| Description Of Item | Illustration from the collection of Alexander Morison. Plate 84 of Morison’s 'The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases' (1840). Signed A J [Alexander Johnston].
'Portrait of W. N.; aged 18.
This is the same idiot represented in Plate LXXXIV; being twelve years older, his height is now four feet, ten or eleven inches; his head does not exhibit any unusual appearance; his physiognomy is expressive of vacancy and uneasiness; his eyes wander; his five senses continue natural, but he says nothing, except— mee mee mee in a whining tone, this he repeats almost the whole night, for he sleeps little; he takes his food, but cannot put on his clothes, and does not attend to the calls of nature; he walks pretty well, but holds his hands in an awkward position; he bites and tears his clothes, appears to have affection for no one, is suspected of onanism, and has no sense of shame.' |