202 ANTHROPOID APES. 



a large head, a low retreating forehead, glazed eyes, 

 a morose expression, a thin neck, prominent belly, 

 crooked legs, large hands and feet. The boy was of 

 a slouching appearance, and his gait was unsteady : 

 saliva often dribbled from his wide mouth ; and 

 as he walked he held on to the furniture, walls, 

 etc., and often he fell powerless on his side, and 

 so remained in a crouching position. It seemed to 

 give him peculiar pleasure to creep on his hands 

 and knees, and at such times he would stamp with 

 the closed fingers of one or the other hand upon 

 the ground, as if in triumph. This habit, his gait, 

 and the gurgling sound which was all that the boy 

 could utter, constituted the points of his resem- 

 blance to apes. All the other conditions of life 

 were those of a being whose mental and physical 

 growth was arrested, and who, although not epilep- 

 tic, was to a certain extent idiotic. I am ignorant 

 what afterwards became of him. 



In the course of a discussion on the instance 

 adduced by Krause, Virchow asks whether the 

 psychological conditions of such a brain are indeed 

 simian. He is convinced that whoever has studied 

 the microcephalic child Margaret Becker (of 

 Biirgel, Haaau) will find that psychologically she 

 had nothing in common with an ape. In her case 

 all the positive faculties and qualities of the ape 

 were wanting ; the simian psychology was altogether 

 absent, and there was only the psychology of an 

 imperfectly developed and deficient young child. 

 Every characteristic was human. Virchoff had the 

 child in his room for hours together during a period 



