height of her insanity — French. 

 During the first period of recovery, German ; and while 

 convalescent, her mother tongue, English. 



If we throw aside this regression as far as it deals 

 with several languages and content ourselves with more 

 simple cases, we find abundant and very precise in- 

 stances. A Frenchman living in England, and speaking 

 English perfectly, received a violent blow upon the head. 

 During his entire illness, he was unable to say a word in 

 any language except his native French. 



There is nothing, however, more instructive than the 

 following fact, related also by Dr. Rush : " A Lutheran 

 clergyman, of German origin, living in America, had in 

 his congregation a great number of Germans and Swedes, 

 who, before dying, repeated prayers in their mother 

 tongue. Most of these, he said, he was sure had not 

 spoken a word of German or Swedish for fiftv or sixty 

 years." 



Winslow has stated that numbers of Catholics, con- 

 verted to Protestantism, have prayed strictly in accord- 

 ance with the Roman ritual, during attacks of delirium 

 preceding death 



This revival of languages, lost forms and ceremonies, 

 seems to me only to be interpreted by a particular case of 

 the law of regression. In consequence of a morbid ac- 

 tion, which generally precedes death, the most recent im- 

 pressions of the memory are destroyed, and this annihi- 

 lation descends gradually until it reaches the oldest ac- 

 quisitions and impressions. They acquire a temporary 

 activity, and are produced in consciousness for a certain 

 period before being wiped out forever. Hypermnesia, 

 then, is merely the result of negative conditions. Re- 

 gression does not follow from a normal return to con- 

 sciousness, but from the suppression of more intense and 

 vivid conditions. It resembles a weak, faltering voice, 

 which cannot make itself heard until the loud speech of 

 others has ceased. Impressions, certain habits belonging 

 to childhood or youth, suddenly return, not because they 

 are pushed forward by some cause, but because there is 

 no longer anything to cover them. Recollections of this 

 kind, are, strictly speaking, only a march backwards to- 

 wards certain conditions of existence which seemed to 

 have disappeared forever, but which a final working of 

 the memory, before entire dissolution, brings once more to 

 the surface. I will abstain, however, from further reflec- 

 tions which these facts naturally suggest, reserving them 

 more properly to moralists. It could be shown, for ex- 

 ample, that certain religious frenzies, which have over- 

 taken people upon their death-bed, are, to psychology, 

 merely the necessary effect of a general breaking up, tor 

 which there is no remedy. 



Independent of this confirmation of our regressive law, 

 is the surprising persistence of these latent conditions of 

 memory which we have called residuum. Were it not 

 for these disorders of the memory we could form no idea 

 of it, for consciousness reduced to itself can only affirm 

 the conservation of those conditions which constitute life 

 and a few others dependent upon the will, inasmuch as 

 they have become fixed by habit. 



Must we draw, then, the conclusion that nothing is ever 

 lost in the memory ? Must we infer that an impression 

 once formed there is indestructible, and that at any 

 moment it is likely to be revived ? Several writers, Maury 

 particularly, have given striking examples to uphold this 

 theory. Howtver, there is no peremptory reason to deny 

 that even without the existence of morbid causes, there 

 are residuums which disappear. It is quite possible that 

 certain cellular modifications and other dynamic associa- 

 tions are too unstable to last. In short we may say 

 that the persistence agrees with a fixed rule, at least, 

 in the majority of cases. 



As to the manner in which these distant impressions 



6 See an article by M. Delboeuf in the Revue P/ii/oso/i/i iyue, February 

 1880. 



are preserved and reproduced in memory, we do not know. 

 I will tell you, however, how it can be conceived in the 

 hypothesis which I have adopted throughout this work. 



If we admit cellular modifications and dynamic associa- 

 tions to be the material substratum of recollection, there 

 is no memory, however crowded with facts and impres- 

 sions, which is unable to retain everything. For, if the 

 cellular modifications are limited, the possible dynamic 

 associations are innumerable. We may suppose that the 

 old associations reappear when the new ones, being tem- 

 porarily or effectually unorganized, leave the road free. 

 The number of possible revivals being diminished the 

 chances augment in proportion for the return of the most 

 stable associations, that is to say, the oldest. I have no 

 desire to insist upon a non-verifiable hypothesis. My 

 aim is to keep closely within the bounds of certainty, 

 and not wander off into doubtful paths. 



It has been found impossible to place under the cate- 

 gory of any of the preceding morbid types, a certain 

 illusion of a peculiar nature, which occurs rarely, or 

 rather, is seldom observed. There have only been three 

 or four cases mentioned, and up to the present time no 

 special term has been used to designate it. Wigan has 

 called it very improperly, double consciousness. Sander, an 

 illusion of the memory (Em'nnerungs-tauchung). Other 

 writers have termed it false memory. This latter name 

 seems to me the most preferable. The condition con- 

 sists in the belief that an entirely new state has been ex- 

 perienced before, so that, when it is produced in reality, for 

 the first time, it seems to be a repetition. 



Wigan, in his well known work upon the duality of the 

 mind, says that while present at the funeral service of the 

 Princess Charlotte in Windsor Chapel, he suddenly ex- 

 perienced the impression of having witnessed precisely 

 the same spectacle sometime previous. The illusion was, 

 however, but transitory. Many others of a more lasting 

 nature have been recorded. Lewes associates the phe- 

 nomenon with some which are more common. When 

 we are in a strange country, for instance, it frequently 

 happens that a sudden turn in a path or river brings us 

 face to face with a view which we are certain we have 

 contemplated before. Sometimes, on being intro- 

 duced to a stranger, we feel sure that we have already 

 seen him. While reading, new thoughts will olten pre- 

 sent themselves to the mind as being familiar 6 . 



This illusion, 1 think, can be easily explained. The 

 impression received, evokes in our past, similar or anal- 

 ogous impressions, vague, confused and hardly percept- 

 ible, but nevertheless sufficiently defined to make us 

 think the new condition is only a repetition of a former 

 one. There is a basis of resemblance rapidly felt be- 

 tween two conditions of consciousness, which causes one 

 to be identified with the other. It is, of course, an error, 

 but it is only a partial one, because there really exists in 

 the past, something which resembles an identical former 

 state. 



If, however, this explanation suffices for simple in- 

 stances, here are others which do not admit of it. 



A sick man, says Sander, on being told of the death of 

 an acquaintance, was seized with an access of ungovern- 

 able terror because he thought he had already experi- 

 enced the impression at some former time. " It seemed 

 to me," he said afterwards, " that I was in the same bed 

 on another occasion and X came to me, saying 'Miiller is 

 dead.' I answered, "he died long ago. How can he 

 die twice ?" ' 7 



Dr. Arnold Pick reports the most complete case of 

 false memory that I know of. It assumed the form of a 

 chronic disorder. An educated man, of good reasoning 

 powers, was suddenly attacked — about the age of thirty- 

 two — with a most peculiar mental affection. If he was 

 at an entertainment of any sort, or paying a visit, the 



6 Lewes, See Problems of Life and Mini/, 3d series. 



7 Sander, A rchivfur Psychiatrie, 1873, IV. 



