12 DEFECT, DISOEDEE, AND 



I 



tinctively called generally animal, brute-like, theroid or feral 

 and specifically, according to the nature of the individual 

 resemblance, pithecoid, simian or ape-like, rabbit-like, cow- 

 like, sheep-like, and so forth. The Aztecs some years ago 

 exhibited in this country were good examples of microce- 

 phalic ape-like idiots. A microcephalic idiot, who died in 

 the hospital at Cremona, was known, from the peculiarity of 

 his habits, as the ' bird-man.' c He leaped on one leg, and, 

 before putting himself in motion, he stretched out his two 

 arms like wings. He used to hide his head under his arm- 

 pit, and chirped strongly when frightened or at the sight of 

 a stranger. He was said to be wanting in touch, taste, and 

 smell ; was dirty in his habits, and given to coprophagy.' 

 A paralytic, also Italian, idiot, was known as the f rabbit- 

 man,' or the ' man-rabbit,' from his habit of moving the 

 nose and lips, from being timid, and fond of green vege- 

 tables, such as salad and cabbage. c When he is frightened, 

 he stamps with his feet as rabbits do.' A third Italian idiot, 

 known as the ( monkey,' ' leaps with the spine bent, and 

 hands before him, like an ape.' . . . . e He stoops in walking 

 like a tamed monkey, while a brother of his rolls his eyes 

 quickly like a monkey, and touches everything with the 

 hand ' (Lombroso and Ireland). In other words, in these 

 two cases the general appearance and gestures, the ex- 

 ternal or physical characters, are of a sufficiently marked 

 pithecoid or simian type to impress common and casual ob- 

 servers. 



Professor Maudsley has narrated the case of a micro- 

 cephalic idiot who ' resembled a goose in many things, and 

 had the cutis anserina ; ' while Pinel has described another 

 who assumed the habits of a sheep (Ireland). In certain of 

 these cases it has been stated that the idiots had had no 

 opportunity of ever seeing the animals whose habits they 

 nevertheless had so correctly imitated. If such was the fact, 

 their assumption of the habits of lower animals was all the 

 more significant. 



Of all classes of human idiots there is none more in- 

 teresting to the student of comparative psychology than that 

 which includes wild men and beast children, such adults as 



