Jean Marc Gaspead Itard (1775-1838)
- Author:
Marne Lauritsen Groff
University of Pennsylvania Itard’s Early Life and Training Jean Marc (or Marie) Gaspard Itard was born in 1775, at Oraison, a tiny village in an old province now included in the department of Basses-Alps.
He spent the first few years of his life in this village and at the age of seven went to Riez to live with a paternal uncle. This uncle was a canon of the old Gothic Cathedral there, and by virtue of his calling was deemed better fitted to look after the education of his nephew.
The boy was sent to the local ‘’college” for his preliminary training, and later was sent to Marseilles to finish his studies at the school conducted by the Fathers of the Oratory of Jesus. Fynne1 says that no doubt it was at the latter institution that he laid the foundation for his subsequent scientific and philosophical studies. His school career ended at sixteen but the young man spent two more years with his uncle. His father had decided upon a business career for his son and had made arrangement for him to enter a large bank at Marseilles, but the national situation prevented the realization of any such hope for in 1794 France sent out a call to colors which affected all males between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Itard was just nineteen.2 Both the father and uncle were determined to save the young Itard from the dangers and rigours of military service, so with this in mind the Canon used his influence with the Director of the Toulon military hospital which had temporarily been moved to Soliers. The director, a citizen of Riez, listened to the pleadings of the Canon and accepted the young Itard in the service “de sante,” or the medical service. 1 Fynne, Robert John, Montessori and Her Inspircrs, 1924, p. 64. 2 Schroder in Monatschrift fur Ohrenlieillcunde und Laryngo-Ehinologie, 1914, 48, pp. 358-365 and Baldrian, in the same Journal, 1925, 59, pp. 13141317, both state that Itard actually entered the bank but as the only authority they give for their sketch of Itard is Bousquet’s eulogy, this is no doubt an error of translation.
Thus Itard, who had never been in a hospital nor opened a medical book in his life, began his life’s vocation as a third class surgeon. Itard entered his professional duties and studies with enthusiasm and diligence; characteristics which he maintained throughout his life. At this time there was being delivered in Toulon a series of lectures on anatomy and surgery by Larrey, a famous military surgeon. With his characteristic eagerness and diligence, Itard attended the lectures as a student. In 1796 Larrey went to Paris and Itard followed him, enrolling at Val-de-Grace (a French hospital) as a regular student. A short time after his arrival, a position as second class surgeon became vacant. A competition was announced which Itard entered and won. He was still in the raptures of his triumph when he received orders to take a post elsewhere, but he recognized too well the advantages of Paris for observation, study, and practice, so he resigned his position. There were at this time in Paris two leading schools of medicine, opposed not only in medical theory and practice but also in methods and aims of medical education and training. Corvisart and Pinel were the leaders of these two groups. Corvisart advocated direct clinical and observational study of diseases and general body ills with the simple purpose of discovering and applying the most efficient means of curing them. He advised his students to read Sydenham and Stoll and had their writings engraved on the walls of the amphitheatre from which he lectured.
Pinel, on the other hand, was a philosophic physician. To him medicine was a branch of natural history. He condemned empiricism and devoted much time to theories; he saw a real science of medicine and surgery. His advice to his students was to study the causes and real nature of diseases as well as their symptoms and effects.
Itard, being philosophically inclined, naturally turned to Pinel and continued studying under his guidance. However, it seems that later he turned from the principles of his master. La Pousse 3 says that throughout Itard’s works one finds the same principle, namely the experiment as the only guide in medicine. This statement seems justified in view of the fact that Itard gives almost endless cases in his chief work, Traite des Maladies de I’Oreille el de 1’Audition. La Pousse further states that Itard has been rightly criticized because he held that anatomical studies were of so little value.
3 La Rousse, Grand Dictionnaire, Vol. 9, pp. 843-844. At this time Itard was living in Faubourg St. Jacques near the National Institution for the Deaf and Dumb directed by L’Abbe Sicard. One day one of the pupils of this institution needed medical attention. Itard was called and tended the case. Shortly thereafter the directing board of the institution decided that a staff physician would be desirable and upon the recommendation of the Director, Itard was appointed. He accepted the position and became much interested in the plight of these unfortunates who were virtually exiled in their own land. He did not hold the common notions regarding the deaf which were then current. In fact, he wanted to understand them at heart and in order to do so he lived among them in the institution. At this point Itard’s biographer seems to leave his work with the deaf, at least for the time being, and go on to the work for which he is best known.
