“Do you know who he is?”
“His name is Bertini, I think. He’s a kind of professor. I believe he has a kind of memory system he teaches to people who can’t remember things.”
The other customer smiled, but the clerk was quite serious. He had no sense of humor.—The Youth’s Companion.
(2006)
See [Absent-mindedness].
MEMORY AND DISEASE
Many strange defects of memory are known to exist, and of these an interesting example may be given.
A business man of keen mind and good general memory, who was not paralyzed in any way, and was perfectly able to comprehend and engage in conversation, suddenly lost a part of his power of reading and of mathematical calculation.
The letters d, g, q, x, and y, tho seen perfectly, were in this case no longer recognized, and conveyed no more idea to him than Chinese characters would to most of us. He had difficulty in reading—was obliged to spell out all words, and could read no words containing three letters.
He could write the letters which he could read, but could not write the five letters mentioned. He could read and write certain numbers, but 6, 7, and 8, had been lost to him; and when asked to write them his only result, after many attempts, was to begin to write the words six, seven, and eight, not being able to finish these, as the first and last contained letters (x and g) which he did not know.