SAD IF TRUE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2225, 9 July 1891, Page 4

SAD IF TRUE.

A contemporary states that the retirement of Henry George, the great single tax man and the author of “ Progress and Poverty,” is due to a rare and singular mental disease. His complaint is knoAvn by the name of “ aphasia,” and the term denotes a loss of the ability to express ideas in speech and sometimes in Avriting. The patient loses his memory of substantives and names, and misapplies Avords in a manner Avhich renders his language unintelligible. A notable case on record is that of the late Bronson Alcott, Avho Avhile thus, afflicted made such curious mistakes as to apply the Avord “ hogshead” for “ sugar,” “chair” for “table,” “house” for “man,” Ac. Noticing these peculiarities in himself, Mr George consulted a physician, who informed him that heAvas suffering from aphasia, as the result of over-mental exertion. As nothing but a total suspension of Avork Avill effect a cure, the brilliant uathor has Avithdrawn frojm the social and political causes Avith Avhich his name is so intimately indentified.