galton.org 95
Number-Forms
95
movement of my eye. When I move the head the diagram unconsciously follows the,
movement, but I can, by an effort, keep it fixed in space as before. I can also shift it from
one part of the field to the other, and even turn it upside down. I use the diagram as a
resting-place for the memory, placing a number on it and finding it again when wanted. A
remarkable property of the diagram is a sort of elasticity which enables me to join the two
ends of the horse-shoe together when I want to connect 100 with o. The same elasticity
causes me to see that part of the diagram on which I fix my attention larger than the rest.”
Mr. Schuster makes occasional use of a simpler form of diagram,
which is little more than a straight line variously divided, and which I
need not describe in detail.
Fig. 22 is by Colonel Yule, C.B.; it is simpler than the others, and he
has found it to become sensibly weaker in later years; it is now faint and
hard to fix.
Fig. 23. Mr. Woodd Smith
“Above 200 the form becomes vague and is soon lost, except that 999 is always in a
corner like 99. My own position in regard to it is generally nearly opposite my own age,
which is fifty now, at which point I can face either towards, 7—12, or towards 12—20, or
20—7, but never (I think) with my back to 1 2—20.”
Fig. 24. Mr. Roget. He writes to the effect that the first twelve are
clearly derived from the spots in dominoes. After 100 there is nothing
clear but 108. The form is so deeply engraven in his mind that a strong
effort of the will was required to substitute any artificial arrangement in
its place. His father, the late Dr. Roget (well known for many years as
secretary of the Royal Society), had trained him in his childhood to the
use of the memoria technica of Feinagle, in which each year has its
special place in the walls of a particular room, and the rooms of a house
represent successive centuries, but he never could locate them in that way.
They would go to what seemed their natural homes in the arrangement
shown in the figure, which had come to him from some unknown source.
The remaining Figs., 25—28, in Plate I., sufficiently
