Feats of Memory

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
by George M. Gould, M.D., Walter L. Pyle, M.D.

(Page 33 of 50)

From time to time there have been individuals, principally children, who gave wonderful exhibitions of memory, some for dates, others for names, and some for rapid mental calculation. Before the Anthropological Society in 1880 Broca exhibited a lad of eleven, a Piedmontese, named Jacques Inaudi. This boy, with a trick monkey, had been found earning his livelihood by begging and by solving mentally in a few minutes the most difficult problems in arithmetic. A gentleman residing in Marseilles had seen him while soliciting alms perform most astonishing feats of memory, and brought him to Paris. In the presence of the Society Broca gave him verbally a task in multiplication, composed of some trillions to be multiplied by billions. In the presence of all the members he accomplished his task in less than ten minutes, and without the aid of pencil and paper, solving the whole problem mentally. Although not looking intelligent, and not being able to read or write, he perhaps could surpass any one in the world in his particular feat. It was stated that he proceeded from left to right in his calculations, instead of from right to left in the usual manner. In his personal appearance the only thing indicative of his wonderful abilities was his high forehead.

An infant prodigy named Oscar Moore was exhibited to the physicians of Chicago at the Central Music Hall in 1888, and excited considerable comment at the time. The child was born of mulatto parents at Waco, Texas, on August 19, 1885, and when only thirteen months old manifested remarkable mental ability and precocity. S. V. Clevenger, a physician of Chicago, has described the child as follows: -

"Oscar was born blind and, as frequently occurs in such cases, the touch-sense compensatingly developed extraordinarily. It was observed that after touching a person once or twice with his stubby baby fingers, he could thereafter unfailingly recognize and call by name the one whose hand he again felt. The optic sense is the only one defective, for tests reveal that his hearing, taste, and smell are acute, and the tactile development surpasses in refinement. But his memory is the most remarkable peculiarity, for when his sister conned her lessons at home, baby Oscar, less than two years old, would recite all he heard her read. Unlike some idiot savants, in which category he is not to be included, who repeat parrot-like what they have once heard, baby Oscar seems to digest what he hears, and requires at least more than one repetition of what he is trying to remember, after which he possesses the information imparted and is able to yield it at once when questioned. It is not necessary for him to commence at the beginning, as the possessors of some notable memories were compelled to do, but he skips about to any required part of his repertoire.

"He sings a number of songs and counts in different languages, but it is not supposable that he understands every word he utters. If, however, his understanding develops as it promises to do, he will become a decided polyglot. He has mastered an appalling array of statistics, such as the areas in square miles of hundreds of countries, the population of the world's principal cities, the birthdays of all the Presidents, the names of all the cities of the United States of over 10,000 inhabitants, and a lot of mathematical data. He is greatly attracted by music, and this leads to the expectation that when more mature he may rival Blind Tom.

"In disposition he is very amiable, but rather grave beyond his years. He shows great affection for his father, and is as playful and as happy as the ordinary child. He sleeps soundly, has a good childish appetite, and appears to be in perfect health. His motions are quick but not nervous, and are as well coordinated as in a child of ten. In fact, he impresses one as having the intelligence of a much older child than three years (now five years), but his height, dentition, and general appearance indicate the truthfulness of the age assigned. An evidence of his symmetrical mental development appears in his extreme inquisitiveness. He wants to understand the meaning of what he is taught, and some kind of an explanation must be given him for what he learns. Were his memory alone abnormally great and other faculties defective, this would hardly be the case; but if so, it cannot at present be determined.

"His complexion is yellow, with African features, flat nose, thick lips but not prognathous, superciliary ridges undeveloped, causing the forehead to protrude a little. His head measures 19 inches in circumference, on a line with the upper ear-tips, the forehead being much narrower than the occipitoparietal portion, which is noticeably very wide. The occiput protrudes backward, causing a forward sweep of the back of the neck. From the nose-root to the nucha over the head he measures 13 1/2 inches, and between upper ear- tips across and over the head 11 inches, which is so close to the eight-and ten-inch standard that he may be called mesocephalic. The bulging in the vicinity of the parietal region accords remarkably with speculations upon the location of the auditory memory in that region, such as those in the American Naturalist, July, 1888, and the fact that injury of that part of the brain may cause loss of memory of the meaning of words. It may be that the premature death of the mother's children has some significance in connection with Oscar's phenomenal development. There is certainly a hypernutrition of the parietal brain with atrophy of the optic tract, both of which conditions could arise from abnormal vascular causes, or the extra growth of the auditory memory region may have deprived of nutrition, by pressure, the adjacent optic centers in the occipital brain. The otherwise normal motion of the eyes indicates the nystagmus to be functional.

"Sudden exaltation of the memory is often the consequence of grave brain disease, and in children this symptom is most frequent. Pritchard, Rush, and other writers upon mental disorders record interesting instances of remarkable memory-increase before death, mainly in adults, and during fever and insanity. In simple mania the memory is often very acute. Romberg tells of a young girl who lost her sight after an attack of small-pox, but acquired an extraordinary memory. He calls attention to the fact that the scrofulous and rachitic diatheses in childhood are sometimes accompanied by this disorder. Winslow notes that in the incipient state of the brain disease of early life connected with fevers, disturbed conditions of the cerebral circulation and vessels, and in affections of advanced life, there is often witnessed a remarkable exaltation of the memory, which may herald death by apoplexy.

"Not only has the institution of intelligence in idiots dated from falls upon the head, but extra mentality has been conferred by such an event Pritchard tells of three idiot brothers, one of whom, after a severe head injury, brightened up and became a barrister, while his brothers remained idiotic. 'Father Mabillon,' says Winslow, 'is said to have been an idiot until twenty- six years of age, when he fractured his skull against a stone staircase. He was trepanned. After recovering, his intellect fully developed itself in a mind endowed with a lively imagination, an amazing memory, and a zeal for study rarely equaled.' Such instances can be accounted for by the brain having previously been poorly nourished by a defective blood supply, which defect was remedied by the increased circulation afforded by the head-injury.

"It is a commonly known fact that activity of the brain is attended with a greater head-circulation than when the mind is dull, within certain limits. Anomalous development of the brain through blood-vessels, affording an extra nutritive supply to the mental apparatus, can readily be conceived as occurring before birth, just as aberrant nutrition elsewhere produces giants from parents of ordinary size.

"There is but one sense-defect in the child Oscar, his eyesight-absence, and that is atoned for by his hearing and touch-acuteness, as it generally is in the blind. Spitzka and others demonstrate that in such cases other parts of the brain enlarge to compensate for the atrophic portion which is connected with the functionless nerves. This, considered with his apparently perfect, mental and physical health, leaves no reason to suppose that Oscar's extravagant memory depends upon disease any more than we can suspect all giants of being sickly, though the anomaly is doubtless due to pathologic conditions. Of course, there is no predicting what may develop later in his life, but in any event science will be benefited.