Brain and Language 84 (2003) 448–450

www.elsevier.com/locate/b&l

18th century cases of noun–verb dissociation:

The contribution of Carl Linnaeusq
€ stberg*
Per O
NEUROTEC, Karolinska Institutet, B56, Huddinge University Hospital, SE-141 86, Stockholm, Sweden
Accepted 14 June 2002

Abstract

The Neapolitan philosopher Vico reported the first known case of a verb production deficit
in aphasia in 1744. The following year the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus described a case of
impaired noun production. Hence a double dissociation of lexical category retrieval may have
been documented within one year in the 18th century.
Ó 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

According to Whitaker (1995, p. 170):

Historical analyses can help us realize that our neurolinguistic models (a) have precursors,
(b) are contextually influenced by the scientific milieu and (c) are relative to the assumptions
and constraints of the paradigms we happen to currently accept. And they can amuse.

The aim of this note is to bring attention to an interesting—and amusing—18th

century paper on category-specific aphasia. Denes and Dalla Barba (1998), see also
Gainotti (1999), recently discussed the Neapolitan philosopher G.B. Vico as a
forerunner of cognitive neuropsychology and, especially, as discoverer of the noun–
verb dissociation in aphasia. One year after the cited edition of VicoÕs book (1744),
the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) published a short case study in
Swedish (Linnaeus, 1745a). It was entitled ‘‘Amnesia [gl€omska ÔforgetfulnessÕ] for all
nouns and proper names in particular.’’ Linnaeus, the princeps botanicorum, is best
known for his contribution to systematic biology. He created a vast number of plant
and animal taxa and, most importantly, introduced standard taxonomic ranks and
binomial nomenclature (the Linnaean system).
Linnaeus was also a physician. His paper on aphasia has been mentioned or
discussed by a number of authors through the years (Antoni, 1957; Benton & Joynt,
1960; Finger, 1994; Goodglass, 1993; Hultgren, 1916; K€ ulz, 1875; Viets, 1943;

q
Also known as Carolus Linnaeus and (from 1761) Carl von Linne.
*
Fax: +46-8-585-85482.
E-mail address: per.ostberg@ger.hs.sll.se.

0093-934X/03/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0093-934X(02)00552-7
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P. O 449

Whitaker, 1998). K€ ulz (1875) cited an early German translation (Linnaeus, 1745b),
and Viets (1943) published an English translation. Hultgren, Antoni, and Benson
and Joynt regarded LinnaeusÕ case as a brief but interesting early description of
BrocaÕs aphasia. However, it seems that no publication before Bak and Hodges
(2001), see also Bak, OÕDonovan, Xuereb, Boniface, and Hodges (2001), highlighted
the fact that Linnaeus had reported a word-class specific impairment. The reason for
this is probably that the paper was published in Swedish, and that the translations
are not readily available.

2. Linnaeus case report: what was it about?

The patient, a scholar at Uppsala University,1 was already in poor health when he
suffered an episode of ‘‘sleeping-sickness.’’ Linnaeus interpreted this as a compli-
cation of podagra (gout of the foot, especially of the big toe), which ‘‘finally struck
his head.’’ The patient woke up after treatment with a Spanish fly (a strong irritant)
but then ‘‘seemed, as it were, to talk wildly [phantisera].’’ This turned out not to be
the case, however; instead ‘‘he was somehow speaking an unknown language, having
his own names for all words: e.g., drink To Ti etc.’’ After this initial disorder had
abated, Linnaeus noted ‘‘a gap in his memory which, however, was of a peculiar
kind.’’ The patient ‘‘had forgotten all nouns, so that he could not remember a single
one; not even the names of his children, his wife, or himself, let alone of somebody
else.’’ Linnaeus found it even more remarkable that
[I]f one mentioned a name that he wanted to utter, he said yes; but when he was asked to
repeat it, he answered cannot. When he saw somebodyÕs name, he knew whose name it
was. And when he wanted to mention the name of one of his colleagues, he pointed at
the Catalogum Lectionum where his name could be found.

Thus, the patient retained spoken and written word comprehension. Although
writing ability was not discussed at all in the paper, Benton and Joynt (1960) mis-
takenly claimed that ‘‘it was found that he was incapable of writing any name’’ (p.
211) and that ‘‘the coincidence of aphasia and agraphia was observed by Linne’’ (p.
218). This fallacy was apparently reproduced in FingerÕs book (1994, p. 373;
‘‘[a]nother notable aspect of the case was the patientÕs agraphia for names’’).
Linnaeus concluded that the patient had lost two things: ‘‘firstly, the memory for all
nouns, and secondly, the power to say nouns.’’ The aphasia suddenly disappeared
some time later, but the patient soon passed away. Podagra was assumed to be the
cause of death.

3. Epilogue

Linnaeus—unlike Vico—did not draw any theoretical conclusions from his case. In
fact, he did not explicitly relate the noun deficit to brain damage. Nor did he tell
much about what kind of words the patient actually produced. Still, the reference to
nouns and proper names makes it likely that Linnaeus had indeed spotted a cate-
gory-specific impairment, the reciprocal of the verb production deficit reported by
Vico the previous year. There is nothing in LinnaeusÕ paper to indicate that he was

1
Hultgren (1916) identified the scholar as Professor Arvid Arrhenius. According to Annerstedt (1914,
cited by Hultgren) ‘‘ill health always prevented him from lecturing,’’ and ‘‘poverty fell to him in life and
followed him into death.’’
450 € stberg / Brain and Language 84 (2003) 448–450
P. O

aware of VicoÕs statements in 1744. The paper on aphasia was a sidetrack in his
profuse scientific production. Finger (1994) noted that LinnaeusÕ contemporary,
King Frederick I of Sweden, became aphasic a few years after LinnaeusÕ publication.
Incidentally, Linnaeus, too, became aphasic following strokes in the 1770s. ‘‘Linne
never returned to aphasia, but aphasia instead returned to him, with Ôcallus in
cerebroÕ and Ôdolor mentis, anxietas naturae’’Õ (Antoni, 1957).

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