in a Boy six years of age. SI 



alphabet. Since that time his progress has been more decided. 

 He has now acquired all the letters. 



7^/i, He is regular, if I may depend upon bis grandmother's 

 account, in his devotional exercises. He says his prayers night 

 and morning, — is fond of going to church, — and proves that 

 he is attentive there, by repeating such parts of the clergyman's 

 discourse as a child might be expected to notice. 



It only remains to mention, that this boy has ever been in 

 a state of the most extreme poverty. He has been indebted to 

 the inhabitants of the village, for every morsel of bread he ha[& 

 eaten, and for the rags that barely suffice to cover his naked- 

 ness. He has never, as far as I know, worn shoes or stockings, 

 and is seen in winter, as well as summer, going bare- footed and 

 bare-legged, without appearing to suffer from the inclemency 

 of the weather. * 



This case, though extraordinary, is not altogether singular. 

 Many like it are on record. The celebrated Baron Haller, 

 in his great physiological work, cites from different authors 

 upwards of twenty such cases, some of which are even more 

 extraordinary than the present. {Elementa Physiologice^ vol. x. 

 1. 80^ s. 1. § 15.) Not having an opportunity of consulting 

 the works he refers to, I am unable to borrow any assistance 

 from these cases, in the inductive reasoning which the circum- 

 stances attending this case might suggest ; as Haller merely 

 states the fact of the extraordinary growth, without in general 

 mentioning any concomitant circumstances. But, as he ob- 

 serves immediately after, that a sufficiently full history of such 

 premature growth is not to be had, it may be inferred that the 

 circumstances in those he cites have not been fully given by 

 their authors. One important fact, however, he does mention 

 on the authority of Pliny and others, viz. that the mind^ in 

 these cases, usually remains in the infantile state. This, it is 



true, is somewhat indefinite; and, applied to J M ^'s 



case, would very ill express the state of his intellectual func- 

 tions from the time of his birth till very lately. I say till ver}' 

 lately, for within the last two months his mind appears to 



• Any charitable contribution for promoting the comfort, or advancing 

 the education of this remarkable boy, may be transmitted to Mr Smith, 

 either directly, or through the Editor. — Ed. 



