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Read at Syracuse.

Idiocy may be spoken of in general terms as a privation, the measure and degree of which is to be determined by comparison with the normal and the average. Thus, it is the absence in a human being of some of the endowments that belong to humanity. I limit the term to humanity for the purpose of present discussion, though it might be extended downwards into the realm of comparative psychology, under relatively analogous conditions. To give it another expression, the idiot is wanting in the varied mental or moral characteristics of humanity, to a greater or less degree, in this or that or all directions that such activities take.

But inasmuch as man is a complex being, -- a bundle of correlated faculties and powers, dependent in their exercise upon equally intricate nerve elements, -- it follows that impairment of any one is more or less associated with manifestations of failure elsewhere. Still, in dealing with the class of idiots or any individuals of the class, to obviate, so far as may be, this abnormal condition, our first business is to analyze this general default into individual defects, and then meet them one by one by our educational or other efforts.

Tending to the same purpose is the fact that often individual peculiarities are marked and obvious; in short, so override all others as even to mask them. When this is the case, not only does the remedy of this become the prime issue with the friends of the parties, but invites the attention and the efforts of the educational specialist.

Who of us has not encountered the statement of parents or friends of pupils, whom it is proposed to submit to our charge and training, that there is no deficiency in the case, except that it cannot talk; and whose standard of future improvement of the child is the progress it may make in that respect?

This will serve as a somewhat clumsy approach or introduction to the subject which I propose to discuss or open for discussion at this time, namely, the relations of speech or the defects of speech to idiocy.

I use the term speech in its broadest sense and as including the underlying comprehension of language, of which it is the complement and exponent. There can be no true speech without the idea and comprehension of language. There can be no true comprehension of language and its uses without some effort at expression.

Speech is exclusively a human faculty. Muller asserts that it is the distinctive faculty of the race. At all events, any dissenting opinion must be based upon theoretical grounds only. So, too, in comparing one race of men with another, their relative mental condition and culture may be fairly measured by the copiousness and discriminations of the vocabulary of each. Even the number of words used, after making allowance for the varied uses to which a single word may be put, is a tolerably fair test of the intelligence of a people, or an individual, under the same or similar conditions of life. I emphasize this last clause because the scope of language, both as the means and instrument of thought, is dependent less upon the multiplicity of names, of ideas, and objects, and more upon the abundance of words expressive of the relations of objects and ideas.

It is not strange, then, that Esquirol, one of the earliest and keenest observers in the field of idiocy, assigned to speech, or the defect of speech, the chief place as a test of idiocy or default of intelligence; in fact, made it the foundation of his classification of idiots.

Dr. Howe, a disciple of Combe, in the specialization of faculties and their cranial seats, substantially adopted this statement of Esquirol, but with an apparently narrower use of the term speech that impaired its truthfulness.

Articulate speech or fluency of speech is not the test of human intelligence of any grade, but, in its simplest manifestation, the use of language to express wants, and later and higher the use of language that embodies thought as well as its use to communicate one's thoughts to others with promptness, ease, and clearness.

Speech, then, it may be repeated, in its broadest sense includes the idea of language as the instrument of thought; something prior to articulate speech in its development, and also, in a measure, independent of articulate speech in possession and in manifestation. As Seguin has expressed it, the faculty of speech in distinction from the function.

Time will not be wasted in a brief elaboration of this thought.

Study the normal child in the development of its faculties and powers. We must presuppose an individual self-consciousness as the foundation. Then the instinctive and expressive cries of infancy, signs of wants, of desires, of distastes, and disgusts. Next an appreciation of a response to these which confirms, modifies, and extends their use into the realm of volition. The awakened consciousness of the possession of vocal organs, and the intuitive disposition to practice the various sounds of which they are capable, both spontaneously and in the way of imitation. By and by it learns its own name, by the efforts of care-takers to attract its attention, then the names of familiar objects and persons around it, of its familiar belongings. Again, it acquires an idea of the use of language as a means of supplying wants. In all these steps natural language by signs precedes the conventional words. Then comes an appreciation of the fact that it possesses the power to communicate its wants by speech. Finally there follows imperfect and disconnected speech; at first more or less mingled with the more natural expression in the form of gesture language. In all this process we must assume that there is a born instinct and a native intuition that enables and guides.

