CHAP. XXIX.] SPEF.CH AND THOUGHT. 627 



she had never been familiar. "In the words that she thus ecJioed, 

 her articulation was distinct, although the foreign phrases were not 



repeated in quite so intelligible a manner as the French Just 



as we were leaving her bedside, a patient in an adjoining bed 

 coughed ; the cough was instantly imitated by this human parrot ! 

 In fact, this singular old woman repeated everything that was 

 grid to her, whether in an interrogative form or not; and she 

 imitated every act that was done before her, and that with the 

 most extraordinary exactitude." In other cases there is a tendency 

 to dwell upon and repeat some one word or phrase that has been 

 uttered in reply to a first question, as an answer to those which 

 follow till at last something new may be said which is repeated in 

 the same way. A good instance of this may be quoted from 

 Trousseau. In a man suffering from left hemiplegia, his usual 

 " stock of words was restricted to these two, ' My faith ! ' ; and 

 when he was pressed hard, he looked impatient,, and uttered the 



oath, ' Ore nom d'un Coaur ! *" I asked him what his name 



was, and his occupation; he looked at me and answered: 'My 

 faith !'....! insisted, but in spite of his efforts, he only shook 

 his head with an impatient gesture, exclaiming : ' Ore nom d'un 

 Coeur.' As I wished to find out how many words he had at com- 

 mand, I said to him : ' Are you from the Haute- Loire ? ' He 

 repeated like an echo, 'Haute-Loire!' 'What's your name P ' 

 ' Haute-Loire.' 'Your profession?' 'Haute-Loire.' 'But your 

 name is Marcou?' 'Yes, sir/ 'You are sure it is Marcou?' 

 'Yes.' 'What department do you come from?' 'Marcou.' 

 'No; that's your name.' But with an impatient gesture, he ex- 

 claimed, ' Ore nom d'un Coeur/ " * 



2. Defective Action in the Visual Word-Centres. 



No very distinct illustration of this defect has been 

 met with, but one which is in some respects the converse 

 of those recorded by Drs. Hertz and Hun has been re- 

 lated by Dr. Hughlings Jackson. f In this example the 



* The same kind of tendency to repeat the last impression made 

 on the Visual Centre is ,hown by other patients, when Writing 

 (see Trousseau's " Lectures," Eng. Trans., Pt. I. p. 228). 



t "Brit. Med. Journ.," 1866. 



S S 2 



