“Ho proceeded. ‘ Yesterday evening
my friend called upon mo and said that
ho had a remarkable case in his house
OURNAL.
which he believed would interest me. The
person to whom lie alluded was a French
boy, whose mental powers had been im
perfectly developed from his childhood.
' The mischief had been aggravated when
1 ho was about fourteen years old by n
1 serious fright. When he was placed in
tire asylum he was not idiotic or danger
ously mad, it Was a ease {not to use
■ technical language) of deficient intelli
i geuee, tending sometimes toward octsot
unreasoning mischief and petty theft,
but never approaching to acts of down
right violence. My friend was espe
cially interested in the lad, won his con
, tldence and affection by acts of kindness,
, and so improved his bodily health ns to
, justify some hope of alsp improving the
state of his mind, when a misfortune oc
curred which luis altered the whole pros-
I pect. The poor crerture has fallen ill
of a fever, and the fever has developed
! to typhus. Ho far there has been little
, to interest you ; I am coming to a re
markable event at last. At the stage of
i the fever when delirium usually occurs
j in patients of sound mind, this crazy
i French boy has become perfectly sane
and reasonable!’
“ I looked at him when he made this
amazing assertion, with a momentary
doubt of his being in earnest. Doctor
Wylirow understood me.
