In Stitches (II)...Showing How Way Leads to Way

I had innocently planned in this essay to keep going with my list of words collected, but I got hung up on the quotation which ended the previous essay, and I had to track down, so to speak, ichnogram and a few other words. Speaking of tracking down, the Greek word ichnos is a "track" or "trace," and so an ichnogram is something that leaves a trace. That word is not attested in the dictionaries I examined, but it is easy to see its meaning. But, I did rather get lost in "ichnos," so to speak, in the process.

Be sure to distinguish the ichno root from ichor, which is "the ethereal fluid supposed to flow like blood from the veins of the gods." Thus, we have the word ichorous, which means "containing or discharging ichor," and ichorescent, "becoming ichorous." Be sure to distinguish this also from Icarus, the guy who flew away from the labyrinth but ran into solar difficulties. But how, in fact, does something become ichorous, if the very substance is itself ethereal? Does it mean that it has a lesser consistency, that it incrassates (i.e., becomes thick) or what? This ichorescence is leading to incoherence, I think. But then, I found a secondary meaning for ichor in the Century, and this meaning is "watery, thin, like whey, serous." I'm serious. Thus, I think I can use the word in this way. Maybe I wil be kicked out of my doctor's office if I talk about the ichorescence of some fluid from my body...

Back, then, to words derived from ichnos. An ichnite is a fossil footprint or track of an animal, though the word normally is used in compounds, as in ornithichnite, tetrapodichnite, etc. But then, ichnography is the old word for a "ground-plan" or architect's sketch. From 1703: "The Ground Plat or Ichnography of each Floor or Story.." It is the "footprint" of the building. Ichnology is the part of paleontology which treats of fossil footprints. The word was invented in 1851: "Our knowledge of the footprints of recent animals, what may be termed modern Ichnology..is so limited." Edward Hitchcock, Professor of Geology and President (if I recall correctly) of Amherst College in MA, was supposedly the founder of the science of ichnology and wrote about the ichnology of New England.

But then, as with stich, in the previous essay, we have ichnomancy. Just as you can pluck a verse out of context, and by magically applying its meaning to your life you have stichomancy, so by observing the "traces" of people, you have ichnomancy. In Smedley's 1855 book on Occult Science, he defined ichnomancy as follows: "the art of finding out the figure, peculiarities, occupations & c., of men or beasts by the traces of their posture, position, and footsteps." Then, again, you can just ask them what they do for a living...

The "Other Words" from Dr. Woods

Well, I am still trying to work through the quotation from Dr. Woods at the end of the previous essay, and I haven't been making much progress. Another word he used was a pelmatogram. Pelma is the Greek word for the sole of the foot. So we have the pelma and the palm though the word palm has an Old French derivation that relates nothing to pelma. But we now have an easy way to remember both words. Well, a pelmatogram is simply a "print of the sole." How is that different from a ichnogram or a stibogram? I have no idea, but I think what happened when X-rays were new or just around the corner is that people had a "scramble" for terminology before settling on the word that we use in an unreflective way now.

Before passing out (oh no!)...from the "pelma" world, I would like to pause momentarily on the word Pelman, which appears in the OED. It is an attributive, "designating the system of memory training taught by the Pelman Institute." The first appearance of this term was in 1900: "I may say that I speak of the Pelman system from intimate personal knowledge," and it still was attested a few years ago: "He completed the Pelman System of Mind Memory and Training by correspondence, which helped prepare him for a career in journalism."

Then, I realized I was in the midst of another great digression. I am sympathetic to systems of memory training because I think it is the most undervalued part of a person's mind. We want to develop flexible thinkers, or people who can think logically or quickly, but when we see the word "memorize," we freeze up. If anyone speaks about memorizing something, we think that person a benighted fool. But, the secret of knowledge (and not simply in impressing friends with a few tidbits of information) is to master it, store it, retrieve it and use it at the right time. If you can do that, you have worlds open to you which you can barely imagine. So, let's return now to the "Pelman" system of memory training. It is named after W. J. Ennever (1869-1947), a British man-of-the-world, whose family had made a small fortune in piano-making before him. Combining knowledge of a new method of education in those days (the correspondence course) with "scientific" understanding of the human mind, Ennever developed a system which through hard work and practice would eventuate in a better memory. He used some of the work of a predecessor, Prof. Alphonse Loisette, Assimilative Memory or, How to Attend and Never Forget, and came out with his work, late in life, entitled Your Mind and How to Use It. The copy boldy asserts that over 50,000 copies were sold.

In what did the method consist? Well, I will point you to this web site, which is linked to many others, if you would like to peruse some of his guides. In the remainder of this essay I will just quote some of the benefits supposed to flow your way if you adopted "Pelmanism" as your memory style.

What is it supposed to inculcate? Well, it will enable you "to recall the Word, the Appointment or Argument that has slipped your Memory." It will enable you "to express yourself better either in Writing or by Speech." It will "strengthen your power of Concentration." The list goes on and on. But I got a chuckle from looking at the list of the things it was supposed to correct. Among the defects and weaknesses claimed to be "rapidly and permanently banished by Pelmanism" were: "forgetfulness, depression, brain fag." Just as the British used phrases like "knocked up" or "get off" in the early 20th century in perfectly innocent ways (see this essay), so the phrase "brain fag" must have been perfectly normal, even though we can barely suppress a smile when reading it today. Here is a brief essay on the history of use of that term--it flourished about a century ago, faded away, and then had a bit of a renaissance in recent days, though in a very specialized meaning.

Well, I probably haven't convinced any of you to rush to the Pelman system for memory training but, I can say this, that learning to develop a good memory has perhaps been one of the most useful things in my life. It provides the context for me to be able to "put my finger" on almost anything I want from the past (and present).

And, just think, all of this was a digression. I still need to get back to a few other words that are still hanging. But, not today....

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