Problems relevant to the controversial field of aphasia are common in clinical neurology. One need not call attention to the manifold language disturbances resulting from structural or physiological alterations within the nervous system. Such defects are frequently compounded by a host of attendant impairments, making recognition of pure types or kinds of these phenomena difficult. The neurologically damaged patient who retains the faculty of expressive verbal communication lends himself to more searching examination than otherwise is possible, and vacuoles in psychic function may be recognized. Such compartmentalized defects, when related to relatively constant anatomical changes, have been instrumental in creating and reinforcing the so-called localist school of neurology. In a narrow sense exacting formulations are no longer tenable, but in a more general way they continue to have localizing usefulness. Relatively pure examples of acquired reading disorders resulting from localized brain damage are not common. Certain inferences may be made