464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



found that they could not remember tlieif own names. An embassa- 

 dor at St. Petersburg was once in this case, when calling at a house 

 where he was not known by the servants, and he had to apply to his 

 companion for the necessary information. The names of common 

 things are sometimes strangely forgotten. The wife of an eminent 

 jurist who consulted Dr. Trousseau, of Paris, told him that her hus- 

 band would say to her, " Give me my my dear me ! my you know," 

 and he would point to his head. ''Your hat?" "Yes, my hat." 

 Sometimes, again, he would ring the bell before going out, and say to 

 the servant, " Give me my um umbrel umbrel, oh dear ! " " Your 

 umbrella ? " " Oh, yes ! my umbrella." And yet at that very time his 

 conversation was as sensible as ever. He wrote or read of, or dis- 

 cussed, most difficult points of law. A patient will often use a form 

 of circumlocution to express his meaning; thus one man who could 

 not remember scissors would say, " It is what we cut with." 



It may be, however, that not only are the right words forgotten, 

 but wronsc ones are substituted. The mother-in-law of a medical man 

 (we are told by Dr. Trousseau) labored u.nder a very singular intel- 

 lectual disorder. Whenever a visitor entered her apartment, she rose 

 with an amiable look, and, pointing to a chair, exclaimed, "Pig, brute, 



stupid fool ! " " Mrs. B asks you to take a chair," her son-in-law 



would then put in, giving this interpretation to her strange expres- 

 sions. In other respects, Mrs. B -'s acts were rational, and her case 



differed from oi'dinary aphasia in that she did not seem to grow im- 

 patient at what she said, or to understand the meaning of the insult- 

 ing expressions of which she made use. Crichton mentions the case 

 of an attorney who, when he asked for any thing, constantlj' used 

 some inappropriate term ; instead of asking for a piece of bread, he 

 asked for his boots, and, if these were brought, he knew they did not 

 correspond to the idea of the thing he wanted ; therefore, he became 

 angry, yet he would still demand some of his boots or shoes, meaning 

 bread. One gentleman (a patient of Sir Thomas Watson) would say 

 " pamphlet " for " camphor." Another would say " poker " when he 

 meant the " fire;" Dr. Moore, of Dublin, has recorded the case of a 

 gentleman who completely lost the connection between ideas and 

 words. On one occasion the doctor was much puzzled by his patient 

 saying to him, " Clean my boots ! " Finding tliat he was not under- 

 stood, he became much excited, and cried out vehemently, " Clean my 

 boots by walking on them." At length it was ascertained that the 

 cause of disquietude was the shining of the candle in his face ; and 

 that the object of his unintelligible sentences was to have the curtain 

 drawn. When this was done, he appeared gratified. In this case, it 

 will be noticed, the patient formecV complete sentences, the power of 

 coordination and articulation was perfect, and the intelligence was 

 apparently unimpaired. But sometimes, where articulation may be 

 retained, what is uttered is perfect jargon. A gentleman in Dublin, 