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The signs and sounds that express the feelings, or serve as a medium of communication, in the case of animals are vague and scanty. Not so the first language of childhood. How great is the child's power of expressing its wants and wishes before speech is attained! Its physique becomes transparent to a careful observer, enabling him to follow the very process of thought. Doubt and questioning will cloud a little face, while an idea comprehended or a thought begotten will light it up. Then there is a whole armory of expression, by signs innumerable, before articulation is attained or attempted. It furnishes weapons of inquiry as to what and how and when and where; of distinction of time and place, of personality and circumstance.

And a point to which attention should be called is this: each one of these is worked out experimentally, its use learned, and then repeated till it becomes spontaneous and automatic.

The time comes, with advancing months, when experiments, prompted by the imitative faculty, and based upon a dawning appreciation of distinctions of vocal sounds and their use as a means of communication, are begun. The inarticulate sounds emanating from the larynx are interrupted in their progress outward by motions of the lips and tongue. The necessary movements of these upper and outer vocal organs are at last individualized and brought under the control of the will, and then the sounds made are elementary and syllabic. During this gradual process of acquisition of what may be termed a second language, the grasp of the first, or that of signs, is not surrendered. The two are used conjointly in varying proportions till the second is fully mastered.

No matter, for our present purpose, whether we regard these as prime endowments of the race or accidentally generated, and then fixed and transmitted by some subtle law of heredity. And it may be added, what every parent of a family of children has had an opportunity to observe, that there is no positive correspondence between the stages of infantile comprehension of language and its use, and the disposition to use it, and the access and development of articulate speech.

Or to give it another expression, the faculty and the function in development do not keep the same relative pace in different individuals, seemingly of similar degrees of intelligence. Something will depend upon the relative condition of nerve-elements, with which in action both faculty and function are associated; more, perhaps, upon the influence of surroundings that may aid or hinder the development of each. The seat of nerve-action and the development of nerve-action are different in each case, as also the source and manner of the influence operating upon each. And, again, there is a difference in the period when the idea of language is grasped in the clearness of the grasp, and in the force and variety of the motives that prompt to use it.

These are facts, it seems to me, of common observation, under the usual circumstances of infantile development, in the matter of speech.

We may now consider some of the forms of absent or defective speech, seen in our own special field of observation. Incidentally the inquiry may throw some light upon the normal course of lingual development, for under such circumstances the whole process in its every stage is slow and difficult, and there is therefore the better opportunity to observe the start, watch the steps, and comprehend the difficulties.

Take a child of seven or eight years old, or even older, standing, mentally, where an ordinary infant of three months old does. One, it may be, that has scarcely begun to notice distinctions of sound, directions of sound, or sound at all; not through any defect in the organ of hearing, but from not using the organ -- deafness in the perceptive ear; that makes only inarticulate and emotional sounds. To such an one, speech, in idea or exercise, is far away.

But watch the progress of such an one in the acquisition of the faculty, -- as all of us have done. If the steps are carefully followed, there may be seen the relation of intuition and intelligence to language; of activity of sensation (and co-ordinating power over motor nerves) to speech; the correspondence between awakened intelligence and mental activity and the comprehension of language in different degrees; the mode in which communication is established from without through sight and hearing, in which perception is built up upon sensation; the steps by which a co-ordinating power over the vocal apparatus is attained; and, finally, an illustration of the method of the whole system of training for idiots.

In the typical case suggested, we may suppose that what are usually spoken of as the organs of speech are perfect, however torpid in action. That the physiological default is in the nervous centres and in the nerves of relation. Modes of communication are not noticed. There is no desire to communicate with others. The individual is completely isolated; less the faint consciousness that his wants are supplied, he does not know how or why. There is a want of perceptive discrimination of the signs and sounds by which communication is obtained. There is little or no manifestation of the imitative faculty by which the normal child is prompted to reproduce certain signs and sounds made in his presence, and by which he is enabled to reproduce them. There is sometimes an apparent unconsciousness on the part of the idiot that he has vocal organs. Beyond instinctive cries, he is positively still.

