Some of the characteristics of idiocy / by G.E. Shuttleworth.
- Shuttleworth, G. E. (George Edward), 1842-1928.
- Date:
- 1881
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some of the characteristics of idiocy / by G.E. Shuttleworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![the occiput imperfectly developed; the facial features have been well-formed, the orbit large, the eyes prominent, and the nose often of the Roman type. Sometimes there is n tendency to prognathism. The tapering forehead and prominent nose give to th« physiognomy, in some cases, a bird-like aspect, whilst, in others, the expression has beer compared to that of a beaver or a mouse. The so-called Aztecs are idiots of thii type ; and the portraits* and head-contours of the boy Freddy (a patient at the Roya Albert Asylum) show most of the characters alluded to. This boy, seventeen years o a^e, and 4 ft. 6 in. high, has a head, the greatest circumference of which is unde. 15 in. (38 a). This boy is still living. In the case of another whose head measurements were even smaller, and who died at ten years of age, the weight of tbj brain was but 13^ oz. (383 grammes). In another case of microcephaly, in whic the head measured 17^ in. (44-5 c.) in circumference, the brain weighed 27^ on (780 gr.); and, in a third, with a circumference of 16f in. (42-6 c.) the cerebral weigh was 21£ oz. (610 grammes). The authority of the illustrious Virchow has often been quoted in support of tk view that the cause of microcephaly is premature cranial synostosis. I am not sure thi\ this opinion is held by him without qualification, but so far as my humble experienc. goes I am inclined to think that the premature synostosis is, as a rule, the consequent rather than the cause of the imperfect brain development. Such, at least seemed to I the case in an instance of microcephaly which I had the opportunity of pretfc thoroughly investigating. As this case was fully described in the Journal of Ment Science for October, 1878, I will only now allude to it to say that the microcephai depended upon some arresting influence having been brought into play to check tk growth of the cerebral hemispheres backward and downward at about the sixth mont of gestation, the development of the frontal convolutions having proceeded normally far as the formative processes were complete. In this case the coronal suture was bt imperfectly ossified though the girl was fifteen years of age. In another case (A.A.] a boy of ten, the anterior fontanelle seemed but imperfectly ossified and there wt adhesion of the dura mater to that locality, and all along the inter-parietal suture. Microcephalic idiots present many varieties as regards their mental conditio their intelligence varying to a considerable extent with the size of the head ; bl speaking generally it may be said that this class possess, as compared with other idiot quick observation, expressive gesture, but deficient speech. To pass to another well-defined type of idiocy, that known as the Mongol or Kalm type, we shall again find certain characteristic cranial and facial conformations. Tl skull is obtusely rounded, the longitudinal not much exceeding the transverse diamet< and the plane of the face and forehead, and that of the back of the head tend (as k been pointed out by Dr. Arthur Mitchell) to form parallel lines. There is, moreover, obliquity of the superciliary margins of the orbits and an outward turning of t zygomatic arches together with a flat-bridged squat nose, which tend to impress on 1 patient the Mongolian aspect whence the name of the type is derived. Combined wi these osseous abnormalities coexists a coarse papillated condition of the skin a tongue, the latter being transversely fissured, and there is a clubbed appearance of i fingers and toes. Dr. Langdon Down has spoken of ethnic degeneration in connect with this type; but, however this may be, the etiology is generally pretty clear, these cases there is no hereditary mental taint, no consanguinity of parents to traced, but in almost all it is found that there has been some lowering of the mater vigour, either through ill health, advancing years, or, it may be, some depress * Exhibited at Meeting; engraved in Ireland on Idiocy, p. 93. + For Head-contours of Microcephai (A. A., a;t. ten) see Fig. 1, p. 5. Meaa a ments—Circumference, 14J in. = 35 8 c. From nasal notch to occipital protuberance i vertex, 9J in. = 24 c. ; Callipers, 44 in. - 115 c. From ear to ear over vertex, 10 i» 25-5 c; Callipers. 3 in. = 7 6 c.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2476193x_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
