Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/251

Rh In some of the books on these defectives is mentioned an idiot with a wonderful memory for English history. When supplied with the slightest cue, he recounted in measured tones whole passages of it.

Falret noted an imbecile who could give immediately the days of birth and death and the principal events in the life of any celebrated personage mentioned to him.

Such instances of elaboration of special memories where all other faculties are in abeyance might be multiplied. The cases above mentioned were, no doubt all of them, examples of extraordinary development of the auditory tracts and centers. There are other cases in which the visual memories are disproportionately developed, as in idiots with unusual memory for places or faces. These patients, too, are congenital defectives.

—Under this caption should probably be included some of those cited under other headings, for the repetition of sounds heard, or the delineation of things seen, or the copying of actions all partake of the nature of imitation. Imitation is an instinct in defectives as it is in normal persons. Sometimes it manifests itself in simple forms, such as echolalia or echokinesis; occasionally it is exhibited in a manner so remarkable as to constitute a true talent. An instance imparted to me by a friend is in point. It is that of a young man, congenitally imbecile, but with an astonishing power of imitation of sounds. The multiform notes and noises of birds and voices of every domestic animal, even the peculiar sounds of sawing and chopping wood, the creaking of wagons, and the like, are so perfectly reproduced by him that he is in demand as a partaker in social entertainments.

—Examples of idiots savants with talents bespeaking disproportionate development of the visual centers, together with the power of reproduction by modeling, drawing, or painting, are occasionally to be met with.

Ireland, in his work on idiocy, describes two cases—one with an aptitude for drawing and wood-carving, and another with a talent for the designing and construction of buildings.

There was a noted idiot at the Earlswood Asylum who made a perfect model of a ship—a vessel ready for the sea—with every block and rope in order, said to be a marvelous specimen of naval architecture. It took him four years to construct it. He was able to speak but a few words, and these imperfectly, and could not follow the meaning of sentences nor write; but he learned