58 On Idiocy. [Jan., 



suffers from wandering vision. The senses of hearing and smelling 

 appear perfect. The mouth is large, and he slayers. He can 

 hardly enunciate a syllable, but can sing slightly. His muscular 

 co-ordination is defective, and he waddles in his gait. He is much 

 below the standard of intelligence amongst perfect children of his 

 age, yet he is high amongst the idiots of his class. He under- 

 stands a great many words, and attends tolerably. His memory is 

 very weak, but he remembers many things he is told to do. He 

 knows his own things, he can compare, and he has a slight idea of 

 consequences, but foresight and imagination do not appear to exist 

 in his mental constitution. The intellectual perception is very 

 slight. His attention is easily obtained. The emotions are readily 

 excited. He is bashful, good-tempered, obedient, affectionate, and 

 gay. He is restless and mischievous. He knows very little. He 

 feeds himself with a spoon, but cannot dress himself. The dulness 

 of comprehension is very great. 



The following case illustrates the highest amongst the upper 

 class of idiocy, but the man had been many years under supervision 

 and training : — 



A tall, powerful man, aged forty-four years. The face is ex- 

 pressionless and dull, but good-tempered. The special senses are 

 perfect, and the speech is rather hesitating, but otherwise distinct. 

 The body and lirabs are well made and are on a gigantic scale : he is 

 6 feet 3^ inches high. The gait is slouching, but the general co- 

 ordination is unusually perfect. His intellectual powers classify him 

 high amongst the feeble-minded. In spite of careful training, his 

 stupidity, obtuseness, slowness of comprehension, and defective power 

 of perception are constantly noticed. Any trivial ailment diminishes 

 the mental powers in a marked degree. He reads slowly and well ; 

 writing is moderately performed ; he has slight arithmetical powers, 

 and a good slow memory. He is very good-tempered and amiable, 

 is obedient and placid as a rule, but easily roused, and religious. He 

 is a very good son and a careful labourer. He requires looking 

 after as regards his personal cleanliness. There is no relation in 

 his work between the labour used and the degree of force required. 

 He is generally incompetent when out of supervision. He works 

 in the garden and takes messages. The want of spontaneity, the 

 general dulness and slowness of comprehension, the slightly defec- 

 tive speech and the slouching gait, are very distinctive. 



Most of the so-called idiots may be arrayed side by side with one 

 or more of these cases, and the necessary restriction of the term to 

 the most debased becomes very evident after considering the posi- 

 tive mental peculiarities of the latter examples. They all have some 

 peculiarities in common. Thus a defective state of muscular co- 

 ordination is invariable. The muscles may act well separately, but 

 they do not combine their action properly to a common end. This is 



