Litetcwy Notices. xi 



leads to exhaustion. There is no time to complete anything before 

 the energies flag. The will is equally deceptive in its apparent exu- 

 berance and real futility." 



Such is the general picture of a child with neuropathic heredity, 

 but the possession of some or most of these symptoms does not make 

 it certain that the child will become a genius or a criminal ; possibil- 

 ities for either may be present while judicious care may ward off either 

 of these calamities. 



Different from this class is that of moral imbeciles. As Mills 

 says, "the subject of true moral imbecility is the victim of heredity, 

 and his condition is manifested as soon after birth as it is possible to 

 recognize deficiencies in the moral sense through conduct. 

 Such children are incorrigible to reproof and training." Moral insan- 

 ity, on the other hand, is secondarily induced by trauma or excess. 

 Many authorities agree that for these classes a special training with 

 sequestration is necessary. Ordinary educational methods either in- 

 crease the disorder or give to its possessor greater power for evil, not 

 to speak of the effect upon associated children. 



Our author calls attention to the additional evils wrought by per- 

 mitting the degenerate parent to control the child. From 10-30 per 

 cent, of infantile insanity is attributable to the acute diseases of child- 

 hood. Spitzka states that sudden changes of temperature uncompli- 

 cated by other causes can produce transitory frenzy and acute deliri- 

 ous states. A parasitic etiology (ascarides) has been proven for 

 some cases, not to mention indirect influence, as where the irritation 

 leads to masturbation. 



The most frequent mental disturbance of children is idiocy, next 

 maniacal excitement, while depression occurs only at a late period. 

 Neuroses in children tend to be motor rather than sensory. Epilepsy 

 and hysteria have the characteristic form and extreme cruelty may be 

 the result of epileptic neurosis. 



In children ideas are simple, few, and disconnected ; they are, 

 therefore, incoherent because of an absence of organic associations 

 between the residua. Accordingly morbid phenomena are not sys- 

 tematized as in the adult, resulting in delirium rather than mania. 

 The present reviewer recalls the case of a child of perhaps five or six 

 years which seemed physically normal but whose conversation was of 

 a most remarkably imaginative character ; it would chatter on with 

 the utmost volubility by the hour without coherence, but the de- 

 tached sentences showed that the wildest flights of imagery were 

 careening through its mind. Accompanying this was a morbid cruelty 