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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.

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Another class repeat certain sounds or expressions of an emotional character, prompted perhaps by some emotion, though the sound or expression used has no apposite relation to the emotion felt.

There is another class to whom the term parrot-like is still more appropriate. I recall two girls of some ten years old; idiots of low grade; with no comprehension of language, not even having learned to distinguish the name of a single object called in their presence. They had, however, learned to discriminate sounds, without attaching any meaning to those sounds. The faculty of imitation had been somewhat developed in them. They had some memory.

This threefold aptitude was manifested in this way. In the marches in the school-room and elsewhere they would not only sing two or three tunes quite correctly, but the very words of the tunes, to the extent of two or three verses. At the same time, they did not comprehend a single word of the verses, any more than of the mechanism of the vocal organs involved in their production.

In another case I have heard a child burst out with quite a sentence, heard perhaps the preceding day, to which it did not attach the slightest meaning, and yet quite perfect in modulation and emphasis.

There is still another class of cases where speech is merely imitative, that simulates to a still greater degree intelligent speech. I recall a case that was quite interesting in several ways. A girl of eight years old; the idiocy resulting from brain disease in early infancy. She was a pretty child, with an absent and dreamy look, and alive only to the customary signs of affection on the part of her care-takers. Her parents were religious people, who often sang or repeated a variety of hymns in her presence. These she learned to repeat till she had quite a stock at her command. It was only necessary to start one of these in her hearing to have her repeat the remainder. Even a single word would prove suggestive of the context and start her utterances. The parents, when they brought her to the institution, told some incidents where quite unconsciously to them a word had given rise to the most apposite quotations on her part, and similar occurrences were not infrequent while she remained in the asylum: thus, while I was dressing a very painful ingrowing thumb-nail, she caught some remark of a by-stander and burst out with "I'll bear the cross, endure the pain, supported by thy word."

From a somewhat careful study of the imitative speech of parrots, I am led to believe that the appositeness of their utterances, upon which their reputation for intelligence depends, is the result of similar accidental suggestion or association.

Thirdly, where the default of speech is the result of idiocy; i.e., from want of intelligence and want of control over the vocal organs. The individual does not speak because he is not as intelligent as ordinary children are when they begin to comprehend language, or begin to speak. Or he has attained a degree of speech corresponding with the various stages in the normal process of learning to talk, in the cage of a child of average intelligence.

There is still another class who may be said to possess the faculty of speech. These belong to a higher grade. They are only imbecile or weak-minded. But this possession of speech, even if amounting to fluency, is a moderate one, when tested by the use of words expressing the relations of ideas. It is of necessity simple, because in any case language is never given or acquired beyond the mental requirements of the individual or the race.

For obvious reasons, the two first classes should be excluded from our present discussion. Of the remainder, we may assign them to several categories, and these in the main corresponding with certain degrees of intelligence, -- subject, of course, to the exceptional circumstances of paralysis of organization or other analogous conditions.

As an illustration of the fitness and practical nature of this mode of classification, take the inquiries we propound to the parents or friends of pupils on admission.

How large a portion of these relate to language, by signs or spoken, and speech? Thus: Have they any idea of language? Do they notice when their attention is called? Know their own names? Do they understand any simple command, like "Stand up, sit down," without the aid of signs? Do they know the names of any objects or persons, names of qualities, large and small, etc.? Of me and you and mine and yours? Do they know the names of any numbers? Can you send them on any errand about the house or place?

Then as to speech: Do they make signs to express their wants, leading you to the object sought or pointing to it? Will they bring you a mug when they want water? Do they show affection by caressing or kissing you? Do they extend the sign-language beyond its natural range or as seen in the case of ordinary children? Do they hum any tunes? Imitate any sounds? Do they attempt to speak? At what age did they begin? Is the utterance distinct? What words do they use? Do they put words together? Do they form sentences? The nature of the sentences? Do they speak of themselves in the third person? Do they repeat your question or answer it? Do they combine the gesture-language with their speech? Is there any imperfection in the organs of speech, any paralysis?

