DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0330
294
HISTORY OF THE SAVAGE OF AVEYNON.
the pains bestowed by his instructor, never could learn
the connection between the thing and the word, so that
it was absolutely necessary to seek some method more
suited to his faculties.
It was with this view, that M. Itard formed his new
plan of proceeding. He pasted on a board three pieces
of paper of very different forms and colours, and fastened
three pieces of pasteboard of the same colour and figure,
on the board by the side of their respective models. These
Victor learned to replace without any difficulty by com-
parison, as was found by inverting the board, and conse-
quently reversing the order of the figures. A second
board was then submitted, on which the same figures
were represented, but all of a uniform colour; and after-
wards a third on which the figures were alike, but the co-
lours different, and these experiments were attended with
the most satisfactory results. Additions and variations
were now made; new figures were added, the forms of
which were much less distinct, and new colours which
had but a slight shade of difference. These alterations
occasioned some errors and perplexities, but a few days
practice soon rendered them familiar.
This success induced M. Itard to try new changes, gra-
duallyincreasing in difficulty. He daily added, retrench-
ed, and altered, till at length the complication of these
exercises quite exhausted his pupil’s attention and doci-
lity. Those emotions of rage and impatience which burst
forth with such violence during the first weeks of his re-
sidence in Paris, whenever he was unexpectedly confined
to his chamber, now again overpowered him. His in-
structor conceived that he ought no longer to appease
these emotions by complaisance, but that it was his duty
to endeavour to overcome them by decision. His perse-
verance, however, lasted only a few days, being com-
pletely overcome by the unconquerable independence of his
spirit.
HISTORY OF THE SAVAGE OF AVEYNON.
the pains bestowed by his instructor, never could learn
the connection between the thing and the word, so that
it was absolutely necessary to seek some method more
suited to his faculties.
It was with this view, that M. Itard formed his new
plan of proceeding. He pasted on a board three pieces
of paper of very different forms and colours, and fastened
three pieces of pasteboard of the same colour and figure,
on the board by the side of their respective models. These
Victor learned to replace without any difficulty by com-
parison, as was found by inverting the board, and conse-
quently reversing the order of the figures. A second
board was then submitted, on which the same figures
were represented, but all of a uniform colour; and after-
wards a third on which the figures were alike, but the co-
lours different, and these experiments were attended with
the most satisfactory results. Additions and variations
were now made; new figures were added, the forms of
which were much less distinct, and new colours which
had but a slight shade of difference. These alterations
occasioned some errors and perplexities, but a few days
practice soon rendered them familiar.
This success induced M. Itard to try new changes, gra-
duallyincreasing in difficulty. He daily added, retrench-
ed, and altered, till at length the complication of these
exercises quite exhausted his pupil’s attention and doci-
lity. Those emotions of rage and impatience which burst
forth with such violence during the first weeks of his re-
sidence in Paris, whenever he was unexpectedly confined
to his chamber, now again overpowered him. His in-
structor conceived that he ought no longer to appease
these emotions by complaisance, but that it was his duty
to endeavour to overcome them by decision. His perse-
verance, however, lasted only a few days, being com-
pletely overcome by the unconquerable independence of his
spirit.