Table I. Female

In his book on the parietal lobes Critchley wrote in 1953: 'Unfortunately many writers on the topic of sensory disorders from cerebral lesions have not been consistent either in their terminology or in their methods of examination'. This statement is just as true today. A wealth. of terminology exists with new words frequently being added or invented. Space precludes definitions and it is doubtful whether there would be universal agreement. However, the importance of the underlying disabilities cannot be too strongly stressed. These unfortunate patients are still labelled 'demented ' or 'difficult ' today. This paper is confined to the discussion of that area of perception controlled, in the main, by the cerebral hemisphere that is non-dominant for speech. A right-handed patient is assumed throughout. Difficulties of perception and their treatment were high-lighted by Adams & Hurwitz (1963). It has been argued that in a predominantly right-handed population the number of patients ultimately requiring prolonged hospital care should contain an excess of patients with left hemiparesis over right, assuming an equal incidence of the two. A recent survey of patients occupying beds on the 54-bedded female continuing-care and slow-stream rehabilitation ward at the West Suffolk Hospital is shown in Table I