MICROCEPHALIC PEOPLE SOME- 

 TIMES CALLED "PIN HEADS" 



One of the most striking forms of congenital abnormalities is Microcephalus, 



characterized by small brain, weak nervous system, and low grade 



muscular co-ordination 



Chas. Bernstein 

 Rome State School, Rome, New York 



MICROCEPHALY in the human 

 species is variously described as 

 a condition in which the cranium 

 and the cranial content capacity is so 

 small as compared with the normal or 

 average that there is not space for 

 lodgment therein of a sufficiently 

 large brain to direct, guide, and control 

 human function in a normal way. 



It is generally accepted that a human 

 adult cranium measuring below 17 

 inches in circumference is markedly 

 miscrocephalic, and anything below 19 

 inches is too small to contain therein a 

 full sized or normal and complete 

 functioning organ. 



However, it is not alone the cranium 

 or skull which is disproportioned, for 

 casual observation shows that there 

 are other physical abnormalities present 

 in these cases, such as small stature, 

 drooping shoulders, apparently long 

 extremities, as legs and arms, loose 

 joints, partially flexed knees when 

 standing, and weak nervous system as 

 well as weak minds, as revealed through 

 lack of vim, early fatigue, low grade of 

 muscular co-ordination, silly actions 

 and expression; however, they are 

 usually good, simple mimics, shy and 

 cunning, able only to articulate a few 

 indistinct monosyllable words. These 

 individuals are often described or 

 spoken of in a popular way as pin- 

 headed, anthropoid, simian, theroid, 

 pithecoid, atavistic, foxy, apish, mimics 

 etc. 



When we come to apply these vari- 

 ous descriptive terms to individual 

 cases we are at once struck with their 

 apparent aptitude thereto; however, 

 further analysis often proves some of 

 these terms less scientifically accurate 



as, for instance, anthropoid or simian 

 as indicating that when the individual 

 stands erect the tip of the middle finger 

 of the hand falls, — -when the arm and 

 fingers are extended and allowed to fall 

 to the side of the standing individual, — 

 too far down the thigh toward the knee 

 as compared with a normal human 

 being, whereas when the microcephalic 

 is grasped by the two shoulders from 

 behind and the collar bones and should- 

 er blades drawn back and the spine 

 made wholly erect, the tips of the 

 fingers assume nearly if not an entirely 

 normal position with reference to the 

 knee, thus showing that it is more a 

 laxity of tissue and absence of nervous 

 and mental viin and control than an 

 abnormal bone or skeletal structure 

 that is at fault in accounting for this 

 symptom. 



Atavistic, as applied to these indi- 

 viduals, assumes that herein is shown a 

 tendency to retrovert to an ancestral 

 type, supposing that in these families, 

 or at least these individual cases, there 

 is a devolutionary process going on for 

 at least one generation, and that there 

 is a hereditary tendency to strike back 

 to a primitive type of man. It occurs 

 about twice as often in males as females, 

 and often more than one child in the 

 same family, although so far as we can 

 find, seldom in succeeding or intermit- 

 ting generations of the same family as 

 the following history corroborates. 



Dr. Shuttleworth says "of congenital 

 abnormalities the most striking is 

 microcephalus. In its extreme form 

 it is characteristic of a low form of 

 idiocy, in which have been traced 

 simian and even theroid resemblances. 

 There are a series of gradations rising 



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