Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-04-15

CASES OF DIOCY.

CASES OF DIOCY. t. I'M -
In the conformation and habits Of some
idiots the most careless observers could
not help seeing the ape. A striking i'm
stance of this kind Is described by DR..
Mitchell, Deputy Commissioners in Lunacy
for Scotland. II have never,s he says,
'seen better illustration of the ape-faced
idiot than in this case. It is not, however,
that the face alone is ape-like. He grins,
screams, and chatters like monkey, never
attempting sound in any way resembling
a word. He puts himself in the most ape
like attitudes in his hunts after lice, and
often brings his mouth to help his hands.
He grasps what he brings to his mouth with
an apish hold. His thumbs are but addi-
tional fingers, and he has a leaping walk.
He has heavy eyebrows, and short hair on
his cheek or face. He is muscular, &C
tive, and not dwarfish, and sits on the floor
in ape fashion. He has filthy habits Of all
kinds. He may be called an idiot Of the
lowest order, yet there is q mischievous,
brute-like intelligence in his eye. His
head Is not very small, its greatest cir
cumference being twenty inches and 3
half but in shape it strongly exhibits the
ape form of abnorrnality. s
| 4 iuCl Has EcCOTucu Lilc case VI au lulOt
who was something like sheep, both in
respect to her tastes, her modes of life,
and the form of her head. She had an
aversion to meat, ate fruit and vegetables
greedily, and drank nothing but water.
Her demonstrations of sensibility, joy or
trouble were confined to the repetition Of
the i'll articulated words, be. ma, bah.
She alternately bent and raised her head,
oil lfoo Of i, No M ",
companion. Her loins, her back, and her
shoulders were covered with flexible and
blackish hair one or two inches long. She
never could be made to sit on chair or
bench, even when at meals; as soon as
she was placed in a sitting posture she slid
onto the floor. She slept on the floor in
the posture of an animal aibsg
There is now under care in the West Rid
ing Asylum deformed idiot girl, who in
her general appearance and habits. has
according to DIR. Brown-striking features
of resemblance to a goose; so much SO
that the nurses who received her described
her as 'just like plucked goose" Her
father died in the Asylum, and her mothers
sister was also a patient in it at one time.
She is four feet, two inches in hight, has
small head and thin, scanty hair, so that
the crown of the head is partially bald.
The eyes are large, round. prominent and
restless, and are frequently covered by the
eyelids, as if by slow, forcible effort at
winking. The lower jaw is large, pro-
jecting more than one inch below the
contracted upper jaw, and possesses an
extraordinary range of antero- -posterior,
as well as lateral movement, the whole
configuration of the lower part of the face
having somewhat bill-like appearance
The neck is unusually long and flexible,
and is capable of being bent backward so
as actually to touch the back between the
scapul@. The goose skin" is generally
all over the body, but is most marked on
the back and dorsal aspects of the limbs,
where it looks exactly as If it had been
just deprived of feathers. The inferior
angles Of the scapule stand prominently
out, and. moving freely with the move
ments Of her arms, have precisely the APP
pearance of rudimentary wings. The girl
utters no articulate sounds, but expresses
pleasure by cackling like goose. and dis
pleasure by Kissing or screeching like q
goose, or perhaps like macaw. When
angry she flaps her arms against her sides
and beats her feet upen the floor. She
knows her own name and understands one
or two short sentences. such as, s.COme
here" and "Put out your hand" She rec-
ognizes the persons who attend her and
feed her, and is much agitated if touched
by stranger. She cannot teed herself,
but swallows voraciously all that is put in
her mouth, showing no preference for one
article of diet over another. She is dirty
in her habits, and no amount of attention
has improved her in this respect. She, is
very fond of her bath, cackling when she
is put in, and screeching when she is tax
en- out of it. a 80 'H3 !9lA
Instead of passing such cases by as
abnormal, or worse still, stigmatizing
them as unnatural, it behooves US to seek
for the scientific Interpretation which they
must certainly have. When we reflect
that every human brain, in the course of
its development. passes through the same
stages as the brains of other yertebrated
animals, and that its transitional stages
resemble the permanent forms Of their
brains; and when we reflect, further. that
the stages of its development in the womb
may be considered the abstract and brief
chronicle of series of developments that
have gone on through countless ages in
nature, it does not seem SO wonderful as
at the first blush it might do, that it should
when in condition of arrested develop
ment, sometimes display animal instincts.
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