Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-30
GricYc, BisSct x Holland
FREAK OF LANGUAGE MEMORY
age She Had Not Spoken foR Sixty-Sfx Years.


 sixty-Six Years.
 
 An interesting and minute account sf the action of memory in delirium Us given by doctor in the London Lancet. The patient was woman 10 years of age. suffering from proncho-pneumonia.
 The chief point of interest in this ease lies in the delirium. From the night of March until the evening of the 18th (when the temperature fell suddenly she was sometimes wan dering while awake and continually talking in her sleep, but when spoken to would be perfectly sensible ands so long as she was engaged with one of the attendants or, doctor, would an- ywer questions, etc. When the tenn ;perature fell on the 18th, she became quite delirious and remained so until the 16ths when she gradually returned D reason. On the night of the 18th and on the 14th she was found to be speaking in a language unknown to those about her. It sounded as if she was repeating some poetry sometimes, pr carrying on a conversation at oth- CTS. She repeated the same poem time after time. This language was Round to be Hindustani. On the 14th, In the evening, the Hindustani began to be mixed with English and she spoke to, and of, friends and relations of her girlhood. On the 18th the Hin dustad had disappeared altogether and she"was talking to, and of, friends of a later date in English, French and German
 s'The patient was born i'm India, which country she left at the age of three years and landed in England, after a five months voyage, before she was four 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 be- ing Hindustani. On her coming to England the ayah was sent back, and sine then began to learn English, and from that time had never spoken Hin- dustani. She apparently, on the 18th, went back i'm her delirium to her very earliest days when sine spoke again the first language she ever heard. The poem was found to be something which the ayahs are in the habit of repeating to their children and the conversations were apparently with the native servants, one being recog- nized 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 lam guage translated some of the con- versations which the patient carried on with her imaginary visitors
 Through the whole delirium there could be recognized sequence. As time went on the friends she spoke of were of later date, and she took events in their proper order. She ap- parently began at the beginning of her life and went through 1t until on March 16. she had reached the time when she was married and had her children growing up, boy and girl. Itis curious that after a lapse of 61 years, during which time she had not spoken Him dustani, this language of her early childhood should be recalled in deliri- um. The patient now speaks English, French and German tone as fuentIy as the other), but, alth ough sh e knows few Hindustani words, she is quite unable to speak the language or put one sentence together. She says that she has no recollection (nor had she any before her illness) of ever hay Ing been able to speak Hindustani"
 Shaving Mules In the South. Martha McCullochW Williams, in the course of the narrative of Next to the Ground" explains many customs and superstitfons peculiar to the negroes. Not the least interesting of these is the reason given for the shearing of mules. "When it came to shearing mules," Mrs. Williams writes, "Dan was an artist. He had spent two hours or more at it the day before. Names were trimmed to half-inch upstanding fringes, tails banged to the perfect tasseI tip, even the ears had been shorn of their long inner hairs. Dan had firm faith in witches. Now, a witch, it is we'll known, cannot ride horse or mule unless there are hairs long enough to twist into a stirrup. Dan had not left single long one hence he was satisfied the teams would thrive and stand up to their work, not to name being ever so much more bid- dabIe, since witches, working unhin- dered, put the devil into even the best broken of them.'
 Ready Bits Is natures food, deli cious, nourishing and good. Pack ages 15c. All grocers.
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