Itard’s Work with the “Savage op Aveyron”
Late in the year 1798 three men hunting in the woods of Caune, in Aveyron, Southern France, found a naked boy. He fled like a wild creature when they approached him. They chased him and captured him just as he was climbing a tree to escape from his pursuers. The men took him to a nearby village where they put him in care of an elderly woman. He escaped in a week, however, and lived in the woods all that winter. During the day he often approached a village.
One day, he voluntarily sought shelter in a house in the village of the Canton of St. Sernin. He was cared for here for some days and then taken to the hospital of St. Afrique and later removed to Rhodez where he was kept for several months. While kept in these places he always seemed to be wild, impatient, and capricious in his temper. He continually tried to get away. Observations of his behavior were constantly made by Bonaterre, Professor of Natural History in the Central School of the Department of Aveyron. In 1799 he published the results of these observations in his Notice Historique stir le Sauvage die 1’Aveyron. The boy was finally turned over to the National Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and Abbe Sicard endeavored to educate him. However, he gave up, merely providing the boy with food and shelter until he was turned over to Itard.
Bonaterre had noticed “a state of imbecility” in the boy and now Itard was to be further discouraged by his own great teacher Pinel. The latter was convinced that the boy was an idiot and in JEAN MARC GASPARD ITARD 249 a report prepared for tlie Academy of Sciences he expressed this opinion and furthermore stated that the boy was utterly incapable of profiting by education. Itard’s labors disprove this last statement. Pinel’s original report seems to have been lost but Itard gives a resume of it: “Beginning with an account of the sensorial functions of the young savage, Citizen Pinel represented to us his senses as in such a state of inertia that this unfortunate youth was found, according to his report, very inferior to some of our domestic animals. His eyes were without steadiness, without expression, wandering from one object to another without fixing upon anything ; so little instructed in other respects, and so little experienced in the sense of touch, that he was unable to distinguish between an object in relief and a painting; the organ of hearing was alike insensible to the loudest noises and to the most charming music; that of the voice was still more imperfect, uttering only a guttural and uniform sound; his sense of smell was so little cultivated that lie seemed to be equally indifferent to the odour of the finest perfumes and to the most fetid exhalations; finally, the sense of feeling was limited to those mechanical functions which arose from the dread of objects which might be in his way.
“Proceeding to the state of the intellectual faculties of this child, the author of this report exhibited him to us as incapable of attention (unless as it respected the objects of his wants) and consequently of all the operations of the mind which depended on it.; destitute of memory, of judgment, even of a disposition to imitation; and so bounded were his ideas, even those which related to his immediate wants, that he could not open a door, nor get on a chair to obtain food which was put out of reach of his hand; in short, destitute of every means of communication, attaching neither expression nor intention to the gestures and motions of his body, passing with rapidity, and without any apparent motive, from a state of profound melancholy to bursts of the most immoderate laughter; insensible to every species of moral affection, his discernment was never excited but by the stimulus of gluttony; his pleasure an agreeable sensation of the organ of taste; his intelligence a susceptibility of producing incoherent ideas connected with his physical wants; in a word, his whole existence was a life purely animal.” 4
While Itard acknowledged the truth of this dark picture painted by Pinel, he did not agree as to the diagnosis. Seguin 5 says that Itard’s attempt to teach the boy whom he did not believe idiotic and Pinel’s warning to him not to undertake the task on the ground that the boy was an idiot, gives sanction on the part of both men to the doctrine of letting idiocy alone. Itard says 6 that his hopes were grounded on the twofold cause and possibility of curing this apparent idiotism.
