South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-07-07
Miscellaneous.
Aphasia-Meaaing ORe Thing AID
Saying Another.


been written by an English physician, DR..
Bateman, of Norwich, On the remarkable
disease which doctors call aDhasia
Aphasia is the general name fer disease,
usually, bit not Snvariably, connected
with some serious affection of the brain,
which causes those who suffer frOm it fire.
duently to articulate sounds or words very
different from the sounds or words they
are aiming at An aphasic lady mas been
known, for instance, to come forward to
--ssset a guest with a cordial smile and out
stretched hand, and then aTticulate, Pig,
brute, stupid fooll' in the place of the
lsofd5 Of welcome really expressing the
thought in her mind, while in other eases
the words articalated when the patient
was intending to read aloud, turned out
simply gibberish. Thus of one patient it
is recorded:
In order to ascertain and place on
record the peculiar imperfestion of Ian
suage which he exhibited, Dr. Osborne
selected the following sentence from the
bylaws of the College of Physicians, viz.
u shall be IN tie f101cer Of the College to eu-
dhltne or not TO etgDsiiIe any EjceatsaSe, ?1rc-
oi0us to his admission to Ptll9psSip, as ntey
shall think Jit' Having requested him to
read this aloud, he read as follows: and
CFOtftytoIIOO
to as4})ru1a or faGt ersidTds ei1s eintrdstrdi
nasstret 10 betrd tot51a5rtidei TO ra fronltreido
Gstltat, kekrItest,' t,'"-Where, as the physi-
clan remarked, the patient, though unable
70 articulate the words and letters before
him, did yet articulate Combinations OF let
tiers and words much more difficult.
Again, there is case registered where
man with this affection lost his way, as
one may say, only in relation to q single
letter-always substituting z for ], SO that
asking lin Germany for Eaffee (coffeel, he
appeared TO ask for Kazze (sounded like
Katie, cat,) CDR. Bateman, p. 53) Again,
another case is given Up. 100) of a gentle
man who, after a blow. on the head, lost
his knowledge of Greek, and did not ap-
pear TO have lost anything else.
In some cases the mind seems to go 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 at all. Now, what
Is the propef mental Interpretation of such
facts as these? How is it to be explained
that, without any loss of intelligence, the
great " instrument of thought" as Ian
Euage has been called, should so complete
y defy the power which produced 1t aid
defined its 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
hther loss whatever, would to many sug-
gest, as the physician who attended him
(Dr. Scoresby Jackson) remarked, that the
Greek know ledge was sll deBos.ted in & !
particular square inch of brain, the injury |
of which Just destroyed this knowledge, !
without invading any other sphere of the |
intellect. But this hind Of fact does not |
htand alone. A French priest, attended |
by NJ. Piorry, after an attack Of paralysis |
lost entirely the power of employing sub |
stantives, while retaining in general the |
full command of all other parts. of speech. |
Thus, when he wanted to ask for his hat, |
be said: D0RRez moi &C qua SC met sur la |
= :" but he could not remember the |
word for head" any better than the word |
for "hat'; and his physician, adds, auis
ie mot tefe ne lui oendit pas" and goes on |
20 say that he sought 10 express the same |
thing twenty times, but that he always got |
70 an insurmountaBle. difficulty whenever |
hs came 10 a noun substantive.
Again, Dublin physician, DR.. Graves,
had a case in which patient could not re- |
call any noun substantive common or /
proper,, but could always recall its initial |
letter. Be therefore made himselfa pocket |
dictionary of the words in the most gen.
eral use, including the proper names ofhis
children, aud servants, and friends, and in |
conversation would always refer TO this |
dictionary. End run his eye down the initial /
letter he recalled till he reached the name |
ia which he was in search, keeping his |
finger and eye fixed on the word until he |
had finished his sentences" but the mo-
ment he had closed the book he again fOrS |
got the name, Though he neVei forgot the |
initial letter, and could always again re-
cover it by means Of his dictionary. Row, |
take these three cases together, aud we OBJ |
serve that in one case the whole network |
of associations contained in a single Ian |
guage was lost through the agency of the |
disease; in the next case, only an the ex-
emples Of single part of speech (noun |
sabstantives) in one language, in the last |
case not even this, but ali the examples of |
the same part of speech, minus the initial |
letter, which was uniformly retained
There is a case of q patient in the Edin-
is';lrgh Royal InirniaTy, nnder Dr. qaird.
ner, whose loss of laDgGage was so coin
plete that he could communicate with |
other people only by signs. After time
DIR Gardner observed that the other pa
tients in the infrmsry thought this man
wss shamuIiDg, and the reason they gave |
was, that though he could not speak in |
any other way, he could swear freely. |
Yet this patient soon after died suddenly, |
and his brain was found to be much eaten |
away with cancer.