May 26, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



745 



this new book may arouse to action other 

 authors and publishers, and especially such as 

 will devote their energies to the presentation of 

 the new meteorology. Frank Waldo. 



Tlie Genesis and Dissolution of the Faculty of 

 Speech. A Clinical and Psychological Study 

 of Aphasia. By Joseph Collins, M. D. , Pro- 

 fessor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous 

 System in the New York Post-graduate Med- 

 ical School ; Neurologist to the New York City 

 Hospital, etc. Awarded the Alvarenga Prize 

 of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 



1897. New York, The Macmillan Company. 



1898. Pp. viii + 432. 



This volume, to which was awarded the 

 Alvarenga prize of the College of Physicians of 

 Philadelphia for 1897, is a monograph of im- 

 portance. There is no more fruitful field of 

 investigation than the various forms of speech 

 disturbance, for the student both of psychology 

 and pathological anatomy. That progress has 

 been slow is due to the fact, as Collins points 

 out, that observation and analysis of speech de- 

 fect has been inaccurate and post-mortem ex- 

 aminations incomplete. If not offering very 

 much that is new the book before us has the 

 merit of calling attention to our deficiencies 

 and of urging greater care in the future. The 

 author shows from beginning to end an admi- 

 rable grasp of his subject and a complete ac- 

 quaintance with the literature, which he has 

 used with skill to produce throughout an emi- 

 nently readable and stimulating book. 



The monograph opens with a chapter on 

 'Disorders of intellectual expression, known 

 as aphasia.' This is largely a discussion and 

 criticism of terms, the outcome of which is a 

 general classification of aphasia as follows: 



1. True aphasia — aphasia of apperception. 

 Due to lesion of any constituent of the speech 

 region, the zone of language. 



2. Sensory aphasia. Due to lesion of the 

 central and peripheral pathways leading to the 

 zone of language. 



3. Motor aphasia. Due to lesion of the motor 

 pathways, over which motor impulses travel in 

 passing to the peripheral speech musculature. 



4. Compound aphasia. Any combination of 

 two or more of these. 



Such a classification the author regards as 

 feufiicient for all practical purposes, but as a 

 concession to established usage he makes cer- 

 tain sub- divisions in order to avoid possible con- 

 fusion of nomenclature. For example, he re- 

 tains the word ' motor' as applied to aphasia 

 produced by lesion of Broca's convolution 

 ' solely becau-e such usage has been consecrated 

 by time,' and not because he believes this center 

 to be in reality entirely motor. 



Following this chapter is a valuable historical 

 sketch comprised iu twenty-three pages, with 

 a good bibliography. Charcot's autonomous 

 speech centers are sharply criticised, both here 

 and later in the book, and Dejerine's services 

 to the subject receive the warmest appreciation, 

 particularly because of their general opposition 

 to Charcot's views. 



Under the heading of 'An analysis of the 

 genesis and function of speech,' Collins an- 

 alyses, from the point of view of physiological 

 psychology, the various elements which ulti- 

 mately result in the development of the faculty 

 of speech. It is clearly too large a subject for 

 so cursory a handling, and on the whole is less 

 satisfactory than the discussions which are con- 

 cerned solely with the physical side of the pro- 

 cess. 



Chapter IV. concerns itself with remarks on 

 the anatomy of the brain, the zone of language, 

 and the evidence regarding a special graphic 

 motor center. It is largely anatomical and pre- 

 sents with clearness the facts we should know 

 relative to the structure of the brain in gen- 

 eral, and particularly of those parts to which are 

 attributed special functions in regard to speech. 

 Flechsig's recently expressed views as to the 

 zones of projection and the zones of association 

 are narrated in considerable detail, because of 

 their more or less direct bearing upon the con- 

 ception of aphasia which the author has elab- 

 orated. Collins is definite in his opinion that 

 the zone of language, made up mainly of Broca'& 

 convolution, the posterior port-ion of the first 

 temporal convolution, and the angular gyrus, 

 does not send fibers directly into the motor pro- 

 jection tract. The Rolandic cortex must first 

 be called upon before an idea can be expressed 

 as speech. He is equally confident that we 

 now have sufiicient evidence to overthrow com- 



