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of symmetry. Incapable of attention, idiots cannot direct their senses; they hear, but do not listen, they see, but do not look; they have no idea of order, they are slow and awkward.”

Dr. Esquirol states, that nearly all the idiots, for whom his advice had been asked, knew some tunes, and could sing, more or less. Idiots are sometimes remarkably insensible, although in full possession of all their senses. "How can any intellectual manifestation," says he, "be obtained from an imperfect instrument ?"

The task is difficult, no doubt, but if we cannot have brilliant results, may we not hope for some benefit, by following the method used with the deaf and dumb, or with the blind;this is the province of orthophreny.

There is another species of idiotcy, partaking of the character of the two preceding; it is sometimes partial, and constitutes but a state of imbecility; sometimes general, and resembles constitutional idiotcy. This state is peculiar to those individuals who, from infancy, have been kept in a state of deep ignorance, from which they could not free themselves; in this case, life is but prolonged infancy; and what would man be were he left to himself, without the assistance of society? In this class may be placed wild children, who have been found in the woods; to this class also belongs Gasper Hauser, whose idiotcy was but artificial,-in other terms it was the total absence of all education. Gasper Hauser serves to shew what the body

becomes when deprived of the influence of physical agents, and of education; other individuals offer more than one lesson for the development of the brain.

The philosophers of the last century, and Rousseau principally, have given great importance to the case of wild persons found in the woods. The philosopher of Geneva hoped to see in these individuals the type of the human species, and considered them more perfect than civilized man! It is to be regretted that he had not an Emile of this description to bring up. Peter, the wild boy, who had all his sympathies, was not an idiot, neither was he a type, nor the true child of nature, though considered so by Rousseau and Monboddo.

Peter, the wild boy, had been found naked in the fields; George the first, sent him to Hanover, from thence to London. At this period, the controversy respecting innate ideas was at its height, and it was hoped that this child might help to solve the difficulty; so that instead of seeking to give him an education suited to his situation, he was to serve as an example in a metaphysical question. We are not acquainted with the means employed for this purpose by Dr. Arbuthnot, to whom he was confided; but as this poor idiot could not serve for any psychological discovery, he was sent to reside with a farmer in Hertfordshire. His tongue was very large, and he could not move it well; a surgeon advised it to be cut, but the operation was not performed.

"Peter was a harmless and obedient creature," says Mr. Lawrence, in his lecture on physiology, "he could be employed in little domestic offices, or in the fields, but not without superintendence; he could not be taught to speak; he had a taste for music, and would hum over various airs that he often heard. When an instrumental performance took place, he would jump about with great delight, till he was quite tired; he was deficient in one important privilege of our nature, never having been seen to laugh."

After the preceding examples, who could recommend public education for children born with weak minds, or who have become imbecile through disease in early infancy, or arrested growth? What common preceptor could hope to reach the brain with incomplete senses? A task so difficult cannot be undertaken, and brought to any good termination, excepting under the direction of an able physician. How far are we from the education Rousseau applied to his Emile,-who was in full possession of all his faculties, and with perfect organization,-to that special education suited to imbeciles!

As rhetoricians and philosophers have done but little for children born with weak minds, it is for the faculty to befriend them. Let us judge what might be effected for those whose idiotcy even seemed to surpass that of the individual we have cited.

CHAP. IV.

Orthophreny.

THE ensemble of the means employed to draw congenital or accidental imbeciles from their unhappy condition, may be termed orthophreny, as the name of orthopedy has been given to the means of preventing spinal deformities; and although Dr. Itard does not lay claim to the title of first orthophrenist, yet it is justly due to him.

At the commencement of the present century some hunters discovered in the forest of Aveyron a young savage, who fled from them. They took the boy home, and the greatest interest was felt for him he appeared to be about twelve years old; he could not speak, or understand anything, and was considered as an idiot without hope of amendment. It was, however, thought that his education might serve for the history of the development of the human mind. Dr. Itard took charge of this pupil.

When he reached Paris, Dr. Pinel represented his faculties in such a state of apathy, that he was considered much inferior to many domestic animals.

His vacant eyes wandered from one object to another, but were never fixed; he was deaf; his voice was but a harsh shriek, which seemed to escape with difficulty from the chest. The strongest and most fetid odours, as well as the

richest perfumes, seemed to have no effect on him. His touch was confined to the mechanical action of seizing the objects near him.

He was incapable of attention, totally devoid of memory and judgment, and had not the slightest notion of imitation. His ideas were so limited, even those relative to his immediate wants, that he could not open a door, or mount on a chair to reach the food that was put at a distance from him; and his skin was so hard that he neither felt warmth nor cold! How then could the intelligence of this savage,-of this being, who had a human figure, but so brutal, that it seemed to belong to another species, be developed? All his faculties were obtuse; his eyes alone were good, but how was the attention to be fixed? Dr. Itard endeavoured principally to move the nervous sensibility by the most energetic stimulants to extend the sphere of his ideas by creating new wants, and increasing the number of his relations with surrounding objects :-to bring him to the use of language, by submitting him to the necessity of imitation; and finally, by frequently exercising the most simple mental operations on daily wants, and applying them to objects of instruction.

Five years constant care was bestowed by M. Itard on this unhappy youth: it is impossible to describe all the self-denial and patience required for this laborious undertaking.

M. Itard's first care was to restore to the skin

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