238 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to copy drawings, whicli "were so excellent and curious as to be 

 preserved in tlie palace. He liad seen neither sea nor river nor 

 ship, and had only a representation of a vessel in the middle of 

 his handkerchief as a guide. 



Sollier describes an imbecile girl of six years, unable to read 

 or write or understand anything, yet gifted with the power to 

 draw anything she saw. She copied perfectly all the letters of 

 the alphabet without knowing their names or signification. She 

 reproduced thus objects and also scenes of which she was witness, 

 though she comprehended nothing about them. 



Gottfried Mind was an imbecile who died in 1814. He was so 

 skillful in the drawing and painting of cats that he achieved dis- 

 tinction and became known as the cat's Raphael. Many examples 

 of his work are to be seen in European art galleries. 



Aptitude for Games. Seguin cites the case of an idiot with 

 extraordinary ability to play draughts, and there are one or two 

 other instances of a similar kind on record. It is probable that 

 such talent depends upon an unusual power of visualization, by 

 which the necessary positions and moves are foreseen. 



Aptitude for Buffoonery. It is not uncommon to meet 

 among idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded cases with an aptitude 

 for drollery, and for witty or humorous remarks and actions. 

 Not infrequently it amounts to a true talent, and thus justifies 

 including them among the idiots savants. At the present day the 

 sayings and pranks of this class of defectives are seldom heard 

 outside of institutions for their care, but there was a time in his- 

 tory when the quips and antics of the fools took the place of our 

 comic papers of to-day. The dramas of Shakespeare have kept 

 alive our knowledge of the fools of his day, for there are more 

 than thirty of them who flaunt their weaknesses, folly, wisdom, 

 and license through his plays. He depicts both natural and arti- 

 ficial fools, for these were the two classes of buffoons employed to 

 amuse mediaeval society. The origin of the custom, in England 

 at least, seems to have been in the legal disposition of the persons 

 and estates of idiots. They were given into the custody of the 

 nobility and gentry, who profited sometimes by their estates, and, 

 clothing them in the familiar livery, made them the butt of ridi- 

 cule and practical jokes for the amusement of themselves and 

 their guests and retainers. It is instructive and interesting to 

 read in this connection Doran's History of Court Fools and Ar- 

 nim's Nest of Ninnies. The latter book in particular throws 

 light upon the nature of the custom of keeping domestic fools, 

 and incidentally illuminates the civilization of the time. Here is 

 Arnim's description of a court fool in the palace of the King of 

 Scotland. He was a fat fool, a trifle over three feet high, two 

 yards in circumference, at the age of forty years : 



