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But no matter what the theory of the nature of instinct, its seat, like the intelligence, is in the nervous system, and for proper exercise demands a healthy condition of the nervous organization. I do not say that perfection of cerebral organization is necessary to some of the lower forms of animal instinct, though the experiments of some observers would seem to indicate this, but active sensation, the seat of which is in the cerebrum, must be present to secure the manifestation of the higher manifestations of animal instinct.

But let us leave these speculations and turn to the facts within our own observation.

The idiot is not a nondescript animal, midway or somewhere in point of development between some lower order of beings and the human race. He has a human origin. He is a human being, -- abnormal, defective, incapable, to a greater or less degree, depending upon the imperfection of the nervous system or its failure in functional activity. But so intimately correlated is the brain with all the other parts of the nervous system, even of that presiding over the functions of organic life, that it has been well said by Dr. Seguin that in idiocy we have a mind "obstructed by disordered functions."

We know also that where the central nervous masses are in tolerably healthy condition, imperfection or failure in activity of the nerves of relation prevents or impedes cerebral development and the exercise of the higher mental faculties.

In the further discussion of the topic it must be constantly borne in mind that there is a great diversity in what is generically known as idiocy. That the characteristics of idiocy, physical or mental, are of greater or less degree, more or less removed from the normal type of humanity.

To estimate the degree of his idiocy, this creature of negations, and to study his real nature, we must compare him with the normal type of the race. To do this we must recognize the compound nature of man. He has an animal nature. He is an intellectual being. He is a moral agent. These are correlated most intimately, nevertheless they have distinct manifestations, distinct, but analogous, modes of nurture and growth.

In the normal human child there is an order of development from lower attributes to higher. As time progresses the higher predominate over the lower. As an illustration take the senses. There is, first, feeling, or the passive form of touch, then smell; then taste, sight, hearing, and the active sense of touch; then, according to the ancient category of "seven senses," understanding and speech. The new-born infant cries with the sense of cold, or evinces satisfaction with its warm surroundings.

Guided by the sense of smell it seeks the source of nourishment. Taste is developed, then sight and hearing.

Instinct plays but a small part in the role of human life.

What there is is usually seen at the very outset. To the infantile stage of idiot life our own observation scarcely reaches. But if we take the testimony of intelligent parents, the first instinctive acts of infancy, in the case of idiots of low grade, -- just where, according to the theory of Dr. Carpenter, the animal instincts should come to the front, -- these first instinctive acts are feebly performed. There is a want of general sensibility. They do not grope for the maternal breast; they do not even take the nipple well. The complicated movements connected with nursing are ill-performed. In some cases even the reflex movements in deglutition are at fault.

Sensation is necessary to the exercise of instinct, but sensation is dull in the case of young idiots. So, too, activity of the senses -- what may be called animal curiosity -- is wanting in such cases. The child is torpid or absorbed in the exercise of a single sense, and that of a lower order. There is no outreach towards the little world of its surroundings.

In the lower grades of idiocy there is little idea of danger; in some cases no fear of falling. They do not wink even when the eyeball is touched.

Locomotion is one of the instinctive acts of animals. In the case of human beings the power is acquired by experience. Idiots of low grade are late in learning to walk, if they do at all. Failing in intelligence to guide in its acquirement, there is no appearance of instinct to supply this want. The gait is clumsy and stumbling.

Dexterity and skill without instruction is one of the features of instinct. But in idiocy the "fingers are all thumbs." The simplest co-ordinated muscular movements are acquired only by the most patient training.

When they reach a school-attending age and are submitted to our care, we observe a continuation of the same features.

The question has doubtless often been asked you, as it has been in my own case, "In the absence of normal intelligence are not the appetites and passions stronger than with ordinary individuals of the same age?" To this I now give a negative answer. I should base this upon the statement that in my observation I had not found it so. I should add that the range of appetite and the strength of appetite are more limited in the case of idiots than others. In its lowest range appetite may be said to be only the satisfaction of a natural function. The form of expression of this in the absence of intelligence and instinct is simply uneasiness. The gratification of this is only limited in the case of idiots, and the original appetite grows only with gratification.