Ix Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



internal geniculate bDdies and testes in cases of lesions of the tem- 

 poral lobes. There have been a number of cases where deafness has 

 been found associated with degeneration of the temporal lobes. 



Mills, in 1889, described the case of a man who had been deaf 

 for thirty years and whose brain presented atrophy of the two supe- 

 rior temporal convolutions. 



The present paper describes th^ case of a woman 43 years old, 

 who had been a deaf-mute from infancy. In both hemispheres there 

 was a symmetrical lesion destroying the first and second temporal con- 

 volutions. It was suggested that encephalites in infancy may have 

 been the occasion of deaf-mutism. The close association between 

 deafness and muteness is discussed. When the temporal lobes which 

 preside over the acoustic functions of language are injured in early 

 infancy the formation of verbal acoustic ideas is prevented. Deaf- 

 mutism of cerebral origm is frequently accompanied by epileptic con- 

 vulsions and imbecile or idiotic conditions, all of which are ordinarily 

 due to infantile encephalites. 



The author concludes that " a lesion of the right temporal lobe 

 gave origin in left-handed people to verbal deafness and that this was 

 not caused in right-handed individuals ; and that left-handed people 

 were not the subjects of verbal deafness unless [when ?] the left tem- 

 poral lobe were [was ?] affected." 



A case of Dr. Banti is cited — a man 67 years old suffering with 

 verbal deafness, whose brain exhibited a focus of yellow softening in 

 the posterior two-thirds of the first and second temporal convolutions. 



The author describes the case of an old man suffering with pella- 

 grous mania who was left-handed, but exhibited no speech disturb- 

 ance or disturbance of motion or sensation, but whose brain was 

 found to contain an old destructive lesion of the left sylvian fossa and 

 insula which had destroyed the medullary fibres of the first and sec- 

 ond temporal convolutions. Thus it appears that positive and nega- 

 tive evidence agrees respecting the auditory speech centre. 



Cause of Epilepsy.^ 



To those who have followed the recent discussions respecting the 

 role which uric acid retention plays in epileptiform disease (see Vol. 

 II, p. cxli), the present paper cannot fail to prove interesting. Rec- 

 ognizing epilepsy as rather a symptom than a disease, and discarding 



' Ferguson, John. Some Remarks on Epilepsy. Alienist and Neurologist 

 XVI, 3. 



