Memory

Wlien the voice is thrown into the j receiving apertura of a ptaonograph, it j sets a disc like a drum-liead vibrating. j At the back of this disc, and attached to It, is a needie, which, with every movement indents a sheet of tin-foil spread on a revolving cylinder - that is, each vibration of the disc engraves with the needie a mark on the tin foil. The form of these marks or impresslons varies with every sound, and. wlien the cylinder is caused to revolve at such a rate as to move the tin-foil as fast as it is marked, the result will be a dotted line, which is, in fact, the writir.g of a sound. The tin-foil so inscribed will retain indeflnitely the impressions it has received. If it be now placed in an instrument so constructed that a needie vibrating a musical drum or disc -the reverse of the apparatus just described- shall pass along the tin foil and be made to vibrat by the marks previonsly indented orengraved on Hs surfaoe, ttiis vibration will set the musical disc in motion and produce a series of sounds closely resembling those which first marked the tin-foil. Hereafter, doubtless, it will be found possible to ascertain the precise character of the marks produced by, and, in ;heir turn, capable of producing, particular sounds. Wlien tliis is accom)lished, cylinders will be engraved with the indentations necessary to cause certain vibrations, and a system of sound or voice writing will be established. Let us ask the reader to note these points of interest: (1) The phonograph when in motion receiyes the impression of every sound which is tlnown into it; (2) the record is indelible though dormant; (8) the impression received can be converted into an expression whenever the cjlinder is again set in motion in suitable circumstancês ; (4) what was received as a sound is recorded or retained as a physical record. We have stated these facts about the phonograph to serve as an illustration of the rattónatt. of the procesa of mental imi)ression and memory. Brain substance, speaking broadly and in a popular sense, but with sutiicient accuracy, consista of a inultitude of cells or partióles of living matter, which are capable of being impressed by mental f orce, just as the tin-foil on the cylinder of a phonograph is pressed by physical force. wnether these corpuscles are altered in form or thrown into special relations with each other wben ideas or thoughts are projected upon them science has not y et been able to ascertain, but thit they are in some way physically affected by every mental act is certain. Everything we hear, see, or thmk, produces an iinpression, wholly irrespective of any consciousness on our part. Attention, and what is called interest in a subject, may deepen the irapression produced ; but the brain receives the impressicn of passing thoughts, and of ideas presented to it even without ñnjwreuge. -me recuruis Uiden ble so long as the corpuscles themselves last, and continue capable of reproducingothers which are the counterpart of themselves in the process of bodily growth and change. A large and healthy brain, well nourished, will take in and register an enormous number of ideas, and the records so treasured up are the physical bases of memory. In the process of recollection, mental f orce - whatever this may be - through the cylinderof the brain so to say, into a state of activity, and the result is a reproduction of the ideas which previously impressed the brain. This is a concise but faithful account of what occura when the mind is in action. Now we can compare the two phenwinena - souncl-writing by the phonograph, and thought-reeording by the cerebrum - with the consequential processes of reproducing sounds from the dots and lines traced on the tin-i oil of a cylinder, and recollecting thoughts from the altered or specially related corpuscles of brain substance.
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Old News
Ann Arbor Argus