Intelligence testing : methods and results / by Rudolf Pintner.

  • Rudolf Pintner
Date:
[1931], ©1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Intelligence testing : methods and results / by Rudolf Pintner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    he who shall be said to be a sot and idiot from his birth, is such a person who cannot account or number twenty pence, nor can tell who was his father or mother, nor how old he is, etc., so as it may appear that he hath no understanding of rea- son what shall be for his profit, nor what for his loss. But if he hath such understanding, that he know and understand his letters, and do read by teaching or information of another man, then it seemeth he is not a sot nor a natural idiot.” The Renaissance.—The emphasis of Protestantism upon the individual and upon his individual responsibility for his deeds and misdeeds, caused a sudden change in the attitude of society towards the feebleminded and insane. Far from being considered the special proteges of the Deity, they are now re- garded as the children of Satan. They are possessed of devils and strenuous treatment must, therefore, be applied to drive out the devils. What they do, they do intentionally and of their own free will, and, therefore, they must be chastised for their misdeeds. So the insane and feebleminded who offend are whipped and bound in chains and cast into dungeons until such time as they reform. This period has been well called “the era of whips and chains.” The industrial revolution of the eighteenth century produced a great demand for child labor. The condition of the child mill-worker in all industrial centers was pitiable. An interest- ing reference to the feebleminded appears in the custom, preva- lent in England in the eighteenth century, of binding out pau- per children to the mill owners. “The parish authorities, in order to get rid of imbeciles, often bargained that the mill- owners take one idiot with every twenty children. What be- came of the idiots is not known, but in most cases they did not last long and mysteriously disappeared” (Payne, 16). Modern Period.—Gradually the modern attitude developed, characterized by a scientific interest in the insane and feeble- minded, and also by a deeper sense of social justice to all classes. The fight for the better treatment of the insane was prosecuted vigorously during the nineteenth century. It di-