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Of course I do not mean to say that we ask all these questions in this order; but we start in with our somewhat routine inquiries wherever necessary, guided by the general aspect of the case or the conduct of the friends toward the proposed pupil. In the higher grade of pupils we may address our questions directly to them, learning from their answers what command of language they may have.

The drift of all these inquiries is to determine the mental status of the proposed pupil; in other words, the degree of idiocy.

When such questions are fairly answered about any child, we can have a tolerable idea of his mental condition, including observation, memory, and reasoning power.

There are other questions relating to hereditary history, the underlying or associated disease, peculiarities of form or face, habits, causation, etc., that are interesting in various ways, and help in our prognosis of the probable results of our system of training and education, and of the treatment. But these are, in a sense, mere incidents of the idiocy. The vital aim of our inquiries, i.e., the mental condition, can only be reached by a knowledge of the extent to which language is understood and used.

Mental power and mental activity must have an exponent in some form of language or speech, and in its higher exercise, as well as in the course of its development, needs it as a means of thought, and so we find it inextricably interwoven with all but the lowest stages of human development.

In thus making language the test of the degree of idiocy, I am aware that it is strictly a mental test, and in further suggesting it as the basis of classification, the same objection might be offered, for it is not in accord with recent classifications of mental aberration or mental weakness. The authors of these regard the mental manifestations as mere symptoms of abnormal and pathological physical condition, underlying or associated.

Nevertheless, if this shall be found to be an imperfect test of degree and an unsound basis of classification, still we have no other resource till it shall have been clearly established: First, that there is a measurably constant relation (of cause and effect) between certain physiological and pathological conditions and corresponding manifestations of defective intelligence, sensibility, and will, as seen in idiocy. And, secondly, that these associated physiological or other conditions can be detected, located, measured, and clearly defined.

We certainly have not yet reached that stage of knowledge of the underlying or associated abnormal physical conditions, in connection with the varying degrees of defective intelligence, to base a scheme of classification upon the former that will help us in our knowledge of the latter. (1)

There is an obstacle in the way of well-defined classification here as in any other case where there are no specific distinctions to stand as metes and bounds between the different categories. The difference in the grades of idiocy is the same as seen in the growth of intelligence from infancy to manhood. Still, there are general classes, the types of which may be appreciated, though the classes themselves shade into each other. Let me illustrate this by an examination into the condition, in respect to language and speech, of the two hundred and eighty pupils now in this institution. I refer, of course, to their condition when admitted, for training will modify the relation of speech to the different grades of idiocy, depending upon the relative prominence given to exercises designed to develop language and speech, and exercises of another character and purpose. From my experience, however, I should say that language and speech will ordinarily come with developing intelligence, even if special efforts are not made to call them out. That is to say, with a certain degree of intelligence and observation, the idea of language and a comprehension of its use will come as in the case of a normal child, only relatively to the intelligence a little more backward. So, too, with a certain degree of control over the physical organization, coupled with the desire of expressing desires and wants, speech will generally follow.

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Among the number mentioned there are seven who are deaf-mutes. There is with all of these more or less of mental deficiency aside from the deafness. The failure to speak follows the deafness. But of some of them the probabilities are that they would not speak if they had had their hearing. Their intelligence is not adequate to speech.

There are nine who are partially deaf, and whose deafness modified their acquirement of language and speech.

There are eight who are paralyzed to a greater or less degree, where the defect or impairment of speech is in part the result of the paralysis. There is one where chorea has had the same effect to embarrass utterance, as in the preceding case.

Regarding the above as somewhat exceptional cases, we may divide the remainder -- two hundred and twenty-five in number -- into the following general classes: (2)

First. Those who neither speak nor comprehend language; they are like new-born infants in that respect. Of these, in whom the faculty of language has not been awakened, the number is twenty-four (24).

