proper to notice here. It is sometimes the case that there is something left; some form of mental power, which exists as an exception to the general character of the mind. Some persons, for instance, who are justly considered as idiots, nevertheless show considerable power in matching rhymes. This power alone seems to be left to them; and, by means of it, they are enabled to furnish some degree of amusement to themselves and others. Others, again, will exhibit some degree of mechanical genius; enough, in the general prostration of their powers, to attract the notice of strangers, while it gives employment to themselves; but it is always exercised on a small scale, and is remarkable only from the fact of its existing in connexion with idiocy.

There have also been instances of idiots, as we have already had occasion to intimate, who have shown considerable power of memory. They accurately repeat what they have seen and heard, although they cannot apply to their knowledge, which generally consists of a mere series of external and unimportant facts, the ordinary powers of judgment. Some are said to be interested with diversities of colours, and to show a talent for the copying of paintings. Sometimes they appear to understand the nature of musical sounds; and continually repeat some simple and melancholy air. These things relieve, although they do not essentially alter, the character of their fatuity. There is just enough left indicate what the mind

imperfectly and sadly to

might have been if a mysterious Providence had othwise ordained.

§ 161. Of the origin and causes of Idiocy. Idiotism is sometimes congenital or natural; that is, the causes of it exist from the commencement of life. In many of these cases, there is a greater or less bodily malformation; the scull is of a size less than common, and there is a disproportion between the face and the head, the former being larger in proportion than the latter. The bones of the head are asserted by Dr. Rush to be preternaturally thick; and the consequence of this is a diminution of the internal capacity of the cranium." What appears most striking" (says Pinel, in giving an account of an idiot in the asylum BICETRE) "is the extremely disproportionate extent of the face compared with the diminutive size of the cranium. No traits of animation are visible in his physiognomy. Every line indicates the most absolute stupidity. Between

the height of the head and that of the whole stature, there is a very great disproportion. The cranium is greatly depressed, both at the crown and at the temples. His looks are heavy, and his mouth wide open. The whole extent of his knowledge is confined to three or four confused ideas, and that of his speech to as many inarticulate sounds.”*

From this instance, which is one of the lowest forms of idiocy, and from others where there was a similar conformation of the head, Pinel seems to be inclined to the opinion that a malconformation of the head in particular is the cause of idiotism when it exists from infancy.

* Pinel's Treatise on Insanity (Davis's Translation), sect. iii.

う

The absence or weakness of intellectual power, which is termed idiocy, is often found to exist from other causes. Men of great mental ability have sometimes sunk into the state of idiotism, in conse

quence of too great and long-continued application of the mind, a tasking of its powers beyond their greatest strength. Sometimes, on the contrary, the same results seem to have followed from too little application, especially when combined with a disrelish for social intercourse, which might have checked, and probably have prevented, an entire prostration. It is obviously one of the great laws of the mind, that the progress or advancement of its powers is connected with a suitable degree of exercise. If. therefore, a person withdraws into inane and idle solitude; if he pertinaciously withholds himself from the communion and conflicts of society, and thus loses the opportunity both of acquiring a fund of new ideas and of renovating his former stores of knowledge, he will be likely to find his mind collapsing into a state of weakness and ignorance, approaching, in the end, the condition of idiocy.

§ 162. Idiocy to be ascribed sometimes to the effects of Age.

Idiocy appears, in some cases, to be induced by mere old age. The senses at that period of life become dull; the ideas received from them are less lively than formerly; the memory fails, and with it the power of reasoning; and there is sometimes combined with these unfavourable circumstances a want of interest in persons and events, a coldness

and sluggishness of feeling, which perhaps cannot be considered altogether surprising at that period of life, but which is obviously unpropitious to the preservation of mental energy. In referring to old age, however, in this connexion, it is proper to modify this general statement by one or two remarks. When idiocy is superinduced by the influences of old age, this result is found for the most part to take place in those persons only in whom the External intellect alone has been cultivated. They have been so situated, being deprived in early life of instruction, and always deprived of the use of books, that their minds have been exercised exclusively in connexion with the senses. They know but very little more than what has been directly addressed to the touch, sight, and taste. The inward fountains of thought, original suggestion, consciousness, judgment, reasoning, are in a great degree sealed up. Consequently, when in extreme old age the outward senses are unable to perform their office, it is unavoidable, that the mind should sink back into a state of feebleness, exhibiting all the ordinary characteristics of idiocy.

Further; this state of the mind may be caused by various diseases, such as violent fevers, which at times suddenly disturb the mental powers, produce a temporary delirium, and then leave the faculties of the mind in a permanently torpid and inefficient condition. It may originate also in the abuse of ardent spirits, from great grief, from violent blows on the head, from sudden and great terror, &c. The idiocy, which is natural, and exists from infancy, has

sometimes been distinguished from that which is brought on by the above-mentioned and other causes in after life; but the mental condition being in both cases essentially the same, they may properly be considered together in one view.

§ 163. Illustrations of the causes of Idiocy.

Great and sudden terror was mentioned as one of the causes of idiocy. Very great and sudden excitements of any of the passions may produce the same effect. We know of no illustrations of this statement more striking than the following, from the interesting work of Pinel on Insanity." The feelings of individuals, endowed with acute sensibility, may experience so violent a shock, that all the functions of the mind are in danger of being suspended in their exercises or totally abolished. Sudden joy and excessive fear are equally capable of producing this inexplicable phenomenon. An engineer proposed to the committee of public safety, in the second year of the [French] republic, a project for a new invented cannon, of which the effects would be. tremendous. A day was fixed for the experiment at Meudon; and Robespierre wrote to the inventor so flattering a letter, that, upon perusing it, he was transfixed motionless to the spot. He was shortly afterward sent to Bicetre in a state of complete idiotism.

"About the same time, two young conscripts, who had recently joined the army, were called into action. In the heat of the engagement one of them was killed by a musket-ball at the side of his broth