Year: 1876

From the Scientific American.


What the Coming Man May Be.


ever writers have frequently amused


lselves and their readers by for


ng the future, and prognosticating


condition Of humanity centuries


e. They have materialized, so to


K. the dreams Of to-day, and pictured


ian life as il might be were those


ms fulfilled. In all these Utopias,


ever, the people better morally,
more happy socially, more fortunate po-
litically, and more powerful through
easily predicted increase Of knowledge,
are yet substantially the same as the peo-
pie of the present. IL is assumed, appa-
rently, that the future progress Of man is
to be measured by changes in his condi-
tion, not by changes in himself; that,
supposing progress to 60 on in the future
as in the past, the men of 5STT will differ
from us in their personal development.


A writer OF sufficient knowledge and
liyeliness Of imagination might plan a
more marvellous and, il is hardly too
much to say, more probable Utopia from
the standpoint of psychial rather than
material development, picturing a time
when the average man will be intellectu.
ally as superior to US as we were superior
to the less developed man Of FIVE thou
sand years ago. That there has been a
similar increase Of human brain power
during the past few thousand years is as
certain as that there was a steady in
crease OF brain bulk throughout the ami
NAL kingdom during the geological ages
just preceding; and there is no physio-
l.. r.. IL Al.
man may not go on perpetually increas-
ing in mental power.


Measure the intellectual gulf be-
tween the Australian savage, barely able
to count his fingers and having no nu-
merals above two, and Newton or La
Place, or even the average man Of to-day:
then suppose the whole race advanced
an equal interval. Imagine a race Of
men so intellectual that the average man
would be Michael Angelo The basis
for such an estimate Of the powers Of the
coming man is found, strange to say.
in certain idiots.


Idiocy is commonly marked by the
non-development OF the physical powers.
by the enon-development Of all but one, in
which cases q single faculty appears TO
receive the whole Of the force evolved.
and to develop enormously at the ex-
pense Of all the rest. Thus we may ac-
count for the marvellous power in one
direction shown by idiotic prodigies like
Blind Tom, whose psychical power is
wholly musical. The idiot painter known
as Cat Raphael illustrates the same per
version Of force in another direction. He
drew and painted cats and kittens Of
every sort, shape, and shade, in every
possible position and condition, and
painted them wonderfully well, yet could
do nothing else. In like manner we
have calculating idiots, abla to make the
most elaborate calculations almost in
stantly but utterly unable TO explain the
mental operations involved. Other idiots
without reference to clock or watch, and
without conception Of the object or mean
ing of divisions Of time, are able to tell
the hour and minute at any time, night
or day. Still others show an extraor.
binary development of verbal memory
unacco mpanied by other mental power.
Though unable to read or to understand
the meaning OF many words, they will
repeat by sound hundreds Of verses, lists
of words, everything in short, that they
may hear. Then there are historical pro
digies, who, though ignorant Of history
in any Just sense, can give the date Of
every great battle or other event, repeat
ing them as isolated facts, devoid of in.
terest and meaning. Similarly there are
mechanical idiots, or rather mechanical
geniuses who are idiots in all other direc-
tions. few years ago there were exhib-
tied in England a beautiful model Of a
ship, pronounced by competent judges to
be a perfect specimen OF naval architec-
ture, every detail being proportioned and
finished with the incest exactness. II
was made by the imbecile son of n gar
dener in an interior county. Up to that
time, it is claimed, he had never seen the
sea or a ship, his pattern being a printed
ship on an old pocket handkerchief
When his work was nearly finished, he
visited a dockyard, and made a few
changes in his work. Four years were
spent on this, his second attempt at ship
building. his first having failed through
Ignorance Of the fact that wood could be
bent after immersion in hot water. a
trick which he is said to have discovered
by himself He was taught to copy draw
ings, which he did with surprising exact.
ness; yet after all, at the age of twenty
four he was described as a small headed,
large pupilled idiot So we might 60
over the whole list Of human faculties.
finding illustrations Of enormous deyel
opments Of each combined with the total
lack or non-development Of all other
mental powers. The entire force Of such
individuals seems, as we said, to be turn
ed into a single channel


Imagine an organism capable OF send
ing an equal amount Of force to each and
ali the faculties a type Of humanity in
which the average man should have the
memory Of some idiots. the swift and GER
tain calculations Of others, the linguist,
musical, constructive, and artistic facul.
ties Of others. Such type Of man Is by
no means improbable. There have been
prodigies in memory, in calculation. in
music, in inventive power, who were up
to the average in all other directions.
However excessive the development Of
their faculties in one direction, IL did not
greatly impoyerish them in the rest. And
as, during the millenniums past the hu-
man race has been slowly lifted from the
low intellectual level OF prehistoric sava-
ges, so we may reasonably infer that the
race will 90 on increasing in mental
power, until those prophetic hints OF
what man may be achieved and over.
passed.


From the Washington Republicl


The Case Of DR.. Hambleton.