selves, benefit to the patients, and advantage to the county. The committee review the past services of Sir William and Lady Ellis with no ordinary satisfaction, and ascribe the efficiency of the asylum to the zeal and unremitting attention which they have devoted to the various branches of the establishment. The committee, therefore, earnestly request Sir William and Lady Ellis to reconsider their letter, and thereby afford the asylum a continuance of the benefit of their joint assistance at this important moment, and give the committee the satisfaction of opening the additional buildings under their valuable superintendence. "JAMES CLITHEROW, Chairman. SESSIONS HOUSE, CLERKENWELL, Feb. 15. 1838." "After the receipt of this document we could not refuse to accede to the request; and in answer, after acknowledging the receipt of the resolution, we said that, without pledging ourselves in the least to continue at Hanwell afterwards, we could not refuse their request of remaining for the purpose mentioned in the resolution; that we should be most anxious to place the whole concern here upon such a plan as we doubted not would be satisfactory to the committee, if they would permit us, under their control, to pursue the system and line of conduct which we had hitherto adopted. "A meeting of the visiting justices was held on the following day, which I was desired to attend. Notwithstanding the resolution, and our assent to remain for a period on the old system, I was then informed that, whether we remained or not, the change of management would be put in force. This information, after the previous resolution, much surprised me; however, at the earnest request of some of the members of the committee, and at their suggestion, that if I permitted our resignation at that time to be considered as withdrawn, 'I was still a free agent, and could renew it when I chose,' I consented. But, upon my mentioning what had taken place to Lady Ellis, we agreed, that, as the resolution forwarded to us evidently was not intended to imply the giving up of the measures which we considered incompatible with the welfare of the institution, the only course we could conscientiously adopt was immediately to resign. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, MIDDLESEX LUNATIC ASYLUM, Hanwell, W. C. ELLIS." March 14. Y II. CASES AND FACTS. I. A Case of Congenital Idiocy. Communicated by MR. RICHARD CULL. WILLIAM CATLIN, natural son of Hannah Catlin and Henry S***** was born the 25th December 1827, in the town of King's Lynn, Norfolk. The father was engaged at the Lynn theatre in the spring of 1826, the mother says as a violinist, but it is commonly reported as a comic singer. Hannah Catlin is now thirty-three years of age; consequently she gave birth to her child when twenty-three. She has had other natural children by different men, of which William, the subject of this communication, is the eldest, is the only one by Henry S*****, and is the only idiot. She has another child living, a fine intelligent girl, five years old. Her other children have died young. Hannah Catlin is of ordinary stature. Her temperament is sanguine, with a blending of lymphatic and nervous. Her head is rather small. She can read and write. She is a native of, and still resides at, King's Lynn in Norfolk. These are all the facts I can gather of the parents. Hannah Catlin informed me that she is not given to drinking, and she believes the father to be a sober man. Is quite confident that neither of them were intoxicated. The period of gestation was nine months to the day and almost to the hour. She is a labouring woman, and at the time worked in a garden. While tying up radishes one day about the sixth month of her pregnancy, a rat came from a shed near which she sat, and ran across her lap. She was much frightened, shivered with cold, and immediately fainted. She became timid, frequently thought of the circumstance, and shuddered at its recollection. She had no fear at all of the fright affecting her baby, and although her friends attribute the idiocy to it, she thinks that was not the cause, for, to use her own words, "He is not marked with the picture of a rat." The child was born small and weak, but not to attract particular notice. He grew, and was not suspected of being an idiot until between two and three years old. The mother says she observed the head to be unusually small, and that it did not seem to grow, The subjoined wood-cut is from a sketch by Miss F. Wyckliffe Goodwin, of Lynn, whose perceptions of form and size are remarkably acute. It will be observed that William Catlin's features are more like an old man's than a boy's. The likeness is uncommonly good, and has been recognised by all who had seen him. The dimensions of the head of William Catlin are as follows: The greatest circumference over Individuality, From Meatus externus over top of the head to other meatus 14 inches. 91 4 From Meatus externus round to Individuality, measured by tape From Meatus externus round to Philoprogenitiveness, measured by tape · 3 Having no callipers with me, I was compelled to take the arch with a tape, instead of at once getting at its chord. Phrenologists will know that the chord or straight line measure, as taken by the callipers, will be rather less than the two dimen sions given. The first two dimensions are sufficient to indicate a very small volume of brain. Other dimensions show the proportionate sizes of some of its parts which are of less importance, considering his youth, and considering that I shall continue to observe and to record, from time to time, all interesting facts concerning him. It is evident that the volume of brain in so small a head is very inconsiderable. The phrenologist expects to find the sum total of its functions to be but weak, and