70 
look of the mastiff or the monkey. He is a general pet among the boys, 
as an animal would be; they can calculate on him; a given treatment to 
produce a given result; they understand him often better than the at- 
tendants do. 
: 
He cannot speak a single word; he utters two articular grunts which 
are slightly modified by lip action; one sounds more nearly like “boo” than 
anything else; his teacher of speech thinks this means “boy,” but the di- 
rector of his division is equally certain that it means “baby.” His tongue, - 
teeth and vocal organs are not at fault at all; the trouble is cerebral. 
He hears well and understands simple directions, but he is generally 
at a loss unless the direction is accompanied by gesticulation. Prof. Von 
Jagemann’s trained mastiff “Bob” had, I think, as large an ear vocabulary 
and he obeyed with much less hesitation. 
Basse’s eyesight is good, and he depends largely on it, watches keenly 
the lips of anyone speaking to him. His transcendant power is imitation; 
it is the one thing in which he is at home. He will repeat any number 
of simple things done before him. In an athletic bout (at least in a good- 
natured one) he meets a stroke with a similar stroke. He will throw 
kisses if they are first thrown to him. To try him with something new, I 
adjusted my nose glasses and then handed them to him; he adjusted them 
to his nose, without the least hesitation, manipulating them exactly as I 
had done. When I held up one finger he held up one; when I held up two 
he held up two; this was as far as he could go. He tried several minutes 
to hold up three, but he could not succeed. While these simple operations 
were going on, he took all the interest of a specialist in his own hobby. 
As a retriever will bring back for the hundredth time a stick from the 
pond with unabated satisfaction, so his pleasure in doing over and over 
again the same thing never reached a climax; his only condition precedent 
to perfect happiness seemed to be understanding on his part and continued 
interest on mine. He has learned to sew buttons on by imitation; but 
once when the attendant was not there to give him another button he con- 
tinued sewing without getting a button, although a box full was at hand. 
So far as I could learn or see, he is incapable of doing work that requires 
intellectual variation, or that offers alternatives. He can dress himself, 
but if he happens to button consecutive buttons in alternate holes he can- 
not (or at least, he could not in one instance) rectify the mistake. His at- 
tendant, at my request, asked him to dance; instead of obeying, however, 
he offered her his hands. She tried every way to persuade him to dance 
