EYE-MINDEDNESS AND EAR-MINDEDNESS. 603 



With tliis his visual apperception and memory gave way. The 

 scenes of his daily walks seemed strange ; if asked to picture a 

 certain spot, he was unable to do so; the attempt to draw a 

 church-spire resulted in a rude, childish scrawl. Later on, the 

 familiar scenes of his childhood faded from his memory ; he could 

 not picture the appearance of his wife and child, and even failed 

 to recognize his own image in a mirror. In order to keep up his 

 literary tastes, everything had to be read out loud to him ; he had 

 to cultivate his little-used auditory center. He now no longer 

 dreamed of seeing, but of hearing. In short, without impairment 

 of vision or of general intelligence, his excellent visualizing pow- 

 ers faded out, and he was left dependent upon his auditory center. 

 By nature a strong " visionaire," disease forced him to become 

 an " auditaire." 



In sensory aphasia, cases occur in which the patient can not 

 understand spoken words ; he may be able to speak himself, can 

 write, and has no defect of hearing. But the power to apperceive, 

 to get the meaning out of sounds, is lost. The same may happen 

 to the function of the motor sense in written language. In a typi- 

 cal case the patient suddenly lost all power to write ; he had no 

 paralysis, could read manuscript, could talk and hear. But the 

 knowledge of the movements necessary to form the letters had 

 dropped from his mind. If the disease progresses, he may lose 

 the knowledge of all those little gestures and facial expressions 

 that fill the gaps of social intercourse. In these cases — and more 

 varieties could be added — we have clearly illustrated the distinct- 

 ness of each of these sensory faculties, and of the various degrees 

 of importance they assume in different minds. 



It will doubtless have occurred to many a reader that this 

 natural difference of faculty has a practical, an educational aspect. 

 If each one can best absorb his mental food in a certain way, a 

 knowledge of the nature of this peculiarity is certainly desirable. 

 An absence of this knowledge is certain to bring about waste of 

 energy, and especially so as these differences are already apparent 

 in early youth, when a proper recognition of them can do some- 

 thing to remove the unnecessary friction of school-room methods. 

 Dr. J. Mortimer-Granville has clearly grasped the practical as- 

 pect of this principle in his primer on "The Secret of a Good 

 Memory." The leading note of that essay is the necessity of find- 

 ing out the sensory bent of one's memory, and following out the 

 clew thus gained. An eye-minded person should read, should 

 reduce everything to visual terms ; and it is because of the com- 

 mon occurrence of this trait that such mnemonic systems as asso- 

 ciate everything with a certain spot on a general scheme have 

 been successful. To an "auditaire" they would be worse than 

 useless. The latter must have things read to him ; will gain much 



