The late eminent Dr. Baillie* describes a curious case of impaired memory produced by paralysis. A gentle man, aged fifty-six, was seized with symptoms of com pression of the brain, and became completely paralytic on the right side. It was found that he had lost the recollection of the words of his own language, except a very few which he pronounced with the greatest distinct ness, and with a variety of tones to express pleasure and displeasure, joy and sorrow, to explain the circumstances of his disorder, and to give directions about what he wanted, without being aware they were not the proper words to express his meaning.

A gentleman, forty-six years of age, who had always enjoyed a good state of health, after experiencing great uneasiness of mind, and being exposed to severe bodily fatigue, was seized with apoplexy, followed by hemiplegia. The apoplexy was slight, but the hemiplegia was complete. The power of speech was entirely lost, so that he could only utter the sounds ee-o, which, however, he so varied, that with the assistance of expressive gestures, he was able to convey to those about him his meaning very distinctly upon ordinary subjects. He perfectly com prehended everything that was said to him, and clearly understood what he meant to answer, but was able only to utter the previously-mentioned sounds. Believing, however, that he actually employed the words adapted to the communication of his ideas, he often appeared surprised and displeased when he was not understood. He sometimes endeavoured to explain his meaning by writing on a slate; but he generally substituted one word for another, and almost always erred in spelling what he wrote.†

Dr. T. K. Chambers has published the following inte

"Medical Transactions of the College of Physicians," vol. iv.

"On Nervous Diseases," by Dr. Cooke.

resting case of loss of language following acute disease of the brain:

"Harriet C., aged twelve, had typhus fever in December, 1845; she had much delirium and low symptoms, but, as is usual with children, soon got about again, and was able to return to school. However, after a few days' attendance, she was one evening, on returning thence, taken with a fit, of an undecided epileptic character, had rigors, and was again delirious. The delirium was monotonous, and remarkable for her constant repetition of the word 'sinner' with every variety of intonation. Wine and bark were, as during her former attack, resorted to, but symptoms of slight effusion in the brain caused its suspension. She recovered after a few weeks, so as to be up and dressed, but with the loss of power to pronounce any word except the one she had so often repeated during her fever. This she made serve to express all her ideas; for denial she shook her head, and said 'sinner:' assent was expressed by the same word, and bread and butter was called 'sin-un-sinnĕr.' She perfectly understood all that was said to her, and appeared capable of reading her usual lessons. Blisters were applied behind her ears, and small doses of mercury administered, and at the same time her mother and family were instructed to teach her as they would an infant to talk. I also took opportunities of showing her, by exaggerated motions of my mouth and throat, the way of forming the letters, in the manner in which the born deaf and dumb are instructed, and found her intelligent and ready. She soon acquired the word 'yes,' and other elementary expressions, and by the end of the spring was able, as her mother told me, to talk like an old woman.' Symptoms of consumption had, however, appeared, and she died this last summer under the care of another medical man, whose kind efforts

to obtain a post-mortem examination for me were unavailing."

"A farmer in the county of Wicklow, in comfortable circumstances, when fifty years of age, had a paralytic fit. Since that time he has never recovered the use of the affected side. The attack was succeeded by a painful hesitation of speech. His memory was good for all parts of speech except noun-substantives and proper names; the latter he could not at all retain. This defect was accompanied by the following singular peculiarity: he perfectly recollected the initial letter of every substantive or proper name for which he had occasion in conversation, though he could not recal to his memory the word itself. Experience had taught him the utility of having written in manuscript a list of the things he was in the habit of calling for or speaking about, including the proper names of his children, servants, and acquaintances: all these he arranged alphabetically in a little pocket dictionary, which he used as follows:-if he wished to ask anything about a cow, before he commenced the sentence he turned to the letter C, and looked out for the word 'cow,' and kept his finger and eye fixed on the word until he had finished the sentence. He could pronounce the word cow in its proper place, so long as he had his eyes fixed upon the written letters; but the moment he shut the book it passed out of his memory, and could not be recalled, although he recollected its initial, and could refer to it when necessary. In the same way when he came to Dublin, and wished to consult Dr. Graves, his physician, he came with his dictionary open to the halldoor, and asked to see Dr. Graves; but if by accident he had forgotten his dictionary, as happened on one occasion, he was totally unable to tell the servant what or whom he wanted. He could not recollect his own name unless he looked out for it, nor the name of any person

of his acquaintance; but he was never for a moment at a loss for the initial which was to guide him in his search for the word he sought.

"His was a remarkably exaggerated degree of the common defect of memory, observed in the diseases of old age, and in which the names of persons and things are frequently forgotten, although their initials are recollected. It is strange that substantives or proper names, words which are the first acquired by the memory in childhood, are sooner forgotten than verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech, which are a much later acquisition."*

Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science; a case recorded by Dr. Graves.

CHAPTER XVI.

Perversion and Exaltation of Memory. Memory of the Insane.

PERVERSION OF MEMORY.-Andral refers to a curious modification of the memory connected with a sudden or gradual loss of the remembrance of everything, save one object which "becomes to the person so afflicted the universe." "There is," says Andral, says Andral, "a very singular perversion of the memory, which consists in the patient remembering everything except himself. He has, as it were, forgot his own existence, and when he speaks of himself, it is in the third person, the words I or ME are not in his vocabulary."

M. Leuret has related the case of a woman who, in speaking of herself, always said, "La personne de moimême." An old soldier who was in the Asylum of Saint Yon, named Lambert, believed that he was killed at the battle of Austerlitz. When he spoke of himself, he was in the habit of saying, "This machine, which they thought to make like me, is very badly manufactured." When he spoke of himself, he did not use the personal pronoun I, but the demonstrative pronoun THAT, as if speaking of some inanimate object.

A man seventy years of age was suddenly seized with lock-jaw, and formication over the surface of the body. This was succeeded by vertigo, and a strange alteration in his language. He spoke with ease and fluency, but

* Andral's "Clinique Médicale."