Crittenden press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, 1902-07-24
FREAK OF LANGUAGE MEMORY
A Woman in Delirium Recalls Things
Long Forgotten.

An interesting and minute account
of the action of memory in delirium
Is given by doctor in the London
Lancet. The patient was a woman
~ years of age, suffering from bron-
cho-pneumonia.
The chief point of interest in this
case lies in the delirium. From the
night of March Z until the evening of
the 18th when the temperature fell
suddenly she was sometimes wander
ing while awake and continually
talking in her sleep, but when sposen
to would be perfectly sensible, and
so long as she was engaged with one
of the attendants or doctor would an
swer questions, etc. When the tenn
perature fell on the 18th she be-
came quite delirious and remained SO
until the 10th, when she gradually
returned to reason. On the night
OF the 18th and on the l4th she was
found to be speaking in a language
unknown to those about her. 1t
sounded as II she was repeating some
poetry sometimes or carrying on a
conversation with Others. She re-
peated the same poem time after
time. This language was found 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 Hindu
stani had disappeared altogether,
and she was talking to and of friends
of later date in English, French and
German.
"The patient was born in 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 Ian
guage 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 APP
perently, on the 18th, went back in
her delirium 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
syahs are in the habit Of repeating
90 their children, and the converse
tions were apparently with the native
servants, one being recognized as a
request that she might be taken to
the bazar to buy sweets. A lady who
has lived much of her life in India,
and who speaks the language, trans
lated some of the conversations which
the patient carried on with her i'm
aginary visitors
Through the whole delirium
there could be recognized a Sc
qucnce. As time went on the friends
she spoke Of were Of later date, and
she took events in their proper or
der. She apparently began at the be-
ginning of her life and went through
it until, on March l6, she had
reached the time when she was mar
ried and had her children growing
up, boy and girl. 1t is curious that
after a lapse of sc years, during which
time she had not spoken Hindustani,
this language of her early child
hood should be recalled in delirium.
The patient now speaks English,
French and German tone as fuently
as the other, but although she
knows a 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
eyerhaving been able to speak Hindu.
stani.