Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th 1887 (IA b30475958).pdf/23

 it cannot, namely, intuitus or demonstration. In many subjects, in none certainly more than general anatomy, this is a point of no mean importance. The eye can assist the ear; two inlets are afforded at once to the sentient brain instead of one, and two forms of memory can be called forth. For it is a fact, though one seldom insisted on, that memory has at least as many forms as there are senses. The memory of the ear is perhaps the commonest but also the least intellectual, unless applied to harmonious sounds and melodies. Unfortunately, the mere reproduction of the dry husks of thought termed words is too much cultivated in these days of overpressure, and too little care is taken to secure the essential nucleus of the grain of thought. To the anatomist, the surgeon, and the man of science generally the memory of the eye transcends the former. A geometrical memory, which can reproduce forms healthy or diseased, is an acquirement especially to be cultivated by the student of medicine and pathology. This is far better done in lectures than by books.