The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-01-20
HISSTRANGEMALADY
WILLIAM ALLEN WAS STRICKEN DUMB
WITHOUT WARNING.

. Tiny Blood CIot on the Brain-Is Re-
gaining Speech by Effort OF Within
derstands Words Addressed to Him.
Words are slowly returning to Will
liam ii. Allen, the stationer Of Brick
Church, N. j.. who was recently
stricken with aphasia. The man is
helping to cure himself by the power OF
his own will. He repeats the alphabet.
reads the paper, attempts to name the
objects about him and seeks to marshal
struggling words into sentences.
The strange afiliction came upon him
| when he went down stairs few morn
ings ago. He tried to greet his wife,
The words "good morning" were what
| he would have said, only the syllables
would not come to his lips. He could
| make only inarticulate sounds. Mrs
Allen sent for DR.. T. N. Gray, the fam
| lily physician, who at once recognized
| case of aphasia. The part of the brain
| which presides over language-the third
| frontal convolution-had been clogged,
| probably by some fatty substance. Mr..
| Allen had fit of sneezing only few
| minutes before he lost the power to ar
ticulate This may have been in part re-
sponsible for the clot upon the brain.
DR.. William Pierson, who was also
called in consultation, agreed with the
( diagnosis made by DR.. Gray.
| Mr.. Allen understands nearly every
thing which his wife and the physicians
say to him. When he attempts to forco
sentence in reply to the language ad-
dressed to him, he finds that the words
| which he needs have slipped away. He
has the thought, but the form is gone
His condition is like that of child.
The infant knows the meaning OF the
words which are spoken to him long be-
fore he can speak. The impression made
by the mind of the child is not strong
enough TO act as guide in pronouncing
the syllables.
| Mr. Allen is beginning to learn Ian
guage all over again. In many cases,
however, by a strong exercise OF his
will the words come back in twos and
threes. He is able to form disconnected
sentences. He can write, too, after the
manner in which he talks.
He has been much assisted in his eff
forts at learning words by his wife He
began recently by reciting his alphabet.
A primer was shown to him. His face
frightened at the sight of the charac-
tiers, and then he began to recite A, b,
G, ID, and so on without the slightest
hesitation to the final letter. He seemed
to feel much encouraged.
He is man of rugged health, his
physicians say. He is tall, broad shout
dered, and his cheeks are florid. He
does not go to business, but takes walks
about his home at 22 Halstead street,
East Orange, N. j. He went about the
streets looking at the horses, the wagons
and the trees and trying to force him
self to recollect the names which were
connected with the objects which he
saw.
He went down to his store few days
ago. His clerks were surprised to see
, him. They were more surprised when
. he picked up pad of paper and wrote
down the following orders:
Arthur stay store. Freeman say
stand"
The first of these sentences meant
, that one of his clerks who had been SEM
around town on errands should remain
. in the store. The other meant thai
, Freeman. another clerk, should have
charge of the newsstand near the rail
, road station at Brick Church.
He went to the telephone in his home
the other day Mrs Allen called up TIT
store. The word which is always asso
ciated with telephone came to his lips
"Helloi' he said.
, He tried to talk, but could not express
the idea in his mind. His wife told thu
clerk at the store that her husband wa
better and started to hang up the re
. oeiver Mr.. Allen took the appliance
from her and said "Goodbyp' into thu
transmitter. The hanging upof the tubs
!. of hard rubber had suggested word 81
! strongly that he pronounced it almos
involuntarily.
DIR. Gray called upon Mr.. Allen, wh'
wrote ON q slip of paper the words
Recover soon?" The physician toll
!. him that he was not certain, but tina
: he hoped that he would. Mr.. Allel
smiled. He understood the words per
fectly.
!. DR.. Gray then said: "You must TAKE
n long rest. Yon must go away from
, business.
A A look of eager earnestness came int
q the mans eyes. II can do it., he sal
n quickly. -n.
"Whenever Mr.. Allen has suddel
!. impulse to say word" said DIR. Gra
i to me, "he can pronounce it. If he ha'
q in the sentence l can do 1.-THE frs
Il connected sentence he has yet uttered
!. stopped at the words i can and trie
n to recollect, be would have been unabl
Il to proceed further. -
a Mr.. Allen was at home when / GALE
!, the other afternoon. He came to tn
n door ia response to my ring. He smile
Q and attempted, evidently, to say Goo
n afternoon. The fact that he saw
| ,tranoo~ bofrvo him seomed IN embaY