The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-08-31

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young man and is on the house stan OF
the Bellevue ilospotai.
DR.. Richards met Miss Williams in No.
vember of last year. As soon as he
heard her pitiful efforts to talk he rec
ognized the case as one Of aOhasla. and
took a lively interest IN II. She refused
TO have an operation performed. and the
physician persuaded her to try treat
ment of poisons. DR.. Richards had form
ed a theory in regard to aphasia and the
actions of iodides. and Miss Williams
consented to undergo the treatment.
''Aphasia." said DR.. Richards. yesterday.
els the result OF a ciot of blood or the
thickening of the tissue on the nerve
centred the brain controlling speech.
There are several forms-alexia, CT word
blindness, where the patient lcoses the
auditory perception of words; aprexia.
where one acnnot appreciate the sign.i-
canoe of gcstres; aphemia, the inability
to express the word wanted; agraphia,
the inability to write It; amimia where
the patient has lost the power to express
by GESTURE what he wants, and paraIha
sia, nisplacing of words. Aphemia and
agraphia are the commonest form sand
it was these with combination of par
aphasia, that Miss Williams suffered from
when 1 met her.
From the length Of time she had been
suffering 1 concluded that IL there mad
been a biodd clot 1t had neaar1y disap-
peared as such, or had become hbrous
tissue.
I'm aphebia hte lesion Is in the third
Lee - L.
known, Broca's convolution. In agrap11ia
1t is sometimes in the base Of the second
frontal convolutton, or In the angular
cyrus. The convolutions for gesture and
language have not yet been definitely 10
Gated
81 concluded that in Miss Wtlliams's
case he lesion was in the Sh1rd left con-
voluti0n of the brain, and as she would
not submit to an operation, and as had
long had theory about the use of iodid
es determined to ut her under the
treatment.
1.-THE ordinary dose of an iodide is If
teen rains or dros IN one day. 1 took
&htree todides because they work better
together-+odlde of potassium, iodide OF
ammonia and iodide Of coda I +commenc-
ed with a drop Of each at a dose three
times a day. This I increased gradually
until noticed when thed ose was quite
large symptoms of iodide poisoning. L
decreased the dose abruptly, but after
wards increased It, until had 1t as high
as Us grains to the dose, or 6I5 grains.
forty-five times the usual Dose
'Alomst from the beginning of the treat
I
iams's speech became clearer her vocab-
ulary became noticeabiy enlarged and she
wrote long connected sentences.
81 had a friend to read to her daily, at
first from dhildren's books He used also
10 teach her writing. He watched her
development. In five months she was
sufncietnly cured to abandon the treat
ment alltogether, trusting 10 nature to
finish the work Now she reads what she
pFeases and writes and speaks with as
much f1uency as ever she did.
1.-THE treatment by iodides Is on the
theory o fabsorption. believe that they
help in cases Of blood clot to absorb the
blood so that 1t quickly disappears. In
cases where the blood has'become fbrous
tissue, and so enlargesthe walls Of the
veins THAT they press upon the walls of
the veins that they press upon the nerves
the use of fo1ides helps to absorb this
and decrease the ressure. That was. I
think, Miss willlams's case. and the re-
suits seen to show it to have been the
case. believe that General Butterfie!d
or others could be cured in this way.
"Aphasia Is not the increase, but the
fact THAT two or three persons of promin-
ence like the Car and General Butter
field have been recently afflicted have at
tracted ito it unusual attention"
A prominent nerve specialist said yes
terday, in discussing Dr. Richards cure: