10 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



when he quite suddenly recovered his sense of hearing. He was 

 very alarmed when he first heard sound, but as in the former 

 case his centres for hearing and speech subsequently became 

 educated. As in all of these cases he became able to understand 

 language long before he was capable of using it, this correspond- 

 ing with what is well recognised to be the case in the healthy 

 child. Long before a normal baby can put together a few 

 words, it has a considerable understanding of what is said to it. 

 It may, indeed, have a good deal of knowledge concerning 

 language, but remains ignorant concerning the co-related ability 

 to use it, and we have that curious coincidence of knowledge 

 and ignorance ; a physiological inco-ordination, which is a 

 prototype of many forms of functional disturbances which are 

 capable of being righted by suitable educational measures. 

 The instances which I have quoted serve to exemplify how 

 anything which causes an alteration in the intelligence or in the 

 capacity for knowing, may upset the balance of function, and 

 I again want to refer to the fact that this capacity is apt to 

 become lessened by the diversion of nervous energy by diseased 

 conditions in parts other than the brain. A patient who has a 

 crippling disorder often becomes hipped and to a certain extent 

 introspective as a result of it, and there is no doubt that an 

 educational appeal to his intelligence may have a hastening 

 effect upon the recovery from the disease. 



Speaking of physiological inco-ordination reminds one that 

 there is in most people a normal want of balance, insomuch 

 that the two sides of the body seldom possess the same amount 

 of strength or fineness of function — most of us being right- 

 handed. There is a strong side and a weak side, and this does 

 not apply only to physical strength and dexterity, for it has a 

 bearing upon vitality and upon susceptibility to deformity and 

 disease. Most deformities, such as club-foot and other mal- 

 formations are on the left side, and so are a large number of 

 acquired diseases such as those of the lungs. For instance ? 



