Chap. XXIX.] SPEECH AND THOUGHT. 639 



about to be related, in which, whilst only able himself 

 to talk gibberish, the affected person clearly understands 

 everything that is said to him. These two types are 

 perhaps best explicable by defects in the respective regions 

 above indicated. 



Similarly extreme defects exist in regard to Writing, 

 and they may perhaps be similarly explained by some 

 defect in the Yisual Word- Centre, in cases where the 

 power of Writing is reduced to a mere meaningless as- 

 semblage of letters with inability to comprehend written 

 or printed words ; whilst, where this latter disability does 

 not exist, the incoordinate Writing may be a mere defect 

 in execution, due to some derangement of the Kinsesthetic 

 Word- Centre — and this seems a possible explanation, in 

 part, of the case of the sailor recorded at p. 6G0. 



Defects of this type, so slight as to belong to quite the 

 other end of the scale, also exist, in which strange mis- 

 tikes may, habitually or not, be made in the articulation 

 of some words, or in the mode of writing them. Dr. 

 Win slow mentioned the case of a man w^ho, after an attack 

 of paralys'^s, always transposed the letters of words in his 

 mode of pronouncing them ; thus, " endeavouring to say 

 the word ' flute ' he said tufle, puc for ' cup,' gum instead 

 of ' mug.' " Again, there may be an almost invariable 

 substitution of certain letters for others — such as a ^ for 

 an / in every word which should have contained the latter 

 letter. 



Defects in pronunciation and defects of spelling of this 

 kind are extremely common with patients who are slightly 

 Amnesic, and to a very slight extent may indeed be met 

 with occasionally in persons who are otherwise thoroughly 

 healthy. Such persons when meaning to use one word 

 actually employ another — being sometimes conscious of 

 their error and sometimes not ; and the same holds good 