he is not disappointed. William Catlin is rather below the average height of boys of his own age, being only 3 ft. 7 inches. He stoops, and is round shouldered. He does not seem to take pleasure in walking. He will stand in the same spot for half an hour together, with his arms listlessly hanging by his side; and if interested in any thing that is moving by him, as a cat, dog, or child, it is but for a moment. The slight expression of attention to an object is so transient and so feeble, as not to extend beyond his face, which immediately relapses into his usual vacant physiognomy. At first sight of strangers he is generally disconcerted, and thrusts his fingers, and not unfrequently his whole hand, into his rather capacious mouth. He does not avoid treading in little puddles of water, and when his feet are wetted by the leakage of his tattered shoes, he whines, apparently having no sense to get out of the puddle. He does not appear to discover that standing in the water is the cause of wetting his feet. Like a monkey he bites almost every thing that is given him. I offered him some halfpence, he took one, bit it, and let it fall. I gave him another; he did the same. Another day I asked him whether he would have a halfpenny or a penny, at the same time offering them to him to choose, but he seemed to have no notion of their relative values, and looking in my face he merely touched them, when in a moment they ceased to interest him. I then gave him one, he bit and dropped it. I then chinked some halfpence together, at which he laughed for a moment, and then fell into his ordinary state of inattention. In order to keep him in one position, and engage his attention while Miss Goodwin sketched him, which occupied about an hour, I amused him with a piece of red tape, and by making all sorts of vocal sounds, to the no small amusement of those present. I found he was most pleased when I wound one end of the tape round one of my fingers, and the other end round one of his, and gently pulled his hand in various directions; or when I held one end between my teeth and touched his cheek with the other. I found his attention could be kept alive longer through the medium of touch than by hearing or seeing. He whines when his head is touched. While measuring his head, he sobbed, but there were no tears. To cheer him, I put the measuring tape to my own head and laughed, in which he joined, but he again whined when I put it to his. He made a sad noise at my obtaining the form and size of his head by Mr. Hawkins's kephalometer, and I could not appease him until I laughingly put one of the wires to my own head. In order to ascertain if he whined from pain, I pressed his head in various parts, and again applied the wires with considerable pressure, at the same time amusing him by touching his cheek with my finger. He laughed, and continued to laugh with me when I placed one wire on his head and another on my own, although I used considerable pressure, And I am satisfied there is no tenderness about his head. He knows but few objects, and his language is but limited. He recognises the children who are his companions, and remembers their names. When in the street he is occasionally teased by boys, and even, to their great disgrace, by men; he does not seem to have sense enough to go up the court in which his mother resides, to avoid it. He seldom ventures far from the end of the court, but even there, idle people give him all kinds of filth, which he readily puts into his mouth, and not unfrequently swallows. His mother has attempted to teach him the names of things, and has succeeded so far as to enable him occasionally to fetch a ball of cotton or some such object, from a chair or table on which it has been placed. But he does not very often do it. With a praiseworthy feeling the mother tries every means she knows, to teach and encourage him to recognise and fetch objects from a chair, but he so continually fails that she is becoming disheartened. His articulation is scarcely intelligible. He attempts to repeat the Lord's Prayer with his sister, when going to bed, but he only says a word here and there. All attempts to teach him to dress and undress himself have failed. Indeed, he does not always know what is meant by the word trousers. He immediately looks at, and then touches his shoes with his hand, if asked anything about shoes. I gave him some money; his mother said, "put it in your pocket, William;" but he had no notion of a pocket, and soon let it drop from his hand. The attempts to teach him the means of personal cleanliness have but ill succeeded; in consequence of which he is occasionally unapproachable, but in justice to the mother it must be said this is seldom the case, as she is very watchful over him, and he is generally very tractable. I may conclude by saying the mental manifestations are feeble and transient. He is a living fact supporting the truth of the great phrenological principle, that the brain of a human head, measuring only 14 inches in horizontal circumference, is inadequate to perform its function of manifesting mind sufficient for the business of society, or even for the preservation of the individual. See Gall's work, Vol. 2, of the 8vo edition. It appears to be a case of Congenital Idiocy. It is evident that the growth of the brain, and that of the skull also, have been arrested. The whole brain has been pretty equally affected, for there is no great disproportion in the size of its regions. The question arises, did the fright cause the stinted growth? Can the fright and the idiocy be connected as cause and effect? Before the question can be satisfactorily answered, perhaps more must be known of the laws of propagation, and more facts collected to show the influence of external agents in completely |