IDIOTS SAVANTS. 239 



His head was small, his hayre long on the same; 



One ear was bigger than the other farre; 

 His forehead full, his eyes shined like a flame, 



His nose flat, and his beard small, yet grew square; 

 His lips but little, and his wit was lesse. 

 But wide of mouth, few teeth, I must confesse. 



His middle thick, as I have said before ; 



Indifferent thighs and knees, but very short ; 

 His legs be square, a foot long and no more ; 



Whose very presence made the king much sport. 

 And a pearl spoone he still wore in his cap. 

 To eat his meate he loved, and got by hap. 



A pretty little foot, but a big hand. 



On which he ever wore rings rich and good. 



Backward well made as any in that land. 

 Though thick; and he did come of gentle blood. 



But of his wisdom ye shall quickly heare 



How this fat fool was made on everywhere. 



This court fool could say bright things on occasion, but his 

 main use to the ladies and lords of the palace was to serve as 

 victim to practical jokes, cruel, coarse, and vulgar enough to be 

 appreciated perhaps in the Bowery. 



Any quick-witted imbecile or feeble-minded individual in those 

 days had no difl&culty in securing a good livelihood, and some- 

 times even prosperity and fame. Under such conditions it became 

 common for normal individuals to adopt the calling of the jester 

 or buffoon, and these were known as artificial fools. 



Conclusions. The aptitudes of various kinds described above 

 as not infrequently encountered in idiots are all of rather low 

 order. They are never found in any but the congenitally defect- 

 ive, who usually present the stigmata of degeneration. They 

 consist chiefly of great powers of memory, visual or auditory, and 

 of facility in imitation. There is no spontaneous invention. The 

 idiots sava7its are mere copyists in music, modeling, designing, or 

 painting ; yet at the same time their talents stand out in strong 

 contrast to their general feeble-mindedness. As a rule, the apti- 

 tudes are precociously developed, and are frequently lost before 

 reaching adult life. The physical basis of such talents must be a 

 precocious perfection of the cerebral organization in certain areas, 

 together with a true hyperplasia of tissue in such regions and a 

 tendency to early degeneration. There must be an increased 

 number of cellular elements and sensori-motor combinations and 

 associations in definite parts of the brain. Cases have been de- 

 scribed in cerebral pathology of misplaced aggregations of such 

 tissues in the brain under the name of heterotopia of gray matter, 

 and it is possible that some sucli unequal distribution of the 



