the girl had
been a waif and had been taken in charge by a Protestant clergyman when
she was nine years old and brought up as his servant. This clergyman had
for years been in the habit of walking up and down a passage of his
house into which the kitchen door opened and at the same time reading to
himself in a loud voice from his favorite book. A considerable number of
these books were still in the possession of his niece, who told the
physician that her uncle had been a very learned man and an accomplished
student of Hebrew. Among the books were found a collection of Rabbinical
writings, together with several of the Greek and Latin fathers; and the
physician succeeded in identifying so many passages in these books with
those taken down at the bed-side of the young woman that there could be
no doubt as to the true origin of her learned ravings.

Now, the striking feature of all this, it will be observed, is the fact
that the subject was an illiterate servant-girl to whom the Greek, Latin
and Hebrew quotations were _utterly unintelligible,_ that _normally she
had no recollection of them, that she had no idea of their meaning_,
and finally that they had been impressed upon her mind _without her
knowledge_ while she was engaged in her duties in her master's kitchen.

Several cases are reported by Dr. Abercrombie, and quoted by Professor
Hyslop, in which mental impressions long since forgotten beyond the
power of voluntary recall have been revived by the shock of accident or
disease. "A man," he says, "mentioned by Mr. Abernethy, had been born in
France, but had spent the greater part of his life in England, and, for
many years, had entirely lost the habit of speaking French. But when
under the care of Mr. Abernethy, on account of the effects of an injury
to the head, he always spoke French."

[Sidenote: _Speaking a Forgotten Tongue_]

"A similar case occurred in St. Thomas Hospital, of a man who was in a
state of stupor in consequence of an injury to the head. On his partial
recovery he spoke a language which nobody in the hospital understood but
which was soon ascertained to be Welsh. It was then discovered that he
had been thirty years absent from Wales, and, before the accident, had
entirely forgotten his native language.

"A lady mentioned by Dr. Pritchard, when in a state of delirium, spoke a
language which nobody about her understood, but which was afterward
discovered to be Welsh. None of her friends could form