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With other animals, an instinctive mode of communication, to the extent of their needs, seems inborn and manifest from the outset. This is afterwards supplemented by some slight acquisitions, in the same direction, based upon intelligence.

In the human race this is wanting, but in its place is seen an intuitive desire and capacity to acquire the faculty of speech or to establish some mode of communication with its fellows.

That the intuition exists is manifest from the steps that lead up to and are prior to the development of speech; namely, in the acquisition of the gesture-language. The child becomes conscious, in some way, -- that need not be disputed about, -- of a selfhood; that he is quite another from everybody and everything else. He feels hunger and thirst. He feels pain. He wants that object. He dislikes to be thwarted. On the other hand, there are other individuals about him, to whom he ascribes the same personality, who answer to his wants when he cries; attempt to soothe his pains when he cries; cease to thwart him when he cries. He notices that he is the object of caresses or ill-treatment; that arms are extended to him to assist him in various ways, -- to give him what he reaches for, or deny his request (for such it is) by pulling it away. He discovers that there is a mode of communication by signs; he learns to interpret these signs, and finally to use them in his own behalf.

But, in the typical case I have imperfectly described, the instinct of the animal that guides the outreach towards its fellows is wanting. Intuition and intelligence exist but in germs. There is failure in volition and directive power over the organs essential to communication by signs or sounds.

Speaking of the class generally, it may be said that these several conditions may coexist or exist in varying degrees, depending upon the profoundness of the idiocy, and vanish as you approach the border line between idiocy and average intelligence.

Taking the pupils ordinarily to be found in an institution designed for the training and education of idiots or feeble-minded persons, they may be divided into four general classes.

It is hardly necessary to premise that almost any subject is susceptible of a variety of modes of classification, depending upon the particular object in view. That the special mode adopted in any case is to be tested by the purpose it is meant to subserve. That it may be in accord, or in conflict as it may happen, with other categories framed with an entirely different scope and not impair its value or its truth.

First where the idiocy is accompanied with deafness, complete or to the extent of shutting out the knowledge ordinarily received through the sense of hearing. Here the failure to speak is an incident of the deafness and may or may not be influenced by the degree of mental deficiency.

The following case is one of this class.

A. T., a boy eight years old, tall of his age and good-looking, but with a few scars on his neck from scrofulous disease. He was partially deaf, and had a brother who was entirely deaf. The apparent deafness in this case was increased by a disuse of the sense of hearing; in other words, a deafness in the perceptive ear. Thus the ordinary sounds of common life, full of meaning to the natural car, made a faint impression upon his organ of hearing, and through some defect in the brain itself, or in the nerves communicating between the ear and brain, he had not learned to interpret those sounds into a living language. He spoke but a few words, and these he had learned by imitating the motions of the lips of others. He was thus practically a deaf-mute. But there was more than the mere deafness or disuse of the sense of hearing. There was not only the failure to listen, but some sluggishness in making the attempt to express himself except by signs. This indicated that the nervous centres were involved as well as the auditory nerve. That he had the necessary co-ordinating power for actual speech was seen by the results of our training. He learned to make all the sounds of the language, and now communicates with his companions by the ordinary methods.

Secondly, where the individual has the faculty of imitation to an unusual degree, or not in correspondence with the development of his other faculties, and acquires the power of repeating words and sentences, and sometimes verses, without any idea of the meaning of the words uttered, or even in some cases any idea of language proper. In these cases where verses are repeated it is usually in connection with some tune that has been heard in association with the words used. It is the speech of the parrot, sometimes spontaneous, sometimes through some suggestion of association. This imitative speech presents itself in several forms, familiar to all of you.

Thus we have one class possessing a greater or less degree of what has been called "echo speech." The individual repeats the last word or the few last words of sentences spoken in his hearing, as unconscious of the meaning of the words uttered as the hill-side is of the articulate sounds it reverberates.