TONGUELESS SPEECH. 631 



work on the "Diseases of the Tongue." The subject was a girl, born 

 tongueless, in a village of Alemtejo, a small province of Portugal. 

 The defect was first made known by her inability to suck, a difficulty 

 that the mother obviated by pressing her breasts, and thus forcing 

 the milk to flow into the infant's mouth while it held the nipple 

 tightly between its lips. This girl was fifteen years old when first 

 seen by Jussieu, who, after two careful and thorough examinations, 

 thus describes the condition of her mouth : " I remarked only a small 

 elevation, in the form of a mamelon, which rose in the middle of the 

 mouth to the height of about three or four lines. This elevation would 

 have almost escaped my observation if I had not assured myself of its 

 existence by touch, for it was scarcely visible. In pressing it with my 

 finger, I felt a sort of movement, of contraction and dilatation, which 

 showed that, although the organ of the tongue was absent, yet the 

 muscles which form it, and which are designed to move it, were 

 present; for there was no hollow under the chin, and I could only 

 attribute the alternating movements which I have described to these 

 muscles. . . . Some persons, perhaps, who doubt the possibility of 

 any one speaking without a tongue, may imagine that in the case of 

 this girl it was not really absent ; but that by some natural accident 

 it was adherent to the lower or lateral portions of the mouth. But an 

 inspection will at once remove this impression; for not only is its 

 cavity larger than usual, but at the back the uvula is distinctly visible, 

 and is seen to be more than double the usual length, and also a little 

 thicker than ordinary. It stretches almost to the epiglottis, and forms 

 at the back of the throat two equal rounded openings instead of one ; 

 while in other subjects the aperture, though single and larger than the 

 two together in this case, can only be seen by pressing down the base 

 of the tongue." 



The function of speech was performed by this girl so distinctly 

 and clearly that no one would have known, without being told, that 

 the tongue was absent. She could clearly pronounce all the letters 

 of the alphabet, as well as separate syllables, and complete sen- 

 tences. It was observed, however, that some of the consonants, such 

 as c, f, g, I, n, r, s, t, x, and z, were pronounced with more difficulty 

 than the other letters, and that, when she had to utter them slowly 

 and separately, the effort required to sound them was shown by 

 bending her head forward, so as to bring her chin nearer to the throat 

 or larynx, thus raising the latter and placing it almost on a level with 

 the teeth. 



The Medical Record quotes from the Canada Medical and Surgical 

 Journal, for March of this year, a case of removal of the tongue and 

 lower jaw of a man aged seventy-one years, in order to get rid of a can- 

 cerous mass that extensively involved those parts. Four months after 

 the operation he was brought before theMedico-Chirurgical Society of 

 Montreal ; no great amount of deformity was observable, and " speech 



