BEAIN TEOUBLES. 



SOL 



related by Dr. Watson. A patient who Lad had an- 

 attack of apoplexy seemed to be recovering under the 

 influence of perfect quiet. But, " after a long and 

 imprudent conversation with a friend, he suddenly lost 

 the thread of his discourse, and could not recover it." 

 Memory was affected first, be it observed : next went 

 the power of attention. " Then he became conf used/* 

 Thirdly, the power of speech was affected. " He 

 misapplied words. I asked him how he felt. He- 

 answered, ( Not quite right/ and this he repeated very 

 many times, abbreviating it at first into ' not right/ 

 and at length into 'n'ight/ Wishing to mention* 

 ( camphor,' he called it 'pamphlet.' I mention these 

 as specimens." Afterwards, signs of bodily weakness, 

 indicating paralysis, were observed. The weakness 

 degenerated gradually into complete palsy, and before- 

 long the case ended fatally. In this case the patient 

 had not suffered originally from undue mental work,, 

 the mental trouble being caused by an abscess. But 

 the case seems to illustrate well the trying effect of 

 distracting conversation on a wearied, weakened, or 

 (as in this case) diseased brain. 



The tendency to use one word for another, where, 

 so far as meaning is concerned, there is no connexion 

 whatever, though there is some resemblance of sound, 

 is one which probably most literary men have noticed 

 at times, when they have been wearied or their atten- 

 tion has been much distracted. It is not by any 

 means so alarming a symptom as temporary failure of 

 the power of articulating words, or actual inability to 



