BRAIN TROUBLES. 305 



could, as it were, forget that it was troubled by these 

 haunting notes. 



The " echo " or repetition sign, as we have said, is 

 commonly indicative of serious cerebral mischief. Dr. 

 Winslow was of opinion that it arose, to some extent, 

 from that sluggish and abstracted state of thought, 

 amounting to reverie, which is so often seen in cases 

 of long-existing and sometimes undetected affections 

 of the brain. " The mind seems incapable," he says, 

 "of apprehending, under these circumstances, the 

 most simple questions, and, parrot-like, repeats them. 

 I have noticed this symptom in other conditions of 

 depressed vital and nervous power, but it more par- 

 ticularly accompanies softening of some portion of the 

 brain." It can scarcely be doubted that the monoto- 

 nous mental repetition of words or sounds is indicative 

 of mental trouble ; yet not necessarily or probably of 

 any really serious mischief. Rest or change of occu- 

 pation will in general prove a sufficient remedy. If 

 not, it is time to seek for advice, though rather from 

 a sensible general practitioner (preferably a family 

 doctor) than from those who have directed special 

 attention to cerebral diseases ; for the latter are apt to 

 alarm patients by suggesting the possibility, or even 

 the probability, of approaching mental derangement. 



As an illustration at once of the morbid phenomena 

 of speech, and of the tendency among certain students 

 of mental disease to exaggerate the significance of 

 such phenomena, we may take the following passage 

 from. Dr. Forbes Winslow's book : " It will not be 



