Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/286

 264 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. what he has just written. Speaking and the understanding of speech are not interfered with at all. Destruction of the motor-speech centre causes a much more extensive interference with the use of language; the motions of the vocal organs being no longer coordinated, an inarticu- late jargon, or the senseless repetition of word or phrase, is all that is left of the power of speech. The ability to write is also lost. Read- ing aloud is, of course, impossible ; but it is also a matter of common observation in such cases that the ability to understand print is lost or greatly impaired. This proves that in most per- sons direct associations between visual words and ideas, if they exist at all, are too weak to be depended upon. It is the destruction of the auditory centre which causes the most extensive loss of lan- guage. In such pathological conditions in which words are heard but not understood, we speak of word-deafness. There are other patho- logical conditions in which, although the vocal apparatus is in perfect order, the words uttered are mutilated, deformed, and often totally differ- ent from the ones intended. We learn here that in talking the most important association impulses do not go directly from the centres for