Case No. 1. -- A girl eight years old; tall, slender, and with regular features. There were few if any external impressions that would produce even reflex motion in her. One could prick her with a pin, and there would be no withdrawal of the part suffering; she would simply scream, and throw out her limbs in vague and purposeless movements. There was, thus, the sensation of feeling, but without the practical use for which sensation is given. Simple reflex movement should be invariable in accordance with some physical law, but in some forms of what are called reflex movements intelligence somewhere of a certain kind is manifest in directing or modifying them. This girl would allow the ball of her eye to be touched without winking or betraying any consciousness of the finger, or any effort of the will to avoid the infliction. There was no definite sensation of sight.

She did not stand or sit alone, or manifest any fear of falling. She did not hold anything in her hand. She could not be fed except by placing the food back in the mouth within the reach of the organs of deglutition.

She did not use her ears sufficiently to distinguish tones of affection from tones of anger. She did not notice the direction of sounds. Shortly before she was brought to the institution she surprised her family by humming a part of an air frequently performed in her hearing on a piano. This was regarded as a proof of a change in her mental condition for the better. She had never noticed any articulate sounds. She never seemed to have any desire to make them, and certainly made no effort to produce them. Besides, she never noticed or attempted to use any other form of expression.

There is what may be called animal expression that is instinctive, but it is in the form of reflex movements and inarticulate sounds. When we come to the expression of wants or feelings, even by signs, much more the communication of ideas, there must be a conscious individuality to experience the want or feeling, to perceive the mode by which such wants and feelings are expressed, with a will or impulse to use such mode in its own behalf, by starting the well-planned and complicated mechanisms by which articulate speech is produced.

In this particular case there was no open communication with the brain of the child except the feeble appreciation of musical sounds that had forced their way inward through the passive sense of hearing, awakening a slight disposition to listen. There was only a faint impulse to responsive imitation. There was no responsive or intuitive exercise of will to produce articulate sounds. There was no power to execute the volition if it had existed. This was true not only of speech, but of all forms of expression.

Case No. 2. -- A boy eleven years old, -- could walk, having learned to do so before the access of the convulsions that caused his idiocy. But he walked without heeding his steps. There were but two or three objects that he ever held in his hand or attempted to grasp. He would take food in his hand and carry it to his mouth. Tormented with a constant thirst, he would carry a cup of water to his lips, dropping the cup as soon as it was emptied. Dropping scarcely expresses it; when the want was satisfied his grasp relaxed and the cup fell. His only plaything was a bunch of strings that he shook before his eyes, intercepting the light. The organs of sight and hearing were perfect, as his after-education proved; but he used the former only in relation to food and the single plaything referred to; the latter never, that I could discover, though experiments were made upon him with firearms and all sorts of surprises in the way of sounds. There was no perception of articulate sounds, no imitation and no attempt to utter them. The dormant mind knew no language, remembered no language, and attempted none.

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As in the former case, stating the matter physiologically, the nerves of relation and sensation were functionally at fault; or the transmitted influences fell upon torpid nervous centres, that, in turn, originated no impulses outward. The radiant nerves transmitted no co-ordinating agency.

But in distinction from the former there was in this case a marked enjoyment in being caressed, in being held in the lap. He would in return rub his cheeks against his mother's cheek and put his arm around her, and he had been taught to put his lips to hers, though without any effort to kiss with them. In other words, he understood and could, in some slight degree, respond to the natural language of affection.

Second. Those who do not speak but have an idea of language to the extent of knowing when they are called, understand a few simple commands, and the names of a few objects or persons, -- twenty-two in number.

It is not necessary to give illustrative cases of this or of the two following classes.

Third. Those who do not speak, but understand any simple sentences, -- six in number.

Fourth. Those who do not speak, but understand almost any ordinary language in the household, -- three in number. With such, the failure is not in the desire or disposition, but in the power to execute. Speaking physiologically, the default is somewhere in the nervous track between the centres of volitional impulse and the termination in the vocal apparatus.

Fifth. Those who utter a few words or sentences, but without any, or with but little, idea of language or the words and sentences used. The semblance of speech in those cases is imitative or parrot-like.

On a preceding page I have given some cases in point. I refer to them again to bring out more clearly the nature of the default. Following the phraseology of some modern writers, one might say that the sounds transmitted do not reach the higher or intellectual nerve-centres, but merely pass to what may be called the subordinate region of the imitative faculty, whence, inspired by the reigning volition there, they emerge in the form of articulate sounds.

