32 ACCOUNT OF A BOY 



monstrated by a passage in the Abbe Sicard's Course of In- 

 struction for the Deaf and Dumb, where it is mentioned only 

 as a hypothetical contingency, which had been contemplated 

 by him and by his predecessor the Abbe de 1'Epe'e, as a pos- 

 sible, 



sage, he remarks, somewhat whimsically, that if a person born in these circum- 

 stances, should begin to philosophize concerning man, according to the method 

 of Descartes, he would place the seat of the soul at the tips of his fingers ; and, 

 in all probability, after an effort of profound meditation, would feel his fingers 

 ache as much as we should do our heads. From the following sentence, one 

 would be led to suppose, that Diderot had actually seen or heard of persons in 

 the same condition with Mitchell; but if this really had been the fact, we may 

 presume with some confidence, that he would not have contented himself with so 

 vague and equivocal a reference to an occurrence at once so anomalous and so 

 curious in the physical history of man. a Faute cTuiie lang-ne, la communication 

 " est entierement rompue entre nous et ceux qui naissent sourds, aveugles, et muets : 

 " Us croissent, mais Us restcnt da7is un ctat d'imbecillite.' 1 '' 



In those valleys of the Alps, indeed, where the disease of Cretinisme is com- 

 mon, examples are said frequently to occur of an almost total deprivation of all 

 the senses ; but, in such instances, the individual presents invariably, in the low 

 and humiliating state of his intellectual capacity, a very striking contrast to the 

 subject of this memoir. The universal torpor in the perceptive faculties of the 

 Cretin, is plainly an effect of the same radical disorder which impairs his intel- 

 Ject ; whereas, in the instance before us, (as in every instance where the intel- 

 lect is entire), the mind, checked and confined in the exercise of one class of 

 her powers, displays her native strength by the concentrated energy which she 

 exhibits in others. The following description relates to an extreme case of Creti- 

 nisme ; for it appears, that it admits of various gradations. It is taken from 

 the most circumstantial, and apparently the most accurate, account of this local 

 malady that has fallen in my way. 



" The sensibility of the Cretin is extremely obtuse : he dreads neither cold 

 nor heat, nor vermin ; nor even those blows which would be insupportable to 

 another. 



" The greater part are evidently deaf and dumb ; although I have happened 

 to see a few who would shudder at the report of a pistol. These last would 

 seem to receive some passive impression from sound ; but they are certainly in- 

 capable 



