198 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



.unexpectedly disturbed and alarmed him. The result 

 of this shock was the literal loosening of his hitherto 

 absent powers of speech. 



Naturally the incident was bruited abroad as a 

 wonder, and Dr. Tulp proceeded to Weesp as a student 

 of' science, determined to investigate the matter to its 

 end. There was no doubt whatever that Joannes the 

 Dumb had recovered his power of speaking. Dr. Tulp 

 tells us there had been mutilation of half his tongue, and 

 that, notwithstanding this defect, the dumb man spoke, 

 and accurately pronounced "one and all the consonants, 

 the enunciation of which," adds Tulp, " is attributed 

 by the most sagacious investigators of Nature to the 

 tip of the tongue alone." The recovery of the power 

 of speech was, probably, correctly enough interpreted 

 by Tulp. One mental shock may deprive us of speech, 

 just as a second shock may loosen the recalcitrant 

 function and set the mental machinery in operation 

 once more. Apart from this latter point, however, no 

 doubt remains regarding Dr. Tulp's observations, and 

 Joannes the Dumb remains on the page of history as 

 one case notable in the series of allied experiences of 

 science. 



Later on, in 1718, M. de Jussieu published, in the 

 Transactions of the French Academy of Sciences, the 

 case of a Portuguese girl, who, although born minus a 

 tongue, spoke distinctly and easily, although there were 

 certain consonants, such as c, f, g, /, n, r, and others, 

 which were pronounced with some amount of incon- 

 venience. Then comes the case of one Margaret 

 Cutting, of Wickham Market, in Suffolk, who having 

 lost her tongue as a result of some affection or other 

 of the organ, could nevertheless pronounce " letters 

 and syllables very articulately " (s/V) a fact testified 



