Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/285

 GREEK AS INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE. 263 Here we have the cooperation of the motor- speech centre. The two centres work and de- velop together, but the auditory centre is the more independent and fundamental. If a child becomes deaf, even as late as the tenth or eleventh year, it also becomes mute, unless special educational measures are employed; in adults destruction of the auditory centre inter- feres sadly with talking, while destruction of the motor-speech centre does not seem to interfere at all with the understanding of speech. When reading is first undertaken, the auditory and motor-speech centres, with their association fibres, are already well developed. The visual centre now begins to work with them. At first it is necessary to read aloud in order to make the association impulses exact and vigorous. In writing, the visual memory may be an aid to correct spelling. Disease cutting off the com- munication of the visual centres with other cen- tres causes mind-blindness. The patient sees but does not recognize what he sees. If the affection is so slight that he can still recognize ordinary objects, but not written or printed words, he is only word-blind. Although read- ing in such a case i.j impossible, writing is not prevented; the patient, however, cannot read