Report upon some cases of microcephalic idiocy and cretinism / by W.W. Ireland.

  • William Wotherspoon Ireland
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report upon some cases of microcephalic idiocy and cretinism / by W.W. Ireland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    18/30 page 16
    region, which constitutes one of the distinguishing characters of the human brain, capable of the free and complete exercise of intellectual liberty.” Dr Valenti then goes on to show that in this case the small- ness of the brain could in no way depend upon the confinement of the bones of the skull, as may have been in the cases of Baillarger, . of Cruveilhier, and of Vrolik of Amsterdam, in which the sutures were completely closed. In an appendix, amongst other cases of microcephaly, we get a little more information about Antonietta Grandoni, already de- scribed by Dr Cardona. This woman died at the age of 41, of pytemia, and there is a paper about her in the bpcrimcntale of Florence, by Dr Adriani, which we should like much to see. The brain of Grandoni was found to be less than that of Cioccio; it weighed 289 grammes. The cerebellum was in part covered; the frontal and temporo-sphenoidal lobes ■ were more complicated and better developed than the posterior lobes. It appears that Dr Adriani confirms the statement of Cardona as to the amount of intelligence shown by Grandoni ; but whatever details of this kind are given, they are not reproduced by Valenti. This deficiency of mental analysis, as already re- ; marked, is a common fault in descriptions of microcephalic , idiots. In the description of Cioccio, though we are told that he ' was a deaf mute, there is not a sentence to indicate that Dr Valenti laid any stress upon the great impediment which the want of hearing must have had to the evolution of a feeble intellect—in fact, an uneducated deaf mute in many respects resembles an idiot. It may not be here out of place to give a short account of a ‘ conversation which the writer of this report had with a micro- cephalic idiot, illustrating in a striking manner his peculiar mental deficiencies. I saw him at the workhouse at Lancaster about a year ago, * along with Dr Shuttleworth, Medical Superintendent of the Royal Albert Asylum. He had much of the appearance of an English labourer, being rather tall, and strongly made, with hands large * but well formed. I had only one interview with him, but gained some additional information about his case from Mr Metcalfe Johnson, a medical practitioner in Lancaster. He had a sister who had also a very small head.1 From a drawing which Mr Metcalfe Johnson had made of her, it appeared that she much resembled her brother. He always went by the name of Joe. He was 5 feet 9 inches 6 lines in height, and was 34 inches round the chest; but in measuring him we did not take off his shoes or vest. The measurements of the head were more care- fully taken:— 1 Mr Metcalfe Johnson gave some aeoount of her case in a paper on the Convolutions of the Brain, which he published in the Medical Times and (siuettc, during the year 1871.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3