The Idiot: His Place in Creation, and His Claims on Society

AND
THE EASTERN COUNTIES' ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS AND IMBECILES.
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians ; Consulting Physician to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and to the Eastern Counties' Asylum for Idiots ; Associé et Lauréat de l'Académie de Médecine de Paris ; Citation de l'Institut de France ; Corresponding Member of the Psychiatrical Society of St. Petersburg ; Hon. Member of the New York Neurological Society ; Foreign Associate of the Medico-Psychological Society of Paris .
Author of Aphasia, or Loss of Speech ; Darwinism tested by Language, &c.
As stated in the preface to the first edition, the arguments contained in this essay formed the nucleus of an address advocating the claims of the Idiot upon the philanthropists of East Anglia, at a public meeting held in Norwich, in support of the Eastern Counties' Asylum for Idiots, under the presidency of His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, K.G., Earl Marshal of England.
In acceding to the request of the Board of Directors to publish a second edition, I have thought it right to retain the form of a public oration, as requiring less modification in the phraseology of the appeal for help, than would otherwise have been necessary.
Much additional matter has been added, especially in reference to Consanguine Marriages, Parental Intemperance, Overpressure in Education, and other factors in the causation of Idiocy.
I have tried to show how the study of the Idiot is calculated to throw light upon the abstruse question of the connection between Matter and Mind, and that it is a subject fraught with interest not only to the Philanthropist, but to the Theologian, and to the Political Economist.
Although I have endeavoured to explain my views in popular language, I trust it has not been at the sacrifice of strict scientific accuracy.
FREDERIC BATEMAN.
Norwich , January, 1897.