A number of schools of thought had arisen in France due to the revolt from the old system of education. The chief of these were the sensationalists or sensualists, as they are sometimes called, and the nativists. The latter held to the Cartesian doctrine of innate ideas. They believed that individuals came into the world with ideas which gradually unfolded as the mind developed. The sensationalists, on the other hand, were disciples of de Condillac and conceived of the mind at birth as a sort of “tabula rasa.” The sensations were pathways for the reception of impressions by the mind. For these men knowledge was only transformed sensations. Itard was a staunch follower of this school and thought that the Young Savage would afford a wonderful opportunity to prove this theory. lie expresses this hope as follows:
“If it was proposed to resolve the following metaphysical problem, viz. ‘to determine what would be the degree of understanding and the nature of the ideas of a youth who, deprived from his infancy of all education, should have lived entirely separated from individuals of his species;’ I am strangely deceived or the solution of the problem would give to this individual an understanding connected only with a small number of his wants, and deprived, by his insulated condition, of all those simple and complex ideas which we receive from education, and which are combined in our minds in so many different ways by means only of our knowledge of signs. Well! the moral picture of this youth would be that of the Savage of Aveyron, and the solution of the problem would give the measure and the cause of his intellectual state.” 7 Itard was convinced that this was the cause of this unfortunate youth’s present state but he had to convince others, including men of science, that the youth was not just a “silly” child recently abandoned by its parents. By calling attention to his various habits as well as to a large number of scars on the youth’s body, Itard strove to convince sceptics that the youth had been left at a very early age. Itard’s guiding principles can be seen in what he calls his five principal heads of the moral treatment of the Savage of Aveyron: * 1. To attach him to social life by rendering it more pleasant to him than that which he was then leading, and above all, by making it closely analogous to the mode of existence that lie was about to quit.
2. To awaken the nervous sensibility by the most energetic stimulants, and sometimes by lively affections of the mind. 3. To extend the sphere of his ideas, by giving him new wants, and by increasing the number of his reactions to the objects surrounding him. 4. To lead him to the use of speech by subjecting him to the necessity of imitation.
5. To exercise frequently the most simple operations of the mind upon the objects of his physical wants, and then to direct the application of them to objects of instruction.
Itard’s report is arranged in five sections, each section describing the means employed to attain one of the chief objects stated above. After three months his pupil showed remarkable progress in developing sensibility to touch, smell, and taste. About this time the youth also developed colds but they did not affect the organs of hearing or sight. From this Itard concluded that the latter two sense organs were more complicated and required further training. He goes on to say, ‘’The simultaneous improvement of three senses that was produced in consequence of the stimulants applied to the skin, at the same time that these last two remained stationary, is an important fact and deserves particular attention from physiologists. It seems to prove, what from other sources appeared not improbable, that the senses of touch, of smell, and of taste are merely different modifications of the organ of the skin; while those of the ear and eye, being less exposed to external impressions, and enveloped with a covering much more complicated, are subject to other laws of amelioration and ought on that account to be considered as constituting a class perfectly distinct.”” Itard was evidently ignorant of Pereira’s great physiological discovery, which resulted in his demonstrating “to the physiologists of his day, that all the senses are modifications of the tact, all touch of some sort.’’10 s Itard, op. cit., pp. 33 and 34. s Itard, op. cit., pp. 59-60. Reguin, op. cit., p. 19.
Itard found even greater difficulty when he tried to accomplish his last three objectives. The boy seemed satisfied with a limited sphere of ideas and wants. As to speech, he finally succeeded in teaching him all the vowels and d, 1, and liquid 1. To obtain the fifth object Itard tried to use the method employed by Sicard in teaching the deaf-mutes, namely, association of objects and their representation and finally their written form, but here Itard’s pupil lacked even the average deaf-mute’s power of attention and observation. However, he was finally taught to arrange the letters of the alphabet in order and to spell the word “lait” (milk) with metal letters, thus satisfying one of his direct wants. This is the only word that is mentioned as having been learned by the young boy. This ends Itard’s first report on his great project. Five years later at the request of the Minister of the Interior, Itard submitted a second and final report. Although Itard never openly acknowledged that he was mistaken in his diagnosis, the general opinion is that he was now convinced of his pupil’s mental state. Bousquet11 refers to this in his eulogy and Seguin 12 points out that his second program was much more fitted for an idiot than a savage. This program was founded upon physiology and Itard remarks in his letter of transmission to the Minister that he will discuss his program under the following heads:
The development of the senses.
The development of the intellectual faculties.
