It. has been said flail idiot children sometimes show facial characteristies at birth. They are always ungracious. uneouth. or ugly in figure, faca attitudes, or movements. Very common among them arc misshapen or unsyn lllll trieal heads. dwartisliness, lack of proportion of the limbs. stooping and slovenly postures. deformities of flue hands or feet, and awkward gait ( Peter son). The expression of the face varies from apathy to constant laughing, louring, or s•owling: the mental characteristies being et blew also. flier!. may i.e deformities of the iris. cornea. or the of the eyes, as well as nialformat hum of the nose, 'an-. and 4.11i11. llierneeplialus. hydro eeplialus. and cretinism are found in some idiots. There are speech defects. ,Sollier finds two kinds of 'flutist!) in idiots. a motor and a sensory aphasia (q.v.). In the first the idiot talk, thotmli lie understands; in the second he understands nothing which is said. 1..ant,mage is developed late in idiots who .1s stated. when infants. their notes are not normal. hut meaningless and monotonous cries take time place of the usual crowing of a baby. Speech dis turbances are common, as regards both absence of words to express ideas. or imperfections of gram mar, and also exeessive and infinite loquacity. 'leading is in idiots who sofT•r from defects of the visual centres or the visual ap paratus. The writhe_ centre is the latest part of the linguistic cerebral equipment to be developed. together with its assoviation tracts. They learn to rept-aho• letters. though never to write well. and they exhibit a tendency to write with the left hand, and also to write from right to left. They execute drawing only by copying, without perspective, or produce scrawls of fantastic na ture, .
]'run preceding statements it has been gathered that the intelligence of the idiot varies from the normal in different degrees. lie has fewer ideas than the imbecile. Imitation does not fur nish ideas for him: it simply centres on mechan ism, except in the idiots of higher grade, in whom the idea, assimilated by the intelligence, unfortu nately is not retained, but lost. Sollier reminds 113 that memory is hereditary, organic, or acquired. (See MEMORY.) Hereditary memory exists often iu idiots. Organic memory, or unconscious mem ory (as of walking and other associated move ments), though sometimes completely absent in idiots, owing to defective nerve-centres and lack of attention. is nevertheless better developed than either hereditary or acquired memory. Atten tion being an absolute requisite for acquired memory. idiots are rarely possessed of this power. :Memory fixed by repetition of sensation. without emotional basis, is found in educable idiots; as, e.g. memory of the location of the dining-room, of the bed, etc. The phenomenon of specialized memories, such as those for musical airs. or dates, for example, is inexplicable. Association of ideas, occurring, as it does, by resemblance, contrast, and contiguity. hardly exists in idiots. They experience an association of sensations. Judg ment and reason also are very faulty. Volitions do not exit in the lowest order of idiots. Volun tary control of the sphincters occurs in idiots who walk only after they have learned to do so. In higher idiots the will is manifested by more com plex movements than actions accomplished for the satisfaction of natural needs and appetites; hut even these complex movements may become secondarily automatic. Self-respect, to which one may appeal in an imbecile. is little developed in the idiot.
As to the psychological development of an idiot points are reached in every case at which educa tion ceases, and further mental progress is im possible. Peterson places the limits as follows:
In the inferior types intellectual progress ceases at the age of six or seven, and sentiments and senses continue their development to eighteen or twenty: while in the superior grades the improve ment of senses. sentiments. and intellect may all cease about puberty. Retrogression may occur, following the same law as dementia, to wit, en feeblement of will, intellio'ence, sentiments. and sensations in this order. The causes of idiocy are various. Its elements are in many instances he reditary, that is to say, a course of conduct in a parent which tends to degeneration, such as exces sive alcoholic indulgence of any kind. will tend to induce arrested normal healthy development in offspring. Other causes are injuries received dur ing childbirth. acute disease of the brain or its coverings in early infamy, or even while intra uterine. Injury to the brain may result in idioey. Chronic disease of the brain-coverings. tuberculosis. tumors within the brain. hydro cephalus. are other causes. A peculiar type of idiocy is clue to ma] development of the thyroid gland. This is called cretinism or idiocy. The attempt to educate idiots com men•ed in the seventeenth century with an ex periment of Saint Vineent de Paul at the Priory of Saint Lazarus. His efforts to teach idiots. though continued for many years. were not sue eessful. In )799 the celebrated Hard took a wild boy found in the forests of Aveyron and at tempted to teach hint: and although the success in this case was slight. he believed that he had diseovered methods and facts which would be of use in other eases. These he com municated to his pupil. Dr. Edouard seguin, who. in 183S, opened a school for idiots in the Hospital for Ineurables in Paris. Ile met with success enough to have the idiots at the Bicetre sent to the hospital to be instructed, and in the course of three years he received the approval of the French Academy. Dr. Seguin adopted it system involving the theory that idiocy was prolonged infancy. His practice, founded upon this, was to excite and continue the process of develop ment. Of course a variable success attended the experiment. The art of etb-cting such develop ment requires much knowledge. tact. and patience. Different kinds of idiots need different stimulants. physical and mental. Pure air. good nutritious food, exercise; in short, any treatment which is calculated to increase the bodily and mental func tions will improve the idiot. Wherever his in terest can be awakened there will be a mental stimulus, and as the tendency of development. is toward a normal standard. more or less im provement must follow. Dr. Seguin removed. to New York City. where he established a school fur idiots and feeble-minded children, which was very successful. Other similar institutions exist in various parts of the country. Statistics are unreliable, as confusion is apt to be caused by the inclusion of epileptics and insane people with the feeble-minded and imbecile. In 1S90 it was stated that there were 93.500 'feehle-minded or idiotic' persons in the United States, Consult: Saler. Psycholoyie de Pidiot et de l'ittib6cilc (Paris, ; Preyer, The Mind of the Child, trans. by H. W. Brown (New York, 1893) : Ribot, The Psychology of Attention (Chicago.
; Bourneville. Assistance, truitenient et education des enfants idiots it dc'gi'lu'rs 1S95) ; Peterson. "The Psychology of the Idiot," in American Journal of Insanity (Utica, New York. 1896).