A Patient With Word Blindness in the Seventeenth Century

Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620–1695), city physician in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, published two books on “apoplexy.” He proposed new ideas about the events in the brain during such attacks, based on Harvey’s theory of the circulation of the blood. Wepfer postulated extravasation of whole blood or serum in the brain, in opposition to the Galenic notion of blocked ventricles. His case histories are remarkably precise and untainted by interpretation. This allows the recognition of a patient with word blindness, who was also unable to read words written by himself. Unlike patients with pure “alexia without agraphia,” he could not write complete sentences because of additional language defects, especially speech comprehension. Jules Dejerine (1849–1917) would, in 1892, not only describe a patient with the pure form of this syndrome (cécité verbale avec intégrité de l’écriture spontanée et sous dictée) but also provide an explanation of its anatomical basis.