ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 227 



that the investigator is most of all astonished at the poverty of rational 

 power which may be displayed by a human mind that in most other 

 respects seems well developed. I can only wait to give you one ex- 

 ample, but it may be taken as typical. A boy fourteen years of age, 

 belonging to the highest class of undoubted idiots, could scarcely be 

 called feeble-minded as regarded many of his faculties. Thus, for in- 

 stance, his powers of memory were above the average, so that he had 

 no difficulty in learning Latin, French, etc. Moreover, he could tell you 

 by mental calculation the product of two numbers into two numbers, 

 such as 35 by 35, or of one number into three numbers, such as number 

 of days in nine years. His powers of mental calculation Avere there- 

 fore quite equal to those of any average boy of his age. Yet he was 

 not able to answer any question that involved the simplest act of rea- 

 son. Thus, when I asked him how many sixpences there are in a sov- 

 ereign, he was quite unable to answer. Although he knew that there 

 are two sixpences in a shilling, and twenty shillings in a sovereign, and 

 could have immediately have said that twice twenty are forty, yet he 

 could not perform the simple act of inference which the question in- 

 volved. Again, I asked him, if he could buy oranges at a farthing each, 

 how many he could he buy for twopence ? He thought long and hard, 

 saying, "I know that four farthings make a penny, and the oranges 

 cost a farthing each ; then how many could I buy for twopence ? Ah ! 

 that's the question, and there's just the puzzle." Nor was he able by 

 the utmost effort to solve the puzzle. This boy had a very just appre- 

 ciation of his own physiological character. Alluding to his power of 

 forming special associations and retaining them in his excellent mem- 

 ory, he observed : " Once put anything into my head and you don't 

 get it out again very easily ; but there's no use in asking me to do 

 puzzles." 



Lastlv, the emotional life of all the hisfher idiots, as of all the 

 higher animals, is remarkably vivid as compared witli their intellectual 

 life. All the emotions are present (except, perhaps, that of the sublime 

 and the religious emotions), and they occur for the most part in the 

 same order as to strength as that which I have already named in the 

 case of animals. But, more than this, just as in animals, children, and 

 savages, so in idiots, the emotions, although vivid and keen, are not 

 profound. A trivial event will make the higher idiots laugh or cry, 

 and it is easy to hurt their feelings with a slight offense ; but the 

 death of a dear relative is very soon forgotten, while the stronger pas- 

 sions, such as love, hate, ambition, etc., do not occur with that force 

 and persistency which properly entitle them to be called by these 

 names. 



Upon the whole, then, with regard to idiots, it may be said that we 

 have in them a natural experiment wherein the development of a hu- 

 man mind is arrested at some particular stage, while the body is allowed 

 to continue its growth. Therefore, by arranging idiots in a descending 



