is not ashamed to treat him in such a manner. He then swears and
blasphemes, paces tip and down, tosses his arms wildly about, and
menaces any one near him. At last, as his exasperation culminates, he
rushes up towards Dr. Browne with a peculiar sidelong movement, shaking
his doubled fist, and threatening destruction. Then his upper lip may
be seen to be raised, especially at the corners, so that his huge
canine teeth are exhibited. He hisses forth his curses through his set
teeth, and his whole expression assumes the character of extreme
ferocity. A similar description is applicable to another man, excepting
that he generally foams at the mouth and spits, dancing and jumping
about in a strange rapid manner, shrieking out his maledictions in a
shrill falsetto voice.
Dr. Browne also informs me of the case of an epileptic idiot, incapable
of independent movements, and who spends the whole day in playing with
some toys; but his temper is morose and easily roused into fierceness.
When any one touches his toys, he slowly raises his head from its
habitual downward position, and fixes his eyes on the offender, with a
tardy yet angry scowl. If the annoyance be repeated, he draws back his
thick lips and reveals a prominent row of hideous fangs (large canines
being especially noticeable), and then makes a quick and cruel clutch
with his open hand at the offending person. The rapidity of this
clutch, as Dr. Browne remarks, is marvellous in a being ordinarily so
torpid that he takes about fifteen seconds, when attracted by any
noise, to turn his head from one side to the other. If, when thus
incensed, a handkerchief, book, or other article, be placed into his
hands, he drags it to his mouth and bites it. Mr. Nicol has likewise
described to me two cases of insane patients, whose lips are retracted
during paroxysms of rage.
Dr. Maudsley, after detailing various strange animal-like traits in
idiots, asks whether these are not due to the reappearance of primitive
instincts a faint echo from a far-distant past, testifying to a
kinship which man has almost outgrown. He adds, that as every human
brain passes, in the course of its development, through the same stages
as those occurring in the lower vertebrate animals, and as the brain of
an idiot is in an arrested condition, we may presume that it will
manifest its most primitive functions, and no higher functions. Dr.
Maudsley thinks that the same view may be extended to the brain in its
degenerated condition in some insane patients; and asks, whence come
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