ABSTRACT
This chapter is an essay on the scientific vicissitudes of a paper published in The Lancet at the end of the last century by Byrom Bramwell (1899), entitled “On ‘Crossed’ Aphasia.” The paper, a case study of a left-handed patient with aphasia resulting from a left hemisphere lesion, presents neither ground-breaking research nor any novel theory. In fact, its central theme is based on an erroneous assumption about left handedness and cerebral lateralisation of language. Consequently, the inferences made by the author are also in error, hence the title of this chapter. Nevertheless, this case study is of interest because it marked the beginning of an ongoing series of case studies on crossed aphasia which still continues today (e.g. Sakuri, Kurisaki, Takeda, Iwata, Bandoh, Watanabe, & Momose, 1992). It is often cited as the source of the term “crossed aphasia,” despite the fact that today the term is used with a different kind of patient-right-handed aphasics with a right hemisphere lesion-which Bramwell did not think could be found on theoretical grounds. Perhaps some authors who cite this paper do not even bother to read the original article, as is suggested by occasional misquotations. In addition, Bramwell offered some speculations on the cause of crossed aphasia which, unintentionally, offer a new perspective on the syndrome and perhaps on the whole issue of localisation of functions in the brain.
