Assimilative Memory Part 28

STRYCHNINE ... nerve stimulant ... nerve sedative ... _Bromide of Pota.s.sium and Chloral Hydrate_ ... organic compound ... heated organic compound ... charcoal ... _animal charcoal_ ... charcoal fumes ...

asphyxia ... _artificial respiration_ ... perspiration ... tea ...

_tannic acid_ ... acidity ... dyspepsia ... vomiting ... _emetics_.

BELLADONNA ... deadly nightshade ... deadly sick ... _emetic_ ...

_mustard and water_ ... brandy and water ... _stimulants_ ... hot ...

perspiration ... _pilocarpine_ [p. injected hypodermically causes profuse perspiration].

THE TWELVE PAIRS OF CRANIAL NERVES.

The following list is worked out for practice _much more fully_ than a medical student would do if he were learning the list in his studies.

The medical student would doubtless first objectively identify these nerves in dissection, and then use correlations to help him remember those which his natural memory could not carry. If not a medical student, my pupil may omit this and the previous examples from Quain's Anatomy.

THE TWELVE PAIRS OF CRANIAL NERVES.

CRANIAL NERVES ... within the skull ... wi{th}i{n} (12 pairs) ...

withdrawal ... draw oil ... oil factory ... OLFACTORY (1st pair) ...

manufactory ... smoke ... _smell_ ... scent-bottle ... gla.s.s ... optical gla.s.s ... OPTIC (2nd pair) ... optician ... eyegla.s.s ... _sight_ ...

eye-witness ... ocular demonstration ... OCCULO MOTOR (3rd pair) ocular motions ... _move the eye many ways_ ... tear in the eye ... TROCHLEAR or PATHETIC (4th pair) ... moving ... _move the eye obliquely_ ...

obtuse angle ... triangle ... TRIGEMINAL (5th pair) ... gem ...

sparkling ... _eye_ ... eyetooth ... _jaw_ ... talk ... _tongue_ ...

_taste_ ... good taste ... good feeling ... _feeling_ ... feelers ...

_motion_ ... ocean ... sailors ... absent from home ... ABDUCENT (6th pair) ... sent out ... see out ... _moves the eye outwards_ ... face outwards ... FACIAL (7th pair--motor to muscles of expression) ... face ... audience ... AUDITORY (8th pair, sensory for hearing and equilibration) ... ear-ring ... s.h.i.+ny ... glossy ... GLOSSO-PHARYNGEAL (9th pair, taste, swallow) ... congeal ... unfixed ... vague ... VAGUS (10th pair, pneumogastric) ... gusty ... blown back ... backbone ...

SPINAL ACCESSORY (11th pair, moves head) _and motor_ ... spines ...

sharp criticism ... hypercritical ... HYPOGLOSSAL (12th pair) ...

glossary ... foreign tongue ... _Tongue Muscles_.

1. Between "perspiration" and "tea"?

2. Why so?

3. Explain the relation between "Belladonna" and "deadly nightshade."

4. What advice is here given the medical student?

5. Are you required to learn the twelve pairs of cranial nerves if you are not a medical student?

6. What do the words printed in italics indicate in this exercise?

7. Is it essential for the medical student to know these uses?

8. What word indicates the number of pairs of cranial nerves?

9. Through what consonant?

PROTOPLASM.

Alb.u.men, gluten, fibrin, syntonin, are closely allied substances known as proteids, and each is composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

PROTEIDS ... Protector ... commonwealth ... for all ... _alb.u.men_ ...

all men ... liars ... fibs ... _fibrin_ ... brindled ... spotted ... sin ... _syntonin_ ... toe nails ... hoofs ... glue ... _gluten_.

The foregoing exercises show that there are no facts of Science, &c., or in Daily Life, with which the System cannot cope--thus proving the greatest saver of Labour and Time if the pupil makes an application of it to his studies or business when once he has mastered the system.

BOOKS LEARNED IN ONE READING.

For the past ten years I have printed in my large prospectus a general view of my meaning. I will reproduce most of those views here, premising that I have never suggested that books are to be _learned by heart_, but only the _important_, _useful_ portions of them--such as are new to the reader and which he may desire to retain.

I do not mean such books as Bradshaw's Guide, the London Post-Office Directory, or any other mere collection of names, addresses, statistics, &c., which one may have occasion to _consult_, but which it would be the mere bravado of Memory to learn by heart--though even this is possible enough to the master of my System. What is one's object in reading a book? Simply to retain the IDEAS in it that are NEW and USEFUL to him, as well as the NEW USES that are therein set forth of _old_ and _familiar_ ideas. If the reader is already partly acquainted with a book, there will be fewer new ideas in it than in one with which he is unacquainted. Now, what do I mean by Learning either of these books in one reading? I mean exactly what I say. All that you desire to remember shall be retained--all the leading or subordinate ideas, propositions, ill.u.s.trations, facts, &c., &c.

