Show PRECOCITY OF extraordinary powers noticeable in fee ble minded individuals it is a strange ta but well known fact that in many persons who are idiotic or but little removed from the mental condition of idiots certain powers of the mind may be de developed eloped to an extraordinary degree remarkable precocity in the power of arithmetical calculations is frequently combined with a positive deficiency in in other directions in institutions devoted to the care of feeble minded children such examples are nearly always present deficient in some faculties others are developed to excess some su such C h ca can a carve and draw with gr great a t s skill kill extraordinary memory is ls often met with associated with very great defect of reasoning one boy in reading gibbons rise and fall of the roman empire skipped a line on the third pa page e at his first perusal ever after when reci reciting thi from memory the stately periods of gibbon lie he would on comil coming lff a to the third page skip the line and retrace his steps just as when he first re committed the pas sago to mer memory nory often the memory takes the form of remembering dates and past events one boy never failed to tell correctly the name and address of every confect tio ners shop ire be had visited in london lendon and could as readily tell the date of every visit the faculty of number is usually slightly developed in feeble minded children while memory is ls fairly well developed yet occasionally the power of mental arithmetic has been well developed improvisation is an occasional faculty memory of tune is a very common faculty among the I 1 feeble minded they readily acquire simple airs and rarely forget them in none of the cases of 0 idiot savants savanis has there been any history of the possession of a similar faculty by the parents or sisters or brothers in one case a necropsy is reported by dr J L down of london the boy had a remarkable indeed perfect appreciation of past or passing time there was no difference from an ordinary brain with the exception that there were two well marked and distinct soft commis dr downs explanation of the phenomenon was that as every movement of the house was absolutely sol punctual lie had data from which ho he could estimate the time by accurate appreciation of its flux every form of mental deviation may be met with in ili the congenital 0 feeble minded they may become the subjects of acute and chronic mania of acute and chronic melancholia and of acute mania the feeble intellect of the youth becomes fanned into a bri brighter liter flame the taciturn may be become ome loquacious the timid and respectful proud and defiant the amiable and tractable abusive and destructive three remarkable instances occurred to dr down of boys boyl who had never been tible able to speak making 0 use of well formed sentences d during the biall febrile state of acuto acute pneumonia or War latina it is of much interest to report all tuch cases as they throw great light 1 in n the wor workings kinoS of the human mind in ili health ailed medical 1 j cal and surgical reports Ee ports |