The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1897-03-20
MII1KUN II TECI1,
NEW MENTAL MALADY WHICH
ATTACKS SOME PEOPLE.
4 Chicago Society Woinan's Attic
tion-Similar Cases Noted Else
where-I'eople Who Talk. See
and Write Backward.
STRIKING and severe case

| N Of the mental malady called
| ~ "mirror speech" has beer
noted by brain specialist,
says the Chicago Yimes-HeraId. This
disorder, which has only just been
named, and only recently discovered
to be disease at all, had attacked in
its most persistent form woman in
the DOCTORS clientele.
Thepatientisa decidedly wel]-known
and popular society leader on the south
side. She is o nervous and delicate
little woman, and has for some
years been under the casual care Of
her physician. During the fall she
was stricken with o severe case of
brain fever and prostration, from which
she had apparently thoroughly recov.
cred at least month ago. While con.
valescent her family and immediate
friends noticed that her speech, when.
ever she was permitted to talk, was
strangely incoherent and meaningless.
| They attributed the fault to her weak
physical condition. In the course of
a few days 1t grew pcrceptibly worse,
and the physicians attention was called
to it. Her speech now became utterly
wild and beyond comprehension. She
spoke no particular words, but seemed
simply to articu!ate empty and non
connected syllables. The physician pro.
nounced it to be q case Of "mirror
speech, . an odd affection of the b1ain,
in which there occurs complete re.
versal Of the order of syllables in a
sentence, just as the order of series
OF objects IRON right to left is reversed
by rejection in mirror.
This curious brain trouble is far
more prevalent and widespread than
IS evident to casual observer. AL
though there are few cases IN which it
becomes q persistent malady CT some
days duration, it lasts generally but a
few hours, sometimes but part of an
hour, and most frequently for few
moments, days apart. It is due either
to extreme mental exhaustion or un-
due mental excitement. It always
takes the form of the perversicn of
the syllables of a word. Some minds
are particularly more susceptible TO it
than Others, and women rather than
men are subject to it, It is daily
recurrence in listening to the ordinary
Of an eztremel? tired woman
to note how frequently she makes in
comprehensive utterances, totally IN.
known to herself. She thinks the cor.
rect thought in her brain, she knows
what she wants to say, but her tongue
refuses to pronounce the words in the
ordinary intelligent order.
This same perversion occurs in the ,.
1tterances OF self conscious orator
making his maiden speech, and is
sometimes far more pitiful than curl
BUS, when he struggles on, uncon. I
'clous of the ridiculous impression I
which he Is making. l
Mirror speech is on abnormalitv
'hlch is exactly similar in principal [
o the so'called ''mlrror writing"
me latter is pathological symptom. b
which manifests itself in the penman. a
hip of the patient, who is unable to n
write from loft to right, but only from h
light to left, forming the letters and
entences backward .
IN the case of boy recently noted 81
North Adams, Mass, afflicted with d
erverted vision, the malady was per. "
lament. 1t was impossible to teach "
Inn otherwise. His right hand vas "
ulded over a line of copy in the
roper manner, but the moment his te
and is released he instantly changes lie
ae pencil to his left hand and com. &C
'ences to write in the mirror fashion. as
peculiar feature Of the case is that Ii
9 has no difficulty in reading the in
of others, although GONE
'eclallsts pronounce his mcisdv TO
one OF the optic nerve only.
Cases of mirror writing have been m
equent, but the first case OF genuine o:
lronlc mirror speech was discovered hy
ny three months ago by a certain D.
r. Doyen of Paris. He was the first ~
Their to establish the phenomenon as III III
act:al mental disease. ~ ~
The discovery occurred in an opera. ~, w.
IN performed on young girl twelve t;s
ars old, who had been trepanued W.;
ccessfully. to relieve a severe cere. ~" ~
al abscess after inflammation of the ~ ~
r. For some time after the opera. ~, ,'e
N aphasia, or inability to express ~
cas- IN spoken language, was persist. Sa,
t. However, gradually as her health r;d
ew better the patient began to utter h ~
1nds, which, although they were ; ;,',
5ered clearly and were perfectly III 7
;lculated, nevertheless were totally ~
COMPREHENSIVE. For example, some th e
her utterances were similar to the f tno
lowing: '*En'list do me to; me let hn y.
e'a; kind.un how" ~. ~ a "
She would calculate this and SINH. aae
phrases with great emphasis, and '0 p
totally unaware OF her incoher. . - =
y. The inability of her attendant A. an ~
her friends to understand her 49,
versatlon made her extremely an 49, 49,