DISTURBANCES OF MEMORY 283 



player, hut it was necessary for him to see the instru- 

 ment before he could name it. When a key was put 

 into his pocket and he was allowed to touch it he 

 could not say what it was. He could, however, find 

 the word if he could see the key in the door. When 

 his hand was put to his ear, he could not tell what he 

 touched unless he looked at the doctor's ear. When 

 the doctor covered his own ear, the patient was un- 

 able to find the word. It is obvious that in his case 

 the visual perception was, on the whole, more effect- 

 ive than any other sensation. A sense-perception 

 was necessary to call forth the association of concrete 

 objects, and of the many possible sense-perceptions, 

 which in normal cases mi<rht have brought about the 



o o 



word, the strongest alone in him sufficed. The word 

 umbrella was only suggested when the umbrella was 

 opened. From this we might imagine that a change 

 in the machinery of association had taken place, which 

 allowed only the processes having a maximal intens- 

 ity or amplitude to arouse an associative process, the 

 others remaining without any effect. 



The process was the same in regard to abstract as- 

 sociations. The patient complained that his annuity 

 was too small. He remonstrated against the doctor's 

 insinuation that he had murdered his wife or that he 

 was a scamp. But whether a beggar is a wealthy 

 or a poor man, or whether God lives in hell or in 

 heaven, were problems which he was not able to de- 

 cide, although he was a believer. 



There was another peculiarity in his mechanism of 



