Volume 1

Observations on man, his frame, his duty, and his expectations. In two parts / By David Hartley.

  • Hartley, David, 1705-1757.
Date:
1749
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on man, his frame, his duty, and his expectations. In two parts / By David Hartley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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412/552 (page 380)
fons here afiigned for them. Their not being able to digeft pail Fads in Order of Time'is, in great mea- fure, owing to their not having the proper Ufe of the Symbols, whereby Time is denoted. Seventhly, The peculiar Imperfedicn of the Me¬ mory in aged Perfons tallies alfo with the foregoing Account. The Vibrations, and Difpofitiohs to vibrate, in the fmall medullary Particles, and their Affociations, are all fo fixed by the Callofity of the medullary Sub- ftance, and by repeated Impreffions and Recurrencies, that new Imprefiions can icarce enter, that they recur feldom, and that the Parts which do recur bring in old Trains from eftablifhed Affociations, inftead of continuing thofe which were lately impreffed. Hence one may almoft predid what very old Perfons will fay or do upon common Occurrences. Which is alfo the Cafe frequently with Perfons of ftrong Pafiions, for Reafons that are not very unlike. When old Perfons relate the Incidents of their Youth with great Precifion, it is rather owing to the Memory of many preceding Memories, Recoliedions, and Relations, than to the Memory of the Thing itfelf. Eighthly, In recovering from Concufiions, and other Diforclers of the Brain, it is ufual for the Patient to recover the Power of remembring the then pre- fent common Incidents for Minutes, Flours, and Days, by degrees *, alfo the Power of recalling the Events of his Life preceding his Ulnefs. At length he reco¬ vers this lad Power perfedly, and at the fame time forgets almoft all that paft in his Illnefs, even thofe things which he remembred, at firft, for a Day or Two. Now the Reafpn of this I take to be, that upon a por¬ ted Recovery the Brain recovers its natural State, *.e. all its former Difpofitions to vibrate; but that fucft as took place during the preternatural State of the Brain, i, 8. during his Illnefs, are all obliterated by the Return of the natural State. In like manner Dreams, which happen in a peculiar State of the Brain, i. e, in Sleep, vanifh,