FOOTNOTES:
[13] For the sake of greater completeness, let us refer to a type of imbecile with very characteristic features—namely, the Mongol. A little round head, chubby cheeks, rosy as if painted with rouge, oblique eyes, a nose broad at the base and with a tip like a little ball, skin slightly yellow—the whole appearance of the child is such that one doubts his European origin, and thinks of a Chinese doll, with limbs of india-rubber, so great is the looseness of the joints. During his first year the Mongol is rather drowsy and quiet—too "old-fashioned," as the mothers say. In the second or third year he becomes lively. His countenance acquires a comic and jolly expression, and his imitative instincts become curiously developed, and as a general rule he is very sweet-tempered. They all resemble one another, and all "promise much and achieve little," for they never cease to be imbeciles.
CHAPTER V[ToC]
THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RETURN OF SCHOOLS AND CLASSES FOR DEFECTIVES
An Inquiry in the Hospitals.—Two years ago one of us betook himself to M. X., an important official in one of our ministries, in order to ask him to join a Ministerial Commission which was going to pay a visit to one of our asylum-schools. M. X. shrugged his shoulders, and replied energetically: "No, no, no! I have had enough of such visits. I will go neither to the Salpêtrière nor to Bicêtre. What would I see there? An idiot who allows his saliva to collect in his open mouth; another who has epileptic fits; a third who can say nothing but 'Ba, ba!' What would that prove? The only way in which one can find out whether a school for bad cases of mental deficiency is good for anything, is to find out the mental condition of those who leave. How many defective subjects are there who, after having been treated at the Salpêtrière or at Bicêtre, are able to gain their own livelihood? That is what one would like to know, and that is what no one ever tells us!"
The listener to these incisive and sensible remarks replied, after a moment's reflection: "I entirely agree with you. The information which you desire is of the greatest importance for judging the value of a school. I imagine that such information would be difficult to obtain. But one can try. I am willing to make the attempt."