lopment, then the danger is always great
that the normal course will not be resumed. So much the more
instructive, therefore, are the cases in which the children after such a
standstill have come back to the normal condition. Four observations of
this kind have been published by R. Demme ("19. Bericht ueber das
Jenner'sche Kinderspital in Bern, 1882," S. 31 bis 52). These are of so
great interest in their bearing on psychogenesis, and they confirm in so
striking a manner some of the propositions laid down by me in this book,
that I should like to print them here word for word, especially as the
original does not appear to have found a wide circulation; but that
would make my book altogether too large. I confine myself, therefore, to
this reference, with the request that further cases of partial or total
interruption of mental development during the first year of life, with a
later progress in it, may be collected and made public.

It is only in rare cases that microcephalous children can be observed,
while living, for any considerable length of time continuously. In this
respect a case described by Aeby is particularly instructive.

A microcephalous boy was born of healthy parents--he was their first
child--about four weeks too soon. His whole body had something of
stiffness and awkwardness. The legs were worse off in this respect than
the arms; they showed, as they continued to show up to the time of his
death, a tendency to become crossed. The boy was never able to stand or
walk. He made attempts to seize striking objects, white or
party-colored, but never learned actually to hold anything. The play of
feature was animated. The dark eyes, shining and rapidly moving, never
lingered long upon one and the same object. The child was much inclined
to bite, and always bit very sharply. Mentally there was pronounced
imbecility. In spite of his four years the boy never got so far as to
produce any articulate sounds whatever. Even simple words like "papa"
and "mamma" were beyond his ability. His desire for anything was
expressed in inarticulate and not specially expressive tones. His sleep
was short and light; he often lay whole nights through with open eyes.
He seldom shed tears; his discomfort was manifested chiefly by shrill
screaming. He died of pulmonary paralysis at the end of the fourth year.

The autopsy showed that the frontal lobes were surprisingly small, and
that there was a partial deficiency of the median longit