Aphasia Secondary to Tuberculosis: A Review of a Nineteenth-Century Case Report by Booth and Curtis (1893)

Abstract

The topic of aphasia secondary to tuberculosis deserves attention for two reasons: first, for better understanding rare etiologies of aphasia in medical history; and secondly, for initiating a multidisciplinary discussion relevant to aphasiologists, neurologists, pathologists, and clinicians generally. This article will focus on clinical observations of tuberculosis-related aphasia in the nineteenth century, highlighting a noteworthy case report presented by Booth and Curtis (1893).

Keywords:

• neurotuberculosis
• aphasia
• nineteenth-century medicine
• rare diseases

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his thanks to the New York Academy of Medicine Library, University at Buffalo Health Sciences Library, Columbia University Butler Library, and the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center Archives for providing research assistance.

Notes

¹ Godlee’s patient was John Mitchell, a 25-year-old farmer, who presented with left-sided paralysis, a history of concussion, convulsion, twitching in the face, headaches, and loss of consciousness. In his review of Godlee’s operation in late-nineteenth-century England, Kirkpatrick (1984) remarked that Godlee, the resident surgeon, had made a peculiar observation merely 30 minutes after resecting cancerous brain tumor: namely, that the patient was able “to answer questions rationally” (see Bennett & Godlee, 1885). These results indicate that language comprehension and expression were intact in this patient as per a cursory analysis. The apparent lack of tumor-related or surgically induced aphasia in this case may be due to the patient being left-hemisphere language dominant, and the tumor being located in the right pre-central gyrus. This case demonstrates that the evaluation of communicative function after surgery is a longstanding practice and that tumor-related communication disorders have long been recognized.