IDIOTS SAVANTS. 237 



In some of tlie books on tliese defectives is mentioned an idiot 

 "with a wonderful memory for English history. When supplied 

 with the slightest cue, he recounted in measured tones whole 

 passages of it. 



Falret noted an imbecile who could give immediately the days 

 of birth and death and the principal events in the life of any 

 celebrated personage mentioned to him. 



Such instances of elaboration of special memories where all 

 other faculties are in abeyance might be multiplied. The cases 

 above mentioned were, no doubt all of them, examples of extraor- 

 dinary development of the auditory tracts and centers. There are 

 other cases in whicn the visual memories are disproportionately 

 developed, as in idiots with unusual memory for places or faces.* 

 These patients, too, are congenital defectives. 



Imitative Faculty. Under this caption should probably be 

 included some of those cited under other headings, for the repeti- 

 tion of sounds heard, or the delineation of things seen, or the 

 copying of actions all partake of the nature of imitation. Imita- 

 tion is an instinct in defectives as it is in normal persons. Some- 

 times it manifests itself in simple forms, such as echolalia or 

 echokinesis ; occasionally it is exhibited in a manner so remark- 

 able as to constitute a true talent. An instance imparted to me 

 by a friend is in point. It is that of a young man, congenitally 

 imbecile, but with an astonishing power of imitation of sounds. 

 The multiform notes and noises of birds and voices of every do- 

 mestic animal, even the peculiar sounds of sawing and chopping 

 wood, the creaking of wagons, and the like, are so perfectly 

 reproduced by him that he is in demand as a partaker in social 

 entertainments. 



The Modeling, Delineative, and Painting Faculties. 

 Examples of idiots savants with talents bespeaking disproportion- 

 ate development of the visual centers, together with the power of 

 reproduction by modeling, drawing, or painting, are occasionally 

 to be met with. 



Ireland, in his work on idiocy, describes two cases one with 

 an aptitude for drawing and wood-carving, and another with a 

 talent for the designing and construction of buildings. 



There was a noted idiot at the Earlswood Asylum who made a 

 perfect model of a ship a vessel ready for the sea with every 

 block and rope in order, said to be a marvelous specimen of naval 

 architecture. It took him four years to construct it. He was 

 able to speak but a few words, and these imperfectly, and could 

 not follow the meaning of sentences nor write; but he learned 



* Thus Drobisch cites the case of an idiot boy whose visualization was so great that he 

 could repeat word for word a page, even if in Latin, after a single reading. 