Or, again, that the cohesion or association between sound and meaning is not established, while the association between sound and articulation is. (3) I prefer to use the word association to that of cohesion, because we know what association is, and cohesion is a physical condition that we only infer as a link in the chain between sound and meaning, or sound and articulation. And, again, because association precedes the supposed cohesion; in other words, association is primary and cohesion is secondary. This is true in the acquisition of speech. In the deprivation by disease, or aphasic condition, defect in the cohesion (physical) would precede the impairment in the associations necessary whether to comprehension of language or articulation in the matter of speech.

In either case, the effort to remedy the absence or the loss would be by establishing or restoring the required association.

Sixth. Those who speak a few words, understanding their meaning and with a purpose in their use; these usually employ the gesture-language as an aid to their imperfect speech.

Seventh. Those who use brief sentences. Of these we might suggest two divisions.

Sub-class a. Those who use such sentences in a natural way and in accord with the limited continuity of their thought.

Sub-class b. Those who utter brief sentences in a spasmodic and emotional way.

In the development of speech, I think that the usual order is, first, imitative, then intelligent and emotional speech. There is, however, a peculiarity that may be noted. Emotional speech becomes automatic, while intelligent speech has not the same tendency; inasmuch as a constant self-determination is a necessity of the latter, in view of varying circumstances. And so in aphasia, emotional speech, with its acquired automatism, is witnessed long after rational and voluntary speech has disappeared.

Eighth. Those who talk connectedly to the extent of their intelligence in varying degrees, up to a fair command of language.

And in applying to these language and speech as the test of intelligence, we are not to regard fluency, but a real command to the extent of the individual's needs, and fitness, and discrimination in its use.

In all the cases in the three last classes there is more or less distinctness of utterance, depending, first, upon acuteness of observation, and, second, upon co-ordinating power and flexibility of organs. In other words, upon conditions of sensory and motor nerves.

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It may be mentioned in passing, that when speech is not established at the usual period there is a want of flexibility in the organization later that renders its acquisition more difficult.

And again, when in connection with defective co-ordination speech at the outset has been imperfect, and the habit of a vicious utterance established, then later efforts to articulate properly fail of their purpose. The individual can make all the sounds of the language correctly perhaps, and can even repeat sentences correctly, but falls back unconsciously into his habitual faulty utterance.

I ought to allude to two or three other exceptional forms of defective speech occurring in idiocy but also seen in cases of sound mind, --

First, stammering. Six of our present pupils stammer, -- not quite two per cent. of the total number. This is, however, a larger percentage than has usually been found in the asylum. I confess the low percentage of stammerers has been a surprise to me.

We have a few cases, always, of marked defects in vocal apparatus, -- thus cleft palate and high palatine arch, which impede, to a greater or less degree, the power of appropriate utterance.

To this imperfect attempt to establish certain categories among idiots, based upon the extent of their comprehension and use of language, to assist in defining and describing their relative mental condition I may add a few words as to the means to be taken to develop the function and the faculty.

These should obviously be directed to the very point of imperfection of organism or default of function, when this can be determined. The natural avenues to the brain and mind must be opened. Perceptions of sight and sound must be forced through obstructed channels. Conscious intelligence must be awakened. Volition must be stimulated and encouraged. The pupil must be made to comprehend language, if possible, commands by gestures, the names of various objects, etc. In other words, the necessary associations between sound and meaning must be established. Then may follow exercises in imitation of muscular movements, very palpable at first; then practice in individualizing and co-ordinating muscular movements. At last attention is directed to the vocal organs, and similar exercises are continued to individualize and co-ordinate these. Then follow the imitation of sounds, simple musical distinctions, elementary articulations, and words of easy utterance.

Some of the means adopted must be applied individually, others again to classes, to get the benefit of the unconscious influence and force of associated action.

But I need not enumerate the varied resources at our command in the work proposed. In time, if we are fortunate in our material, the machinery of expression is so perfected that it only awaits the spontaneousness of the pupil to set it in motion and to bring him into relation with a speaking world.