, 1886-08-25
VARIOUS FORMS OF APHAslA.
Incur.bie. siysterious Disease Th~
h. t.tl1 Bames Human Knowledge.


The Incurabie, sfysterious Disease Th~t
o. f.ita Bandes Human knowledge
b There are four forms of aphasia which
co-exist, or which may be found isolated:
Q) The loss Of the power OF understand
ing spoken words, or. as 1t has been
named, rather Improperly, since the fail
uro is not physical but mental, verbal
deafness; e, verbal blindness or the in
ability to read; (3) motor aphasia, or the
loss OF the power OF articulate speech;
AZ agraphia "a term invented, We be-
lieve, by the English physician, Dr.. Ogle),
or the loss Of the power Of writing. An
instance Of the loss of the faculty Of un-
derstanding spoken words while that Of
understanding words written remained.
is quoted by NJ. Ballet from Abercrom-
bic. 1t is that of a gentleman farmer in
Scotland, who recognized the sounds OF
spoken words without understanding
their meaning, and who, TO make com
m~unication with his laboreB possible,
had a written list in his OF the most
ordinary terms. On hearing without In
the least comprehending the spoken
words, be turned to his list. and his per
ception Of what was said became clear.
OF verbal blindness las it is called), M.
Ballet gives an instance OF a French mer-
chant, whom he calls NJ. p, a man Of
fair cultivation, and more or less OF q
reading habit, who, through an accident
in hunting. lost the faculty Of reading.
m. p. understood perfectly everything
that was said to him, answered questions
with much precision, and expressed him
self with a certain degree OF facility.
Moreover, he wrote with ease, not only
his name and address, but a long letter,
photography. The interesting fact is
that. though he could write, and did 1t
with a certain ease, he was incapable Of
reading. i write he said, 'as IL with
my eyes closed; l do not read what i
write In fact, he was wholly unable to
re-read the words which he had traced a
few seconds before" The letters them
selves written in this condition were
quite equal to those which he had writ
ten before the accident befel him. b.
OF motor aphasia, or the inability to
use a~rticulate speech, N. Ballet gives in
stances Of a patient at the Saitpetriere,
whose reply to all questions consisted Of
the word "Macassa, macassa;" of another
who could only say "Monomomentif;r Of
a third who was reduced to the express
sion -Iqui phophoiqui;v and of q fourth
whose vocabulary did not go beyond
"Badeu, abaden badena-" The poor
Baudelaire could say only @Cre nom, ere
nom," being in this respect inferior to a
very distinguished lady, whose conversa-
tional powers extended to, though not
beyond, the entire phrase OF which Bau-
delaire gave the usual abbreviation. Still
more advanced was another lady, who
repeated at every moment. Madame,
etc, mon Dieu, est il possible, bonjour
Madame ~
In the earlier stages of the malady
proper names were forgotten. An emf
nent man of science was reduced to des-
ignate the person of whom he spoke as
MY colleague who invented such and
such a thing" Next common nouns dis
appear. When the Able Perier asked
for his hat he said: "Give me my-what
one puts on one's-." His coat was
What is worn to be dressed in" Scis-
sors, with another patient, were the
things one cuts; the window, what one
looks through, what gives light. What
a not be said by people affected with
motor aphasia can sometimes be sung by
them. An officer who could not pro-
unc the words "enfant" and -patrie."
whose powers of speech were confined
to the word "pardir and the letter 3D."
was capable of singing with perfect ar
%ticulation the first couplet of the Mar
seillaise.r A farmer, -du comte de WIKI
low don't parle Graves" could not pro
bounce the names of his wife and chill
dren except by reading them. A strik-
ing instance OF agraphia is that of a Rus
sian officer, well acquainted with
Russian, French and German, who,
having been afflicted with motor
aphasia, as regards French and German,
afterward became subject to agraphia as
regards all the three languages, though
he retained or regained the power of
reading and speaking them. A woman,
being asked to write her name, produced
the words sunni siclaa satreni." and
gave her address as ~Sunesr nut to mer
linu lain.r An English naval officer,
wishing to write Royal medical officer
belonging to the admiralty" was con-
strained to add the termination "dendd"