LECTURE VII. ' 195 



Miiller, that microcepliali and born idiots present as perfect a 

 series from man to the ape as may be wished for ; and I con- 

 sider it my duty here to make an addition to a previous state- 

 ment concerning the cerebral structure of these unfortunates. 



I shall keep, with reference to the skull, to the description by 

 Theile of a twenty-six year old idiot, whilst as regards the 

 psychical phenomena, the classical treatise of Leubuscher, on 

 the so-called Aztecs, furnishes us with excellent materials. The 

 drawing of the skull of an idiot I take from Owen, as the base 

 is also given, agrees in all but a few details with that given by 

 Theile of his " ape-man". I have compared about twenty 

 cases of congenital idiocy, which must not be confounded with 

 cretinism, and I find the following results. 



This congenital idiocy is manifestly an arrested brain deve- 

 lopment chiefly affecting the anterior portion. The form of 

 the cranium adapts itself to that of the arrested brain. The 

 development of such individuals proceeds very slowly, they 

 learn to walk only in the fifth or sixth year, their brothers and 

 sisters are frequently healthy, and so are the parents, though 

 perhaps not distinguished by great intellectuality. In some 

 cases, however, there are in the same family besides healthy 

 also several idiotic children, the malformation being in such 

 cases due to some hidden cause. These idiots are frequently, 

 though not always, dwarfs like the Aztecs. The stooping walk, 

 with their curved knees, not unlike the walk of the ape, makes 

 them appear less tall than they really are. Among the adult 

 idiots, of whom we possess a minute description, some are of 

 average size, as the two Johns examined by J. Miiller, and the 

 two idiots of Gottingen and Jena described by Wagner and 

 Theile. Such unfortunates usually die early. Of twenty cases, 

 however, which I noticed, eight reached the twentieth year — a 

 proportion not very unfavourable. 



The impression produced by these individuals is decidedly 

 simious, so that the authorities even describe it as such. The 

 arms seem disproportionately long, the legs short and weak. 

 The head is that of the ape ; the skull cap is covered with 

 thick woolly hair ; the forehead nearly absent ; the eyes stare 

 from projecting orbital margins ; the nostrils are wide ; the 



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