Mower County transcript., 1871-07-13
Aphasia-Meaning One Thing and
Saying Another.

A curious and very elaborate book has
been written by an English physician, Dr.
Batcman, of Norwich, on the remarkable
disease which doctors call aphasia
Aphasia is the general name for disease,
usually, but not invariably, connected
with some serious affection of the brain,
which causes those who suffer from it fire.
| qurntly to articnlate sounds or words very
different from the sounds or words they
are aiming at. An aphasic lady has been
known, for instance, to come forward to
meet a guest with cordial smile and out.
stretched hand, and then articulatc, "Pig,
brute, stupid fool!' in the place of the
words OF welcome really expressing tho
thought in her mind, while in other cases
the words art,culated when the patient
was intending to read aloud, turned out
simply glhberish. Thus of one patient it
is recorded:
In order to ascertain and place on
record the peculiar impertection of Ian
g,age which he exhibited, DIR. Osborne
selected the following sentence from the
bylaws of the College Of Ply hysicians, viz ::
II >htN be IN the po"er of the College to er.
NMiHt o" not to examine ">1y Lacenttntc, pre-
ptoux to his admission to Fello,cship, as thev
sh"N Mink .ft' Having requested him to
read this aloud, he read as follows: 'And
tile be 'chat IN thc temotte'' Of Tie trothototloo
to mujwum or that emid,Mte Gin einkrnstrui
mest"eW t3 &et'w tot>na61tidci to ra f,omtyyido
| o"th,tt, hvkr5test,' ,'"-wherc, as the physi-
clan remarked, the patient, though unable
to articulate the words and letters before
him, did yet articulatc combinations of let
ters and words much more difficult.
Again, there is a case registered where
man with this affection lost his way, as
one may say, only in relation to single
lcttcr-always substituting for f. so that
asking Gn Germany for kaffee (coifte), he
appeared to ask for kazzc (soun.,ed like
Kate, cat,) \Dr, I',teman, p 53) Again,
another case is given (p. 1909 Of gentle
man who, after Il blow on the head, lost
his kn"wle lye Of Greek, and did not ap-
pear t" have lost anything else.
In some cases the mind seems to 90 in
search of the right sound or word, and to
seize the wrong one, through some confu-
sion in the action of the proper nerves or
muscles; IN some cases not to know even
at which sound to aim al all. Now, what
is tho proper mental interpretation Of such
facts Us these? How is it to De explained
that, without any loss of intelligence, the
great 6 instrument of thought" as Ian
glage has been called, should 80 complete
ly defy the power which produced it and
defined it's exact sphere of duty?
The case OF the patient who, by blow
on his head, lost completely the knowledge
OF Greek, without appearing to suffer any
other loss whatever, would to many sug-
se>t, as the physician who attended him
(Dr Scoresby Jackson) remarked, that the
Greek knowledge was all deposited in a
particular square inch of brain, the injury
Of which just destroyed this knowledge,
without invading any other sphere of the
intellect But this kind of fact does not
stand alone. "A French priest, attended
by nj. l'iorry, after an attack of paralysis
lost entirely the power of employing sub
stantivcs, while retaining in general the
full command Of all other parts of speech
Thus, when he wanted to ask for his hat,
he said " Donnez. moi ce qui Sc met sur III
*' but he could not remember the
word for head any better than the word
Tor hat and his physician adds, "muiy
le mot' ttte nc lut renaU 1,as,' and goes on
to say that he sought to express the same
thing twenty times, but that he always got
to al insurmountablc difficulty whenever
he came to a noun substantive.
Again, Dublin physician, DR.. Graves,
h;1' Il ease III which q patient could not re-
Call any nnun substantive Common or
propcr), nut coull always recall its initial
letter. Tie therefore made himsclla pocket
dictionary OF the words in the most gen
era 'Is", including the proper names OF his
ch';lrn, ;4!"l servants, and friends, and in
conversation would always refer to this
dictionary, and rum his eye down the initial
letter be recalled till he reached he name
in i,ich he WAS in search, "kccping his
ii"rcr and eye fixed on the word until he
had finished his sentences" but the mo-
Mcnt he bad closed the book he again for
got The nhinr, though he never forgot the
Initial letter, and could always again re-
cover it by means Of his dictionary. Now,
take these three cases together, and we OBJ
serve that IN one case the whole network
OF 's"ciations contained in single Ian
Ella2c was lost through the agency of the
"lN:Asc; in tho next case, only all the cx-
a'nn'"s OF . single part Of speech (noun
sllb>i"nll!c!) in one language, in the las,
cas-, not even this, but all the examples of
the same part of speech, minus the initial
letter, which WAS uniformly retained.
The r. j, d case of a patient in the Edin-
burgli Royal lniirmary, under Dr. Card.
ncr, whose loss of language was so com
ric;c That he could communicate with
other people nnly by signs. After a time
Dr Gardner observed that the other pa
tcnts iii the infrlnary thought this man
was shamming, and the reason they gave
was, that though he could not speak in
any o'hcr way, he could swear freely.
Yet thi, patient soon after died suddenly,
and his brlin was found to be much eaten
WI, with cunCCr