664 THE CEREBRAL RELATIONS OF 



difficulty in recalling the names of simple numerals than 

 of letters (see p. 643), which is not to be wondered at when 

 we recollect that these in all are nine in number rather 

 than twenty-six, and that the observation directed to 

 individual numerals has always been of necessity much 

 more intent than the observation of single letters. 

 The degree of familiarity with a set of objects or a set of 

 actions is always a matter of great importance in these 

 cases of impaired cerebral power : the newly acquired or 

 more complex acts are those which first become impossi- 

 ble, whilst those which are most familiar and most deeply 

 ingrained are the last to be interfered with. Dr. Lasegue 

 knew a musician completely aphasic, who, being unable 

 to speak or write in the ordinary way, could, after hearing 

 a passage of music, write such passage on paper with 

 ease. 



D. APHEMIA. 



7. Damage to Emissive Channels between the Audi- 

 tory and the Motor Word- Centres. 



The conditions now to be referred to are related to de- 

 fective communications between the Auditory and the 

 Motor Word- Centres, in much the same way that those 

 of the last section are related to defective communications 

 between the Visual and the Motor Word- Centres. With 

 the necessary changes, what is there said will also here 

 hold good in reference to the situations in which lesions of 

 the Brain may produce Aphemia, with the addition that this 

 particular defect may also be produced by a small lesion 

 implicating the lower or medullary centres for Articulation. 



These cases, as isolated defects, are, like those of simple 

 Agraphia, extremely rare; though one of a typical cha- 

 racter has been recorded by Trousseau (see p. 669). Simi- 



