ackwardness to ascertain the
condition of the sense of hearing, and of the power of speech, for I
have known the existence of deafness long overlooked, and the child's
dulness and inability to speak referred to intellectual deficiency; and
have also observed mere difficulty of articulation, dependent partly on
malformation of the mouth, lead to a similar misapprehension. In both
instances I have seen this inability to keep up ready intercourse with
other children cast a shadow over the mind, and the little ones in
consequence be dull, suspicious, unchild-like. I have already referred
to a similar result as sometimes following serious illnesses. The child
will for months cease to walk, or forget to talk, if these had been but
comparatively recent acquirements; or will continue dull and unequal to
any mental effort for weeks or months together, and then the mind will
begin to develop itself once more, though slowly, possibly so slowly as
never altogether to make up for lost ground.

=Idiocy.=--In _idiocy_, however, there is much more than the mere arrest
of the intellect at any period. The idiot of eight years old does not
correspond in his mental development to the child at six, or four, or
two; his mind is not only dwarfed but deformed; while feebleness of will
is often as remarkable as mere deficiency of power of apprehension. Even
in earliest infancy there is usually a something in the child idiotic
from birth which marks him as different from babies of his own age. He
is unable to support his head, which rolls about from side to side,
almost without an effort on his part to prevent it. Next it is perceived
that the child, though he can see, does not notice; that his eye does
not meet his mother's with the fond look of recognition, accompanied
with the dimpling smile, with which the infant, even of three months
old, greets his mother. Then it is found to have no notion of grasping
anything, though that is usually almost the first accomplishment of
babyhood; if tossed in its nurse's arms there seems to be no spring in
its limbs; and though a strange vacant smile sometimes passes over its
face, yet the merry ringing laugh of infancy or joyous chuckle of
irrepressible glee is not heard. As time passes on, the child shows no
pleasure at being put down 'to feel its feet,' as nurses term it; if
laid on the floor it probably cries, but does not attempt to turn round,
nor try to crawl about as other babies do. It does not lear