148 THE NKHVOUS SYSTEM AXD ITS CONSERVATION 



mechanical employment of the vocal organ- may tic illus- 

 trated by one of the many curious stories told of persons 

 with aphasia. A man who suffered from an injury to the 

 region assumed to bear this important relation to language 

 lost all command of speech save that he still swore on 



occasions. This serioe ic state of affairs is not difficult 



to explain. Habitual profanity is scarcely a genuine form 

 of speech; the few words used are repealed under the 

 most varied circumstances with no specific appropriate- 

 ness. They come to be little more than animal outcries. 

 A- -uch they might be expected to survive the wreck of 

 the organization which has for its duty the rendering of 

 thought in correctly chosen words. Thoughtful cursing 

 would be an appalling performance. 



Motor aphasias may differ in degree throughout all 

 grades from a mere limitation in vocabulary to absolute 

 abolition of speech. The individual characteristics of the 

 cases arc often of strange interest. A number of them 

 are cited in a fascinating way by Thomson in his delight- 

 ful book, "Brain and Personality." 1 \Ye may refer to one 

 shrewd deduction of this practitioner which seems highly 

 suggestive. In a family of his acquaintance there were 

 several children. One of them and only one showed a 

 marked preference for using the left hand in the first 

 and second years. A rather severe struggle followed, the 

 parents and attendants seeking to make the child right 

 handed. Its initial tendency was at length overruled 

 and it grew up like its brothers and sisters. Hut in one 

 respect its history was contracted with theirs: all the other- 

 talked at an early age. while this child was distinctly 

 backward. 



Thomson's explanation is an attractive one. He sug- 

 <i'e>ts that in the brain of the child who showed the dis- 

 position to use the left hand rather than the right tin- 

 organization of the right hemisphere had begun to forge 

 ahead of that of the left. If there had been no interference 

 from without, I lie pathway- employed in the use of lan- 



M.-a.l \ Co., New Vnrk. I'.ii (7 



