Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/93

 F. GALTON : Number of cases. Greatest number of Figures that could be recollected. Number of Figures at which the memory first wholly broke down. Perfectly. Imperfectly. A 1 1 1 2 4 2 3 4 4 5 5 3 4 5 6 6 B 1 2 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 3 4 5 6 7 Having thus obtained two girls, one from each batch, who could not repeat more than two figures without mistake, 23 trials were made with them with three figures in each, and their errors were classified. In 17 cases the last figure was rightly repeated ; in 10, the second ; and in 7, the first. The last uttered figure is therefore most easily repeated. There was no obvious tendency to transposition. One of the girls had a peculiar trick of duplicating a numeral and giving an answer of 4 instead of 3 figures, thus 1216 for 216, 0808 for 408. II. Three men idiots were brought to us who were remarkable for their memory of dates ; their initials were J. M., W. C. and G. M. The speciality of J. M. was his acquaintance with MagnalPs History. I had seen him some years ago when I visited the Asylum in company with Mr. Eomanes, previous to Dr. Cobbold's appointment. He had then a well-thumbed volume, printed to the best of my recollection in small type ; he now has a new volume of 419 pages,, small 8vo, and in large type, but does not profess to know the whole of it by heart. He was tested at the lives of Copernicus, Columbus and elsewhere, and repeated with considerable exactitude. Where he substituted words they made good sense, and where he omitted words or passages the omissions did not spoil the sense. He repeated much that we did not find in the book, but which I ascribed to his recollection of the more diffuse edition of the work. He was asked about astronomical measures and gave abundance of correct numerical data, and when questioned as to their signification answered sensibly enough. His memory cannot be visual, as he does not know in what part of the page the recollected passages lie. Of the ser- mons he had heard, he could remember the texts of many and the dates when they were preached, but not the sermons them- selves. His power of learning new sentences seemed small ; he