ABSTRACT
F lorgetting can be a social as well as a personal malady. Just as an individual is sometimes unable to retrieve facts and experiences that were at one time familiar to him, history is replete with once well-known names and events that are inaccessible to the collective modern consciousness. The history of science is no exception. Although the name of Tobias Meyer is likely to elicit few appreciative nods from modern scientists, this 17th-century astronomer was considered one of the foremost geniuses of the day by his contemporaries (Forbes, 1970). Most of us would likely omit Thomas Peel Dunhill from a list of those who have made fundamental discoveries in medical science; yet this “forgotten pioneer of thyroid surgery” (Vellar, 1974) devised ingenious techniques that many later surgeons have built upon. And although few contemporary psychologists are aware that Karl Bühler published well-known studies of language and cognition over 50 years ago, Weimer (1974a) has lamented Bühler's exclusion from the history of psychology and reminded us of the importance of his work.
