Volume 2

Aphasia and kindred disorders of speech / by Henry Head.

  • Head, Henry, 1861-1940.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Aphasia and kindred disorders of speech / by Henry Head. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    355/476 (page 315)
    3X5 The alphabet. All the letters were said in due order, read aloud perfectly and repeated after me. She could also write them spontaneously, although some of them were badly formed and she replaced n by m. The same faults recurred, when the alphabet was dictated and even if it was copied from print; but it is noticeable that whilst copying she depended on the words she said under her breath rather than on the printed letters before her. Given the twenty-six block letters, she had consider¬ able difficulty in arranging them in order. Finally she produced the following sequence: A (V upside down) BCEFGIJKLMy[ (upside down) O P 0 (upside down) RSTUXWYZ. The V was employed instead of A which with H and D were left on the table and could not be placed in the series. These answers were perceptibly worse than on the previous occasion. Numbers and arithmetic. She counted correctly up to a hundred, but the words were poorly articulated; fifty became “fivy,” sixty “sis-ty.” She was evidently puzzled somewhat by the higher numbers, as shown by her difficulty in setting the clock to printed orders in railway time. Addition. Subtraction. 325 568 685 864 582 821 432 323 737 432 236 348 757 588 (wrong) 1422 432 394 (wrong) 797 altered to 975 (wrong) These tests show a profound loss of power compared with my previous examination. Coins and their relative value. She named the various coins one by one with some hesitation and gave their relative value on the whole correctly. For instance, when a sixpence and a half-crown were placed before her she replied on the first occasion “three, er, five” and in the second series of tests “six. . .no, three and six.” With two shillings and a ten-shilling note she exclaimed “eight. . .oh, six; it isn’t right . . .five” and on the next occasion she said “don’t know. . .1 could work it out.” Serial Tests. (1) Naming and recognition of common objects. All these tests were carried out successfully; but she wrote the names of objects presented to her with much greater difficulty than before. The words were mis-spelt and the letters badly formed ; thus she wrote “Rnife, Bniife, Knufe ” for knife, “penmy, pemny” for penny, “ peacil,” and then twice correctly, for pencil. On one occasion scissors was written “Scisson” and match-box “ Alatic box.” (2) Naming and recognition of colours. These tests were executed without mistakes; but the words she employed to designate the colours, though always apt, were not infrequently badly written.