The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-10

or Print, but Cannot Write.
Russia's car is suffering, according to
epo1ts, from aphasia. So is Gen. But
erfeld. A young woman of this city,
Mss Helen Williams by name is reported
O have been cured by a potent prescrip-
ion of iodides, sedulously administered
,or six months or more VIII the car,
Will the general be tempted to follow this
heroic lead? Physicians have hitherto
oozed upon aphasia as a mental malady,
ncurabe save by a severe surgical op-
aration and that is effective only in rare
bases, says the New York Herald.
Now aphasia is not pleasant life Com-
panion. Perhaps you never heard of it,
for luckily it is not a common complaint.
ii you haven't, you won't take 1t umiss
il l begin by explaining that the word is
Greek for speechlessness. In its medical
use it is authoritatively defined as the
impairment or abolition OF the faculty of
using and understanding language writ
ten or spoken independently of any fail
ure of the intellectual processes or any
disease or paralysis of the vocal organs.
lie trouble is all in the brain itself.
times only partial. Physicians group its
different degrees under various heads.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF APHASIA.
Thus sensory aphasia is the name they
give to its severer aspect, when the pa
lent can neither read nor speak intelli-
gently. He is then said to be both word
blind and word deaf. He is not deaf to
sounds, he is not blind to written charac-
.ers, but he no longer associates them
With the idea that underlies them. The
casual observer might Imagine that he
was an idiot; the doctor sees that he
preserves his Intelligence, reason and per-
ceives surrounding objects but is unable
to communicate with others; he can no
longer speak or understand the words ad-
dressed to him. he cannot write or read;
sometimes even the language of gesture
IS lost TO him
" hen the patient is merely word blind
his case is described as motor aphasta
He picks up a book or newspaper and it
says nothing TO him. He hears, under
stands and speaks; he can even write,
but he cannot read AS a rule his writing
looks as though done in the dark, guided
by the muscle feelings of the hand alone.
He cannot read what he has just written,
nor can he write from copy. His own
name, that has been well impressed upon
z his motor centers, he usually writes very
well, but he cannot read it. The disease
here, then, is in the loss of the memory
for the visual word signs; the patient is
not blind, but word blind" Z
AGRAPHIA. t 4
The exact converse of this condition is
. known as agraphia. Here the patient can
I. speak can read manuscript or print but
! he cannot write He takes the pen in
hand to write word. knows what he
ought to write how it would look if
written, but he cannot write IT. He has
lost the memory of the movements neces=
sary to form the letters. The association
between the movements made In writing
and the word has been lost. He is not
word blind or word deaf, but the motor
word sense is defective. 80
The patient who is word deaf, or who,
In technical language, suffers from verbal
aphasia can read and write and hear
He can even hear the sounds of the hu-
man voice. But he attaches no meaning
to them. Inferring that he dis spoken to,
he may attempt to answer, but will say
something entirely irrelevant. Gradually
approaching that he is not speaking to
the point he may with some impatience
ask you why he cannot understand what
you say. Your speech is as an unknown
language to hin-just so much sound.
What he has lost is the power to get
meaning out of sounds; the only acquired
associations between the word sound and
the idea are broken down; his memory for
word meaning is lost. He is not deaf to
sounds, but deaf to words-a verbal
Deafness" rs 1t is called
AtaXic aphasia is tho term used to de-
note the inability to express ideas III
spoken words. The loss here is the link
between the idea and the appropriate
movements of tongue, etc, necessary to
make the sounds of words Often the
patient retains a few phrases used on
all occasions. The power Of hearing and
understanding is retained, writing and
reading are intact, and speaking alone
has dropped out.
The mildest of all forms of aphasia Is
a modification of the latter, and is known
as amnesic aphasia. Here the patient is
unable TO recall the word he wants
though able to speak it when found.
ALL MEN ARE APHAsIACS.
1t is an accepted commonplace that no
no man is without some touch of apha-
STA OF the amnestic variety. You who
read must have experienced occasional
difficulty in bringing to the surface a
particular word at the moment you wish
ed to use it. In vain you summon it from
the vastly deep of your memory. You
know that it is somehow within the
sphere of your consciousness, by dar-
ing metaphor you cry impatiently that 1t
80 nt fin OP
you cannot memory cannot, sioze it nor
can tongue utter It, You find yourself
verbally insolvent, not from want Of as
sets, but because the assets are not i'm
Inediately available.
- Inasmuch as every other man suffers
at intervals from the same difficulty you
rightly consider yourself In a normal con-
dition. Let this difficulty, however, be
only slightly aggravated, and you have
the rudimentary form of a disease aris-
ing from an abnormal cerebral condition,
r. other words, you are suffering from
aphasia
An eminent French jurist, on consult
Ing his physician, exhibited the following
mental peculiarities: In the middle of
q conversation he would find himself at
a loss for the word he wanted, and at
times substituted a strange one for it.
On other occasions he would say to his
wife, Give me my-dear me! you know"
and he would point to his head
you hat?"
30, yes; my hat"
: Sometimes again, he would ring the
bell before going out, and say to his SER
want: Give me my OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
brel-O, dear!"
Your umbrella?"
20, yes; my umbrella"
Patients of this sort often exercise
great ingenuity in avoiding during con-