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Show HIS FATAL MALADY. Admiral Sampson Suffered From As-phasia As-phasia for Years. A PENSION of ?30 a month was recently re-cently granted to the widow of Admiral Ad-miral W. T. Sampson of the navy, says the Washington Post. That was done under the law of congress governing gov-erning the commissioner of pensions in such cases. It" is the same rate of bounty allowed, according to rank, to the widows of all military officers who lose their lives from causes arising out of the performance of duty in the service serv-ice of their country. The medical record of the case, however, how-ever, is not without Interest to all those I who have followed the stirring events that began with the blowing up of the Maine in Havana harbor and culminated culminat-ed in the sea fight off Santiago. For fully five years prior to his death Admiral Sampson was afflicted with aphasia, according to the medical records rec-ords upon which the pension was granted. This has been duly certified to. and the facts were compiled from official records made by surgeons of the navy who attended the distinguished distin-guished officer during various illnesses of that malady when it came upon him j in a form more or less acute. First Attacked in April, 1897. The first record of such an illness of Admiral (then Captain) Sampson was in April, 1S97, when he was incapacitated incapaci-tated for some time and a patient at the naval dispensary In " Philadelphia. The rigid rules of the service as to such matters made it imperative that Information Infor-mation about his illness should be forwarded for-warded to the navy department, where it was undoubtedly known, because of Admiral-Sampson's prominence as an officer, not only to the surgeon-general, but likewise ' tcf the : secretary of the navy and his several chiefs of bureaus, twho keep informed as to the personal -fitness"" of officers for various important , duties. , I Some ten. months later in January, 1 18D8 while he was in command of the battleship Iowa. of the North Atlantic squadron. Captain Sampson was again incapacitated by the same malady, which seized him with sufficient virulence viru-lence to prevent his performance of duties. du-ties. Important; Duty While Mentally Failing. Within a monh. after he had recovered recov-ered from the attack of aphasia, while in command of the Iowa, Captain Sampson was detailed as president of the commission which examined the destruction de-struction of the Maine. For weeks the country and congress awaited with ex- , pectancy the verdict of Captain Sampson Samp-son and his colleagues, which, it was, fully realized, meant either war or peace for two nations, and results that : were important to all the civilized ; world. Lives of thousands of men for I i aught any one knew then the lives of hundreds of thousands of men depended de-pended on the decision, not to mention expenditures of millions upon millions of dollars, and the destinies of Spain and the United States. While the knowledge of that insidious mental disease was fresh in the minds of officers of the navy department, another an-other important assignment was bestowed be-stowed upon Captain Sampson, who was promoted temporarily to the grade of rear admiral, and assigned to the command of the entire naval fleet on the Atlantic. The Century dictionary gives the following fol-lowing definition of aphasia: In pathology the impairment or abolition abo-lition of the faculty of using and understanding un-derstanding written and spoken language, lan-guage, independently of any failure of the intellectual processes or any dis-l dis-l ease or paralysis of the vocal organs. Ataxic aphasia, when uncomplicated, is inability to express one's ideas in spoken words, while the patient understands under-stands perfectly what is said to him, and reads and writes. The name amnesic am-nesic aphasia has been applied to cases where the patient is unable to recall the word whjch he wants, though able to speak it when found. Sensory aphasia is where the patient fails to comprehend spoken or written words; it comprises word deafness and word. blindness-Aphasia, blindness-Aphasia, especially ataxic aphasia, seems to depend in most cases on a lesion of the interior frontal convolution, convo-lution, almost always on the left side of the brain. Organic Brain Disease. Dr. A. B. Richardson, the superintendent superin-tendent at St. Elizabeth's, where there are always a considerable number of patients suffering from aphasia, said last evening that it was a serious organic or-ganic brain disease. "Aphasia primarily impairs the facilities fa-cilities for speech," added Dr. Richard-con. Richard-con. "Would two. or three attacks of it affect one's capacity for performing responsible re-sponsible ' duties ?" "I have never seen a case yet," he replied,' "where aphasia in adults did not affect, the judgment. Patients are also aware of their Inability to speak ' correctly and it irritates them. The disease is almost invariably fatal, but , the time for which it runs varies with different patients." Physicians are agreed that among pa- ' tients past middle life aphasia Is, save in exceedingly rare instances, incura- , ble, and that the symptoms increase, eventually ending in death. Aphasia ' is almost always accompanied by .' agraphia, a form of the disease in , which the patient is unable to write correctly. ' At the pension office the records of ' Admiral Sampson's illness are most carefully guarded, and no information , about them is vouchsafed. The details of the aphasia cannot be stated, as to i how acute or how mild it was in the first two serious attacks upon him prior , to the Spanish war. With patients well along in years the , disease is generally accompanied by other complications. It is known that the medical record shows k Admiral Sampso-' as having suffered for years from" cephalalgia, which is ) headache not traceable to any imme- i diate causes. .The. inability of sufferers 4 from aphasia, following one or two se- ) vere attacks of it after fifty years of ; age, to safely perform important men- i tal work is universally recognized by the medical profession. Pathetic Attention to Duty. 1 -The painful efforts which Admiral 1 Sampson must at times certainly have 1 been put to in trying to perform his i duty make a pathetic feature of his 4 "aval career. The energy of . Captain Chadwick in coming to his assistance J at intervals when the admiral's In- 1 disposition was pronounced has been emphasized more than once long ago. i The stress of controversy over the fa- J mous Fourth of July dispatch, after I the victory of Santiago. . eventually brought out the statement from some of those near him that it was not writ- i ten at all by Admiral Sampson, but by Z one of his aides his chief of staff. J Aphasia in adult life generally marks the breaking up of the brain faculties, a condition that will be brought vividly to mind by those who not a great while j after the Spanish war used to see Admiral Ad-miral Sampson walking along the streets in the residence section, his frame bent, his face haggard, recognizing recog-nizing only vaguely, if at all, the friends who greeted him as they passed. It was a favorite theme of certain prominent newspapers to herald her-ald that Admiral Sampson was dying of a broken heart, due to the harshness harsh-ness of his critics and the failure of the public to appreciate his great service. serv-ice. Quite probably in the last year or two of his life he knew little or nothing of what-his critics were saying say-ing of him. Less; than a year before he died, while the prolonged court of inquiry in-quiry was sitting at the navy yard, the navy department stoutly refused to permit his appearance as a witness in that famous proceeding. Boutelle Had Similar Disease. A case of aphasia with which Washington Wash-ington was familiar not long since was of Representative Boutelle of Maine. whose aberrations in the house were I for two or three years the surprise of his colleagues. Some of these almost unaccountable acts occurred on the floor while he was in charge of the great naval . appropriation bills. About three years before his death the work of the committee was really performed by the ranking Republican member, even before it was generally known that Captain Boutelle was mentally in- capacitated. Finally he had two or three violent attacks here in Washington, Washing-ton, and was removed to a hospital near Boston.. There he lived for some- , thing over a' year till his death. A contemporaneous case was that of I Representative Sprague of Massachu- ! setts, during his service probably the : wealthiest member of the house, and, like Captain Boutelle, universally pop- j ular. The sad affliction finally neces- : sitated his removal to a. hospital in i New England, where, after something j more than a year of illness, the end came. I |