| Description Of Item | Notes on the topic of ‘idiocy and imbecility’ from the collection of Thomas Laycock. On the first page, titled ‘Idiots and Imbecility,’ the final paragraph concludes: ‘I The consequential = Idiots natural [illegible] [illegible] fools. II The induced = Dementia. Imbeciles. Fools.’
One leaflet titled ‘burrowing idiot’ notes that ‘a man aged 33 wandered off into the woods’ […] ‘burrowing in the earth like a [illegible].’ Another leaflet is titled ‘sex of idiots’ and discusses the statistics of male and female patients diagnosed as idiots. The final leaflet is titled ‘treatment of idiots.’
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