On the Functions of the Brain and of Each of Its Parts #245032

I Have been struck with the fact, that certain persons and animals recognise, with the greatest facility, individuals whom they have seen years before, though only in passing. This is a faculty which is very feeble in me, and the want of which has caused me, through my whole life, a thousand annoyances. I have seen in all classes, among the people at large as well as among well educated persons, those who possess this faculty and those who are destitute of it. There are persons, and I am of the number, who, when they rise from table, cannot distinguish in the party the person they sat next to during the meal. As this singularity often causes them embarrassment, exposes them to make a thousand ludicrous mistakes, and to pass, with the most indifferent manner, before those who approach them with an air of recognition, they make every effort to avoid such mistakes, but they cannot succeed. It costs them an incredible effort of mind to learn certain faces by heart, and it is only those countenances, that are marked by some peculiarity, which leave on them a durable impression.