Volume 2

Aphasia and kindred disorders of speech / by Henry Head.

  • Henry Head
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

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

    381/476 page 341
    Condition between March 17TH and April 5TH, 1923 {three years after the stroke). Three years after the attack he was physically in much the same state, although his powers of speech had somewhat improved. His pulse was regular, 68 to the minute; the systolic tension was 175 mm., the diastolic 85 mm. There were no abnormal signs in the heart, beyond slight dis¬ placement outwards of the apex beat and accentuation of the aortic second sound. Gross right hemianopsia was the only sign pointing to a lesion of the central nervous system. Symbolic Formulation and Expression. Though slightly less severe, his defects of speech were essentially identical with those discovered on my first series of observations. He still complained that he had difficulty in finding names, especially for colours. But he described accurately how he would compose each tint from the pigments at his disposal as a house painter. Moreover, when shown blue and yellow, he failed to name them directly and yet he employed both words in attempting to describe how he would make these colours. With the former he said, “I don’t know what colour it is; there is blue in it” and with yellow “It’s got yellow in it; I can’t tell what colour you’d call it.” It was not words that were lacking, but the power to fit an appropriate verbal symbol to an object or conception. He read to himself with considerable difficulty and hesitated greatly when reading aloud (vide infra, p. 342). He could write his name and address correctly; but, asked to compose a letter to me, he produced the following very slowly and with much effort: “Dear Doctor Head May I. offer my services to you as painter and decorator. I see the Outside of your.” He then ceased, saying, “I’m afraid I hardly know what I’m doing; I seem to get mixed, I’m afraid it’s badly done.” When he attempted to write down what he had been told or had read to himself his handwriting was bad and he was unable to communicate his thoughts spontaneously in writing (vide p. 342). To dictation he succeeded somewhat better and he could now copy a printed paragraph in cursive script, although he failed to do so consistently with the printed letters of the alphabet. The alphabet. He said the letters in due order spontaneously, repeated them after me and read them aloud perfectly. Given the twenty-six block letters, he had extreme difficulty in arranging them in sequence, because, even if he knew which one he required, he could not always recognise it amongst those scattered on the table. Thus he chose X for K, saying, “That’s a K isn’t it; I want K, I can’t tell it when I see it.” When in doubt, he would try various letters to see if they fitted the gap he had left; for instance, after P he said, “ It’s Q I want,” but tried and rejected V. He succeeded ultimately in putting together the alphabet, leaving a space
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