The disorders of speech : speech in its relations to insanity / by John Wyllie.

  • Wyllie, John, 1914-
Date:
[1893?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The disorders of speech : speech in its relations to insanity / by John Wyllie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    To hear a patient in the condition of advanced Dementia sing well is very startling. It is even more so than to hear the good singing of imbecile children. How is it that the musical faculty is thus often preserved intact, or almost so, when the mind has been laid in ruins ? I do not know that physiological science can yet answer that question. To find the faculty intact in such a case as this last one, produces in one’s mind the same kind of feeling as one would experience, if, in searching in the ruins of some dwelling-place that had long since been destroyed by fire, one found some pretty domestic ornament, unbroken among the debris. It is not only in the dementia resulting from adolescent insanity that the musical faculty is thus able to maintain itself intact. It may be found equally so in dementia resulting from many other forms of insanity. Thus, there is at present in the Royal Edin- burgh Asylum a man now far advanced in dementia, in whom the condition resulted, in middle life, from repeated attacks of mania brought on apparently by alcoholism. This patient was once a clever workman, and used to play the violin. Although now dull and stupid, he wakes up a little when asked to give his favourite musical performance. This is an imitation of the notes of the bugle, which he does with his mouth, placing the right hand verti- cally against the right side of the mouth. The performance is surprisingly good and tuneful, the notes being wonderfully like those of the bugle. B. Dementia with Paretic or Paralytic Elements in the Articulation of Words.—Tbe leading element in this paretic articulation is Slurring, which renders the speech thick and slovenly. Apart from insanity, there are many conditions which may cause the speech to be slurred and slovenly. During Inebriation, for example, the speech may be slurred. A few glasses of wine may make it risky for the individual to attempt the articulation of such an expression as “mutual eligibility”; and we know what becomes of “British Constitu- tion ” when there is distinct inebriation. Other conditions may, in like manner, impair the articulation for a time. Great Mental Fatigue or Depression may cause, for the time, a little carelessness and want of precision in the articulation of difficult words. The symptom is also a common one, and may be per- manently established, in many cases of Organic Disease of the Brain, due to coarse lesions. But I do not wish to look at these conditions at present. I want now to speak of this symptom, and other associated peculiarities of speech, as they occur in certain forms of Dementia. The two forms of dementia in which it is most commonly met with are—(1), Senile Dementia, and (2), Paralytic Dementia—the General Paralysis of the Insane. In both of these the symptom is of ominous significance. It shows