Kim Hutsell reminds us that Linnaeus and his predecessors developed Latin
nomenclature as an aid to memory. Linnaeus expected his readers to memorize
the genus of every living creature (a task that would be impossible today).
To that end, he required that diagnoses be brief and to the point, and that
only two words--the genus and species--be used to name any plant or animal.
In some cases, he gave all the members of a family related names, e.g., a
family of butterflies were all given related names from Greek mythology. He
also encouraged scientists to make the names as varied as possible, within
certain bounds of propriety (which, as we have previously discussed on
Conch-L, were broad: Distorsio anus, indeed!). Ironically, he eventually
became senile and lost his own prodigious memory.
 
While I was a grad student, I committed to memory the essential features of
hundreds of trace-fossil genera, together with their authors and dates, and
in many cases their etymologies and even the location on a library shelf of
the book where I first read this information. Some of this memory seems to
be tactile or kinesthetic, some visual and verbal. Now, I find that I
remember the information that I have used continually over the past 10 to
20 years, but have forgotten many of the details that I haven't used during
that time. It is easier to refresh the old information than to memorize new
information, so the memories haven't been erased; they're just not as
easily accessed.
 
It's hard to identify memories that have been erased altogether. "What can
you think of that you can't remember?" is a hard question to answer. But
other people have reminded me of past events that I barely remember or
don't remember at all. What has happened to these memories? Perhaps they
are gone, perhaps just buried.
 
Aydin Orstan and John Wolff tell us that there are different kinds of
memory. I agree, and would go further in stating that they are ordinarily
filtered through the senses. When you pick up a shell and recognize it, are
you recalling its feel, form, and heft (tactile and kinesthetic memory),
its look and color patterns (visual memory), or some combination? A tactile
thinker might not feel comfortable identifying a shell by its photo, for
instance. Does a page in a book spring to mind (visual memory), a string of
words describing it (verbal memory), or a voice (perhaps your own)
describing the shell (verbal/auditory memory)? Or do you have a more
abstract concept of a genus? Recall that Geerat Vermeij, a blind man, is
famous for his ability to recognize species of mollusks by handling them.
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama