IV. Examination Regarding Instincts and Sentiments
- Instinct of self-preservation.
- Instincts of order, readjustment,
- preservation and destruction
- of objects.
- Aggressiveness, cruelty.
- Instinct of assimilation and
- possession.
- Is the child obedient or
- rebellious, respectful or
- impertinent, affectionate
- or cold, rude or courteous,
- grateful, jealous, merry or sad,
- proud, vain or indifferent,
- courageous or cowardly, timid or
- venturesome, circumspect or
- thoughtless, credulous or
- suspicious?
- Has the child a sense of abstract
- right and wrong or only in relation
- to a small number of acts that
- concern himself?
- Does the child show spontaneity
- an active will—the kind of will
- which is the initial cause of all
- human actions producing intellectual
- or social results?
- Has the child only a negative will
- associated with instincts and does
- he protest energetically against
- any extraneous will that tends to
- compel the idiot to concern himself
- with social or abstract phenomena?
- Finally, in what direction and
- within what limits has the idiot
- passed beyond the boundaries of his
- ego in order to enter into physical,
- instinctive, intellectual and moral
- communication with the phenomena
- which surround him?
V. Etiology
- Origin of father and mother.
- Their constitution.
- Hereditary diseases.
- Place of residence at the time of
- the child's conception,
- gestation, birth and lactation.
- Possible causes of idiocy.
- Circumstances worthy of note during
- conception.
- Circumstances worthy of note during
- gestation, delivery, lactation.
- Serious illnesses of the child
- during the first year.
- Infirmities and illnesses from the
- first year down to the first
- symptoms of idiocy. Progress,
- retrogression or stationary state
- from the child's birth down to the
- time of examination.
If we realise that this model for a biographic chart was proposed more than one-half a century ago, it makes us marvel at the modern spirit of its concepts: it actually considers the relation between the development of the trunk and of the limbs, the mimic attitudes of the body, the constitution, etc., all of which concepts are foreign to the studies of the medical clinics from which Séguin must have drawn his inspiration, since even to the present day the tendency in the clinics is toward purely analytical investigation, with the exception of Professor De Giovanni's clinic.
In the model proposed by Sergi, the examination was required to be made twice: first upon the reception of the pupil, and again at his departure with the modifications shown below:
BIOGRAPHICAL CHART FOR SCHOOLS (SERGI)
Table I.—Physical Observations
- Name.
- Age.
- Birthplace.
- Parentage (father and mother).
- Vaccination.
- Stature.
- Weight.
- Pulmonary capacity.
- Muscular force.
- General state of health.
- Past illnesses.
- Anomalies, deformities.
- Head, horizontal circumference
- Head, maximum length.
- Head, maximum width.
- Cephalic index.
- Face, length.
- Face, width.
- Facial index.
- Hair, colour, form.
- Eyes, colour.
- Skin, complexion.
- Incidental remarks.