the Apuan Alps and the Calabrian peninsula they do not now form any part of the Apennine chain. But that in Tertiary times there was a high interior zone of crystalline rocks is indicated by the character of the Eocene beds in the southern Apennines. These are formed to a large extent of thick conglomerates which are full of pebbles and boulders of granite and schist. Many of the boulders are of considerable size and they are often still angular. There is now no crystalline region from which they could reach their present position; and this and other considerations have led the followers of E. Suess to conclude that even in Tertiary times a large land mass consisting of ancient rocks occupied the space which is now covered by the southern portion of the Tyrrhenian Sea. This old land mass has been called Tyrrhenis, and probably extended from Sicily into Latium and as far west as Sardinia. On the Italian border of this land there was raised a mountain chain with an inner crystalline zone and an outer zone of Mesozoic and Tertiary beds. Subsequent faulting has caused the subsidence of the greater part of Tyrrhenis, including nearly the whole of the inner zone of the mountain chain, and has left only the outer zones standing as the present Apennines.
Be this as it may, the Apennines, excepting in Calabria, are formed chiefly of Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene beds. In the south the deposits, from the Trias to the middle Eocene, consist mainly of limestones, and were laid down, with a few slight interruptions, upon a quietly subsiding sea-floor. In the later part of the Eocene period began the folding which gave rise to the existing chain. The sea grew shallow, the deposits became conglomeratic and shaly, volcanic eruptions began, and the present folds of the Apennines were initiated. The folding and consequent elevation went on until the close of the Miocene period when a considerable subsidence took place and the Pliocene sea overspread the lower portions of the range. Subsequent elevation, without folding, has raised these Pliocene deposits to a considerable height—in some cases over 3000 ft. and they now lie almost undisturbed upon the older folded beds. This last elevation led to the formation of numerous lakes which are now filled up by Pleistocene deposits. Both volcanic eruptions and movements of elevation and depression continue to the present day on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea. In the northern Apennines the elevation of the sea floor appears to have begun at an earlier period, for the Upper Cretaceous of that part of the chain consists largely of sandstones and conglomerates. In Calabria the chain consists chiefly of crystalline and schistose rocks; it is the Mesozoic and Tertiary zone which has here been sunk beneath the sea. Similar rocks are found beneath the Trias farther north, in some of the valleys of Basilicata. Glaciers no longer exist in the Apennines, but Post-Pliocene moraines have been observed in Basilicata.
References.—G. de Lorenzo, “Studi di geologia nell’ Appennino Meridionale,” Atti d. R. Accad. d. Sci, Fis. e Mat., Napoli, ser. 2, vol. viii., no. 7 (1896); F. Sacco, “L’ Appennino settentrionale,” Boll. Soc. geol. Ital. (1893–1899). (P. La.)
APENRADE, a town of Germany in the Prussian province of Schleswig, beautifully situated on the Apenrade Fjord, an arm of the Little Belt, 38 m. N. of the town of Schleswig. Pop. (1900) 5952. It is connected by a branch line with the main railway of Schleswig, and possesses a good harbour, which affords shelter for a large carrying trade. Fishing, shipbuilding and various small factories provide occupation for the population. The town is a bathing resort, as is Elisenlund close by.
APERTURE (from Lat. aperire, to open), an opening. In optics, it is that portion of the diameter of an object-glass or mirror through which light can pass free from obstruction. It is equal to the actual diameter of the cylinder of rays admitted by a telescope.
APEX, the Latin word (pl. apices) for the top, tip or peak of anything. A diminutive “apiculus” is used in botany.
APHANITE, a name given (from the Gr. ἀφανής, invisible) to certain dark-coloured igneous rocks which are so fine-grained that their component minerals are not detected by the unaided eye. They consist essentially of plagioclase felspar, with hornblende or augite, and may contain also biotite, quartz and a limited amount of orthoclase. Although a few authorities still recognize the aphanites as a distinct class, most systematic petrologists, at the present time, have discarded it, and regard these rocks as merely structural facies of other species. Those which contain hornblende are uniform, fine-grained diorites, vogesites, &c., while when pyroxene predominates they are ascribed to the dolerites, quartz-dolerites, &c. Hence, any rock which is compact, crystalline and fine grained, is frequently said to be aphanitic, without implying exactly to which of the principal rock groups it really belongs.
APHASIA[1] (from Gr. α, privative, and φάσις, speech), a term which means literally inability to speak, and is used to denote various defects in the comprehension and expression of both spoken and written language which result from lesions of the brain. Aphasic disorders may be classed in two groups:—first, receptive or sensory aphasia, which comprises (a) inability to understand spoken language (auditory aphasia), and (b) inability to read (visual aphasia, or alexia); second, emissive or motor aphasia, under which category are included (a) inability to speak (motor vocal aphasia, or aphemia), and (b) inability to write (motor graphic aphasia, or agraphia). It has been shown that each of these defects is produced by destruction of a special region of the cortex of the brain. These regions, which are termed the speech centres, are, in right-handed people, situated in the left cerebral hemisphere; this is the reason why aphasia is so commonly associated with paralysis of the right side of the body.
A study of the acquisition of the faculty of speech throws light upon the education of the speech centres, and helps to elucidate their physiological interaction and the phenomena of aphasia. The auditory speech centre is the first to show signs of functional activity, for within a few months of birth the child begins to understand spoken language. Some months later the motor vocal speech centre begins to functionate. The memories of the auditory word images which are stored up in the auditory speech centre play a most important part in the process of learning to speak. The child born deaf grows up mute. The visual speech centre comes into activity when the child is taught to read. Again, when he learns to write and thus begins to educate his graphic centre, he is constantly calling upon his visual speech centre for the visual images of the words he wishes to produce. From these remarks it will be seen that there is a very intimate association between the auditory speech centre and the motor vocal speech centre, also between the visual speech centre and the graphic centre.
Auditory Aphasia.—The auditory speech centre is situated in the posterior part of the first and second temporo-sphenoidal convolutions on the left side of the brain. Destruction of this centre causes “auditory aphasia.” Hearing is unimpaired but spoken language is quite unintelligible. The subject of auditory aphasia may be compared to an individual who is listening to a foreign language of which he does not understand a word. Word deafness, a term often used as synonymous with auditory aphasia, is misleading and should be abandoned. Auditory aphasia commonly interferes with vocal expression, for the
- ↑ In 1906 Pierre Marie of Paris expressed views (La Semaine medicale, May 23 and October 17, and elsewhere) upon the question of aphasia which have given rise to much animated controversy, since they are in many respects at complete variance with the classical conception which has been represented in the present article. Marie holds that Broca’s convolution plays no special rôle in the function of speech. He admits that a lesion in the region of the lenticular nucleus is followed by inability to speak, but this defect is, in his opinion, to be regarded as an anarthria. He further admits the production of sensory aphasia—the aphasia of Wernicke, as he prefers to call it after its discoverer—by lesions which destroy the angular and supramarginal gyri, and the upper two temporo-sphenoidal convolutions, but he regards the essential foundation of sensory aphasia as a diminution of intelligence. There are, in his opinion, no sensory images of language. Motor aphasia is, he believes, nothing more than a combination of sensory aphasia and anarthria. These conclusions have been vigorously attacked, more especially by Dejerine of Paris (La Presse medicale, July 1906 and elsewhere).
