Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-08-04
AS TO WORD-BLINDNEss.
A Curious Condition, Closely Related
to Asphasa.

TO ASpndSIds
Medical WorId.-The faculty Of
speech is a complex function, and
comprises not only the mechanism of
articulation, but also a revival OF
various sense-memories, representing
the great number of impressions re-
ceived from without. Paralysis of
the motor apparatus of articulation,
while it prevents speech mechani-
cally does not necessarily interfere
with those processes that underlle the
psychic activity whose expression we
know as intelligent speech. On the
other hand, we may have, without in
| reference with the mere act of articu-
| lation, such arrangement of receptive
or emissive cerebral function AS to
impair or even to abolish the power
of speech. To the latter condition
the designation apharia is applied,
and three principal varieties have
been distinguished, namely, motor,
| sensory and amnesic. 1t is difficult
however, to maintain any such CLASH
fication, and not rarely the speech
disturbance is complex, although one
! form may predominant, and all sorts
of combinations may take place.
Thus, the power of speaking, spon-
taneously with or without confusion)
or by repetition, or of reading, to one
self or aloud with or without COM
prehension), or of writing, sponta-
neously with or without confusion)
or of dictation or by transcription, or
of cOmprehending the spoken, writ
ten or printed word or figure or other
symbol may be lost, one or more, in
varying degree.
A condition closely related to
aphasia is that known as mind-blind-
ness, or object-blindness, or as visual
or optic aphasia, in which, although
the object is seen, the patient is I'M
able to recognize or to designate it.
OF this a special variety is known as
word-blindness; there may also be a
letter-blindness. Four striking ex-
amples of word-blindness have been
recently reported by Dr. James
Hinshelwood Lancet, February s,
1902, p. 35S), who has already made
several contributions to this interest
ing subject In one of the present
cases a man familiar with four Ian
word-blind to one, less word-blind to
word-blind to ont, less word-blind to
two and not at all word-blind to the
! fourth. The explanation of this
strange phenomenon is thought to re-
side in the fact that only portion of
the center in the cerebral cortex-
probably situated in the supramar-
ginal and angular gyri of the left
hemisphere in right-handed persons
in which are lodged the word-visua1
images of language is destroyed, the
cells subscribing the function for each
language forming separate groups.
1t has already been observed that a
patient familiar with two languages
may be word-deaf to one and not to
i. the other, and an analogous explana-
ton is probably applicable also here.
In the second and third cases of
word-blindness the patient could read
printed letters quite we'll, but written
letters with difficulty if at all. There
was little interference with the read
ing figures in these two cases, as well
as in the fourth, in which there was
complete wOrd-blindness and also
Iletter-blindness and an inability to
designate by name objects seen, al
though these were apparently recog-
nized. The first patient retained the
power of reading musical notes.
In the second and fourth cases
there was right lateral Homogeneous
hemianopsia. The frequency with
which this association has been noted
suggests that the centers for visual
memory and for the right halves of
both visual fields, or the paths to
them, must lie close together and