Although Ireneo Funes, a Uruguayan teenager, was paralyzed and confined to his chair, he "knew by heart the forms of the southern clouds at dawn on the 30th of April, 1882, and could compare them in his memory with the mottled streaks on a book in Spanish binding he had only seen once." Funes remembered every moment of his life, and he had spent entire days recreating his past with his memory. His remarkable memory also allowed him to master English, French, Portuguese, and Latin.

Funes's amazing memory was accompanied by fantastic perception. "We, at one glance, can perceive three glasses on a table; Funes, all the leaves and tendrils and fruit that make up a grape vine." While Funes's gifts intensified or enriched his sedentary existence, they also troubled him at times. Funes found it difficult "to comprehend that the generic symbol dog embraces so many unlike individuals...