DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0323
HISTORY OF THE SAVAGE OF AVEYNON.
287
The only mental affections of which he was at this
time susceptible, were joy and anger, and these M. Itard
occasionally excited. The latter he provoked only at dis-
tant intervals; and he sometimes remarked that at the
moment of his most violent indignation, his understand-
ing seemed to acquire a temporary enlargement. Once
while the physician and his governess were endeavouring
to persuade him to make use of the bath, when it was
only moderately warm, their urgent entreaties, at length,
threw him into a violent passion. Perceiving that his
governess was not convinced of the coldness of the water,
notwithstanding the repeated trials he had made with his
fingers, he suddenly turned round, seized her hand, and
plunged it with his own into the bath.
If his anger was sometimes purposely excited, yet no
opportunity was omitted to afford him pleasure, and
nothing was more easy than to produce this effect. The
sun’s rays received on a mirror and reflected in his
chamber, a glass of water made to fall drop by drop
from a certain height, on the ends of his fingers, while
bathing, or a little milk in a wooden porringer, placed
at the farther end of the bath, and moved about by the
oscillation of the water, raised in him the most powerful
emotion of joy, which he expressed by shouting and
clapping his hands, and these simple expedients were
sufficient to delight this child of nature almost to in-
toxication.
The result of this treatment was, in the short space of
three months, a general excitement of all his sensitive
powers. The touch by that time appeared sensible to
the impression of all bodies whether warm or cold, smooth
or rough, soft or hard. The sense of smell was improved
in a similar manner, and the least irritation now excited
sneezing. From the horror with which he was seized,
the first time this happened, it was presumed that it was
a thing
287
The only mental affections of which he was at this
time susceptible, were joy and anger, and these M. Itard
occasionally excited. The latter he provoked only at dis-
tant intervals; and he sometimes remarked that at the
moment of his most violent indignation, his understand-
ing seemed to acquire a temporary enlargement. Once
while the physician and his governess were endeavouring
to persuade him to make use of the bath, when it was
only moderately warm, their urgent entreaties, at length,
threw him into a violent passion. Perceiving that his
governess was not convinced of the coldness of the water,
notwithstanding the repeated trials he had made with his
fingers, he suddenly turned round, seized her hand, and
plunged it with his own into the bath.
If his anger was sometimes purposely excited, yet no
opportunity was omitted to afford him pleasure, and
nothing was more easy than to produce this effect. The
sun’s rays received on a mirror and reflected in his
chamber, a glass of water made to fall drop by drop
from a certain height, on the ends of his fingers, while
bathing, or a little milk in a wooden porringer, placed
at the farther end of the bath, and moved about by the
oscillation of the water, raised in him the most powerful
emotion of joy, which he expressed by shouting and
clapping his hands, and these simple expedients were
sufficient to delight this child of nature almost to in-
toxication.
The result of this treatment was, in the short space of
three months, a general excitement of all his sensitive
powers. The touch by that time appeared sensible to
the impression of all bodies whether warm or cold, smooth
or rough, soft or hard. The sense of smell was improved
in a similar manner, and the least irritation now excited
sneezing. From the horror with which he was seized,
the first time this happened, it was presumed that it was
a thing