STUPIDITY 127 



they possess decided moral as well as intellectual qualities ; 

 and it would be as erroneous and absurd, therefore, to 

 characterise the class pisces as psychically stupid as to do 

 so in the case of the species or genus dog, elephant, ass, 

 pig, goose, or ant. 



In none, perhaps, of the many examples above given of 

 alleged stupidity in birds or other animals is there anything 

 like proof of its depending where it exists on low or 

 limited intelligence. But, considering especially what has 

 been said in other chapters of mental defect and its results, 

 there is no room to doubt that the correlation of stupidity 

 not only with low or limited intelligence, but with what 

 amounts to mental defect or disorder, occurs in other animals 

 just as in man. There are among dogs, horses, and certain 

 other animals individuals occasionally that correspond with 

 those individuals in man who by the Scotch peasantry are 

 called ' naturals ' or ' feckless,' unable to cater for or protect 

 themselves, and who in other countries are known as 

 ' silly,' c fatuous,' or c imbecile,' as ' simpletons,' ' innocents,' 

 ' noodles,' or ' ninnies.' Their mental c want ' is recognised, 

 though its degree may be inconsiderable. In the lower 

 animals such low or limited, defective or disordered, intel- 

 ligence renders the individual incapable of education, and 

 hence unfit for any kind of service to man. Stupidity is 

 farther a common result, equally in man and other animals, 

 of the mental degeneracy or decay that characterises age ; in 

 other words, it is a feature of, if it do not sometimes of 

 itself constitute, what is in man called senile dementia, 

 imbecility or fatuity. 



Stupidity arises also occasionally from bodily disease, 

 and we have already seen how, and how frequently, it is 

 dependent on infirmities of the senses or of sensation. But 

 a distinction must always be drawn between mere temporary 

 stupor, semi-stupor, or stupefaction, however arising as 

 from 



1. Sleep. 



2. Keflection. 



3. Intoxication alcoholic or other. 



4. Poisoning, or the action of drugs narcotic or other. 