There are only two ways of learning a book in this thorough manner:

(1) _The first_ is the traditional method of learning by _rote_ or endless repet.i.tion. A celebrated Coach in Anatomy says that no one can learn Anatomy until he has learned and _forgotten_ it from three to seven times! In learning any book in this way, each sentence would be repeated over and over again, and then reviewed and _re_learnt and forgotten and learned again! And then at last the Pupil if he possesses a first-rate _cramming_ memory might answer questions on it. In learning a book by _rote_, the number of times that each sentence and section is repeated, if actually written out and printed, would doubtless cover 5,000 to 50,000 or more pages!--and even then the Pupil pa.s.ses his examination, if he really does "pa.s.s," partly by luck and partly by merit; all his life he is constantly referring to it, and repeating it, and studying it, over and over again--showing really that he possesses little more than a Reference Memory in regard to it! But let us be candid and confess the truth; tens of thousands every year and during successive years try the various professions--law, medicine, divinity, or sciences, history, &c., &c., and utterly fail to "pa.s.s," even respectably, because they lack the extraordinary sensuous MEMORY necessary to acquire knowledge by _rote_.

It is only the exceptionally powerful natural memories that win at exacting examinations by _rote_--even then their learning is soon forgotten, unless it is _perpetually renewed_.

(2) The other mode of learning any book in the thorough manner I have indicated, whether it be a book in which the reader finds but _few_ novel ideas or where they are _all new_, as in a scientific or technical work, is by my Method. In fact, I believe no one can learn any book so thoroughly by _rote_, even if he possesses a marvellous Natural Memory and if he peruse it ever so many times, as my Pupils can by my method in a single perusal. Let the reader note that my System has two important aspects--(1) It is a Device or Method of memorising or learning any facts whatever--prose, poetry, dates, data, formulae and facts and principles of the sciences, &c., &c., &c., or anything whatsoever to be remembered. (2) There is another equally, if not _more_ important aspect of it, namely, as a _Trainer or Strengthener of the Natural Memory_ to any extent the pupil wishes to carry it. And the Natural Memory is so strengthened by the use of the System, that as a Device, the System is no longer required. You then remember from your new Memory-power without taking any pains to remember, and I am happy to add that the diligent student can derive the full benefit of the System as a Memory Trainer by learning the lessons in the way I point out.

Now, those who have thus derived the _full benefit_ of the System, both as a Device for memorising and also as a Memory Trainer, _are the persons who can learn a book in one reading_. "Reading" is used by Coaches in a technical sense; that is, synonymous with "thorough study."

By a "single" or "one reading," I mean a single careful perusal _in conformity to the requirements of my System_. I do not mean that they can do this and doze during the process.

I now reproduce most of the plan always adopted in dealing with books whose contents, or the unfamiliar portions of them are to be mastered.

(1) You will not read the book with the _rapidity_ with which some young ladies are said to devour the latest novel. They are often suspected of skipping pages at a time in order to discover the different stages of a plot, until a thoroughly aroused curiosity compels them to hasten at once to the last chapter to fall upon the denouement. This is not the style of perusal I contemplate.

(2) Nor is it to be supposed because you understand the method that it will therefore work itself. It has to be _applied_ carefully and methodically _at least once_. This necessarily demands _time_, especially at first. Those who possess good health and good continuity, and a mastery of the System, accomplish the retention of a work in vastly less time than would be possible for them without the System, and the study is a pleasure instead of a task. On the other hand, those who are in the possession of poor health or of weak concentration, or who are overburdened with business anxieties, domestic cares or compet.i.tive worries, would very seldom, if ever, master any book in the ordinary way by _mere repet.i.tion_. These persons are extremely unfavourably situated to do justice to the System, and it costs them more time and trouble to master a book than the former cla.s.s. A student admitted that he had carefully read a manual of English History completely through _sixteen_ times, and then failed in the examination. To have obtained a lasting knowledge of this History by my method would probably have occupied him as long as he was formerly engaged in _two or three_ of the sixteen fruitless perusals of it. There is, however, only one difference between this unfortunate student and the great majority of those who succeed in the examinations through _cramming_. He forgot all his historical knowledge _before_ the examination--they usually forget theirs shortly _after_. In fact, a student or a man in advanced years who has really mastered any book so that he never has to refer to it again is a wonder.

