46 FOKMS OF MENTAL DEFECT AND DERANGEMENT 



syllabic and unvarying replies to questions. This condition 

 of mental imbecility became permanent. 



A certain gamekeeper at Garnkirk, near Glasgow, judged 

 of the mental capacity of his pups phrenologically - -by the 

 size and form of their heads. 'Out of a litter of blind 

 pointer pups, this man, by examining their heads, could 

 select those who could be easily trained for the field from 

 among those who could not. Sometimes he would pick out 

 what he called an idiwit, and that one to a certainty turned 

 out incapable of being trained at all.' 1 Franconi speaks of 

 idiots among circus horses as incapable of being trained, and 

 as fit only for simple mechanical work. 



This unfitness for education, this incapacity for mental 

 development or progress, is a very common feature of the 

 various degrees of mental imbecility. Another quite as 

 important feature is incorrig Utility, the incapacity of benefit 

 from correction or punishment, for to the category of im- 

 becility or dementia are no doubt to be referred sometimes 

 certain ineradicable vices. In such cases, indeed, punishment 

 is not only useless but cruel, and it is apt to become dan- 

 gerous, by leading to the development of morbid and vicious 

 propensities, such as biting or kicking. 



Among the results or concomitants of mental imbecility 

 in its various forms or degrees are certain defects of temper or 

 character that are too apt to be regarded as mere vices, and 

 treated as such, including, for instance, stubbornness, idleness, 

 or indifference. In other cases, utter neglect of its own 

 immediate personal wants, obvious mental confusion or be- 

 wilderment, inability either to think or act, a greater than 

 infantile helplessness, bear evidence to the deficient cerebral 

 power. 



And lastly, various marked eccentricities of behaviour, 

 such as the aimless piling up of miscellaneous and useless 

 objects by the dog, are referable to mental disease of the kind 

 we are now considering. 



In some respects analogous to, and in others in contrast 

 with, the congenital, original, or primary imbecility of the 

 young, is the secondary imbecility of the old, what is tech- 



1 ' Philosophy of Insanity,' p. 47. 



