The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-07-06
FREAK OF LANGUAGE MEMORY.
A Woman in Delirium Recalls Things
Long Forgot.
IFrom the London Lancet.

An interesting and minute account
or the action of memory in deIiriun1 is
given by doctor. The patient was A
woman ~ years of age, suffering froIS<
neutrality-suspicious..
The chief point of interest in this
case lies in the deliriunn From the
nlght of March z until the evening of
the 18th twhen the temperature fell
suddenly she was sometimes wander
ing While awake and continually talk
ing IN her sleep, but when spoken to
would be perfectly sensible, and so
long as she was engaged with one of
the attendants or doctor would answer
questions, etc When the temperature
Ien on the 18th she became quite de-
llrious and renRined so until the 18th.
Nnen she gradually returned to rea-
SON On the night of the 18th and on
the 14th she was found to be speaking
In language unknown. 10 those about
ner- 1t sounded as if she was repeat
ing some poetry sometimes or CARRYING
on conversation at others. She re-
peated the same poem time after time.
This language was found to be Hindu
stanl- On the 18th, in the evening. the
Hindustani began TO be mixed with
English, and she spoke to and of
friends and relations of her girlho0d.
On the 18th the Hindustani had disap-
peared altogether, and she was talking
10 and of friends of a later date in
English, French and German.
The patient was born in India.
which country she left at the age OF
years and landed in England, after a
nye months voyage, before she was
years Old Up to the time she landed
she had been under the care of Indian
servants and spoke no English at all,
her only language being Hindustani.
On her coming to England the ayah
was sent back, and she then began to
learn English, and from that time had
never spoken Hindustani She appar-
emily, on the 18th, went back in her
delirinm TO her very earliest days.
when she spoke again the first ian
guage she ever heard. The poem was
found to be something which the
ayahs are ia the habit of repeating
10 their children, and the conversations
were apparently with the native sery-
ants, one being recognized as a request
that she might be taken to the bazaar
to- buy sweets. A lady who has lived
much of her life in India and who
speaks the language translated some of
the conversations which the patient
carried on with her ina ginary visitors
Through the whole delirium there
could be recognized a sequence As
time went On, the friends she spoke of
were of later date. and she took events
in their proper order. She apparently
began at the beginning of her life and
went through it until, on March Is, she
had reached the time when she was
married and had her children growing
up, boy and girl. II is curious that
after a lapse of sixty-six years. during
which time she had not spoken Hin
dustani. this language of her early
childhood should be recalled in de-
iirium- The patient now speaks Eng
lish, French and German Zone as f1u-
emily as the other). but although she
knows a few Hindustani words, she
is quite unable 10 speak the language
or put one sentence together. She saws
that she has no recollection (nor had
she any before her iiIness) of ever hay-
ing been able TO speak HIndustanf.