Take the memories of members of the learned professions--they are usually only REFERENCE memories. They know where to _find_ the coveted knowledge, but they do not _possess_ it or _retain_ it in their minds.

On the other hand, the student who masters a book by my method _really knows_ the contents of it, and he is thus enabled to devote to other purposes _an enormous amount of time in the future_ that other people have to spend in _perpetually refres.h.i.+ng_ their superficial acquirements. Moreover, the average student who has carried out _all_ my instructions can even _now_ learn as much by my Method in any stated time as he could learn without my Method, and _with equal thoroughness_ in many, many times as long a period! And if any one who has been pressed for time, or who has been in a panic about an impending examination, or who has been too much troubled with Discontinuity, too ill in general health, or too idle, to do more than superficially glance at my lessons--if any such person doubts his competency to accomplish as much as the diligent student of average ability has done, then let him turn back and really and truly MASTER my System [for he does not even KNOW what my System is until he has faithfully carried out to the very letter all my instructions, unless he has been a pupil of my oral lectures], and then and not before he will probably find that the achievements of the average diligent student of my System are quite within the easy range and scope of his own powers.

(3) In regard to the _subject matter_ of the book, you do not care to occupy yourself with what you are _already familiar_ with, and in most books there are a great many things that you already know. In many works, too, there is a great deal of padding-matter inserted to increase the bulk of the book, and possessing no permanent interest. The expositions and explanations which enable you to _understand_ the new matter usually take up a large part of the book, and sometimes much the largest part of it, and are not to be memorised, but only understood with a sole view to appreciate the valuable and important parts of the book--these expositions can be learned if desired--but they usually serve only a preliminary purpose. There is also very much _repet.i.tion_--the same matter in new dress, is reintroduced for sake of additional comments or applications. You do not trouble yourself with these iterations. The contents of a book which demand your attention are the IDEAS which are NEW to you, or the NEW USES made of familiar ideas.

Students who have not learned to exercise any independent thought often confess that in reading any book they are always in a maze. One thing seems just as important as another. To them the wheat looks exactly like the chaff. As an ill.u.s.tration that the power of a.n.a.lysis is entirely wanting in many cases, I may mention that I once received a letter in which the writer had literally copied one of my column advertis.e.m.e.nts, and then added, "Please send me what relates to the above!" A modic.u.m of mental training would have led him to say, "Kindly send me your Prospectus."

LEARN FIRST TO MAKE ABSTRACTS OF WHAT IS NEW TO YOU.

A great authority on education says: "Any work that deserves thorough study, deserves the labor of making an Abstract, _without which, indeed, the study is not thorough_."

A work which deserves thorough study is obviously one full of IDEAS, new to the reader, such as the student must master.

If you are thinking of making an Abstract of a particular book, awaken the utmost interest in regard to it before you begin. Are you sure that it is worthy of thorough study? Is it the last or best work on the subject? And if you advance, note in a separate memorandum book your criticisms on the author's method and the soundness of his views. These criticisms will help keep up your interest in the Abstract, and at the close enable you to suggest modifications, additions, excisions, or a refutation.

Three things are required: (1) To learn =how= to abstract; (2) To =make= one, at least, such abstract; and (3) To =learn= it when made.

HOW TO MAKE ABSTRACTS.

Let the ambitious student make an Abstract of any chapter of John Stuart Mill's Logic, and then compare his work with the a.n.a.lysis of this same chapter by the Rev. A. H. Killick (published by Longmans), and he will at once see the enormous difference between the essentials and the non-essentials--the difference between the subject of discussion and the _explanation_ or _exposition_ of it. The student's abstract, if printed, would extend over twenty to thirty pages. Mr. Killick's only occupies two to five pages. But do not reverse the process and read Mr. Killick's a.n.a.lysis first and then make your Abstract. The latter, however, is _the easier_, _the usual_, and _the useless_ method. Let the student continue this comparison till he attains very nearly the brevity and discrimination displayed by Mr. Killick. Or, if he prefers History, let him write a summary of any chapter of Green's "Short History of the English People," and then compare his digest with Mr. C. W. A. Tait's a.n.a.lysis of the same chapter (now bound up with Green's History, as lately published in England). It would be a capital training for the student to abstract the whole of Green's work and compare his abridgment of each chapter with that of Mr. Tait. After considerable practice in this way in making Abstracts and _comparing his work with that of such Masterly Abstractors_ as Dr. Killick and Mr. Tait, the student who needs this training is prepared to make abstracts of his own text-books.

Any other work of which an Abstract is published will serve the student as well as the above. There were formerly published Abstracts of several law books. And there may be other works whose abstracts are available to the ambitious student.