File:Idiot Savant H.jpg

imbecile. Hydrocephalic ; epileptic ; 16 years old when photograph 
was taken. A dwarf ; height 4 feet. Admitted to Training School 
in fourteenth year. Hands extremely small, speech perfect and large 
vocabulary. Vulgar and profane beyond description. Could distin- 
guish between right and wrong, but chose always the wrong. Ego- 
tistic, would do almost anything to attract attention. Had a fair 
voice in singing; apparently learned to read and write, although a 
great deal of it was simply memorizing and imitating. His was a 
most unusvial example of abnormal development of memory over 
other mental powers — a " memory prodigy " so to speak. Mental limit reached in his sixteenth year ; but old in iniquity, impudent, defi- 
ant, quarrelsome, obstinate, and disobedient, a breeder of mischief 
and a disturbing element in the schools, he was transferred to a cus- 
todial building, where under closer care and supervision he did very 
well for the remaining 4 years of his life. His previous history would 
have furnished material for the pen of a Zola. Condition congenital ; 
the unusual size of his head was noticeable in his earliest infancy ; in 
his fourth year it began to increase rapidly, and at 6 years of age he 
wore a 7^ hat. At this period, having attained the height of 4 feet, 
he ceased to grow, but developed wonderful power of memory, re- 
peating songs, poems and long passages by rote, with an aptitude 
truly extraordinary. With quick perception was united a strong love 
of metaphor, making him peculiarly susceptible to the charm of 
rhythm in music and poetry. He learned to recite, without efifort, 
whole pages of Milton and Shakespere, and to sing hymns and senti- 
mental songs. Frequenting the theatres, he would on returning 
render with marked precision attractive scenes in the plays, taking 
the various roles of the actors and actresses that had most impressed 
him. Lacking the care and guardianship so necessary to an irrespon- 
sible, this unfortunate child— tiny and deformed, a travesty of 
humanity — roamed the streets at will, a veritable montebank. 

Naturally he soon fell into evil courses, and became the victim 
of the vicious. Profanity and slang, easy for him to acquire, vulgar al- 
lusions, a double entendre — cleverly picked up here and there — made 
him an unfailing source of amusement to a class of men who, applaud- 
ing him vociferously, gave him whiskey and tobacco as a reward 
for his performances, and encouraged in every way his development 
in the school of vice. With astonishing alacrity he learned to smoke, 
chew, swear, and drink, and his companions were corner-loungers 
and the scum of society. Day after day he would be seen staggering, 
intoxicated, from saloon to saloon. A woman could not pass him 
without being insulted. The newspapers wrote up his career in the 
most sensational manner. Finally after 8 years, self-willed and 
incorrigible, this " enfant prodigue " became a veritable " enfant 
terrible " and, a nuisance to society the safety of his community de- 
manded his permanent sequestration. He died in his tv/entieth year 
of softening of the brain. 

Father a carpenter, 34, and mother, 21 years old at time of his 
birth. Ordinary labor, but deficient animation ; nourished by