3. The development of the effective functions. Fynne 13 feels that if Itard had realized the fundamental nature of the sense of touch, he would have had much greater success, that is, if he had begun with the training of this “parent sense” instead of the finer “offspring,” hearing and sight. However, his pupil continued to show some progress. Only once does this great teacher seem to have lost patience with his young charge. At this time he exclaimed: “Unfortunate, since my trouble is wasted and your efforts fruitless, betake yourself again to your forests and acquire once more the taste for your primitive life; or if your new needs render you dependent upon society, pay the penalty of being useless and go to die at Bicetre 14 of misery and sorrow.’’15 However,
11 Bousquet, Bibliotheque d’Education Speciale II, Paris, 1894, p. 18. 12 Seguin, op. cit., p. 18. is Fynne, op. cit., p. 113. The Institution at Paris for tlie care of idiots. is Itard, Eapport fait a son excellence le Ministre de I’Interiewr, p. 80, using Fynne’s translation.
Itard saw that npon this particular occasion the fault was his, so his labors were resumed. In summing up and evaluating Itard’s work Seguin says: “He was the first to educate an idiot with a philosophical object and by philosophical means… . We do not know of anyone who would not gladly exchange all subsequent titles for the authorship of the two pamphlets on the ‘Savage of Aveyron.’ ” 16 Other Contributions
By virtue of the uniqueness of his work with the savage, Itard’s other works have been neglected. As the result of his work just described, he became quite adept at teaching and began to use some of the principles which he had evolved from his teachings and observations. Naturally, the deaf-mutes were the ones who were to profit most from this. From his examination of deaf-mutes, he concluded that very few of them were totally deaf. He found that about two-fifths of those under his care could hear the tone of his voice and with this fact in mind he set about to educate or develop their residual hearing. After they could hear the human voice he set about to teach them to speak. However, as they were accustomed to expressing themselves by means of signs, he found almost unsurmountable barriers. He published three memoirs of his system and the results he obtained but these seem to be lost. The Royal Academy wanted to include them in the memorial number which they prepared in 1894 but had to be content with a report17 of these papers by M. Husson, the president of the Academy at the time the memoir was published.
That Itard recognized organic and functional deafness is seen in the fact that in 1830 he published in the first volumes of the Memoires de 1 ‘Academie, a paper entitled Memoir e sur le Mutisme Produit Par la Lesion des Fonctions Intellectuelles. From this Ave learn that he recognized sensory aphasia.
Bousquet points out in his eulogy that Itard gave to science reports on pneumo-thorax, dropsy, stuttering, intermittent fever, and other subjects. However, his chief interest always centered around audition and the diseases of the ear, and it was in this field that he produced his greatest work. Seguin, op. cit., pp. 22-23. 17 Husson, M., Bibliotlieque, etc., pp. 123-141.
Itard’s Works
In 1821, Chez Mequignon-Marvis, of Paris, published Itard’s Traite des Maladies de VOreille et de I’Audition, Vols. I and II. Vol. I contains three sections: Anatomy, Physiology, and Diseases of the Ear. Vol. II treats of Diseases of Audition. At the time of his death, Itard was engaged in a revision of this book but the completion was left to his fellow members of the Academy. In 1824 the Royal Academy of Medicine edited the second edition. However, they made this edition a sort of tribute to their fellow scientist so that in addition to the material in the first edition, the second edition contains:
1. Moge Historique de M. Itard. Lu dans la seance publique annuelle de, l’Academie Royale de Medicine, de Ier decembre 1839; Par M. Bousquet.
Report of the Royal Academy on his L’Education physiolo(jique du sens auditif chez les sourds-muets, reported by M. Husson.
3. Memoire sur Ije Mutisme, (Produit par la Lesion des Fonctions Intellectuelles). Lu a la premiere seance publique de l’Academie royale de Medicine par M. Itard, medicin de 1’Institution royale des Sourds-Muets.
4. De I’Education d’un Homme Sauvage ou des Premier Developpments Physiques et Moraux du Jeune Sauvage de I’Aveyron. M. Itard. 5. Three letters from the Minister of Interior, Champagny. 6. Letter from M. Dacier to the Minister of Interior. 7. Rapport fait a son excellence le M’inistre de Vlnterieur. Par M. Itard. Both editions contain three plates with twenty illustrations. Among these are: d ‘Acoumetre, an instrument to measure audition. (The forerunner of our audiometer) ; a picture of a head band and nose piece designed to hold in place a probe inserted into the eustachian tube; three probes for catherizing the tube; earphones and a megaphone. Most of these instruments were no doubt invented by Itard himself for La Rousse 18 tells us that he worked out a technique with rules for a simple method of catherizing the ear and that he invented many instruments necessary for his method of treatment. A careful search of sources has revealed only the following meagre list of Itard’s writings. The Catalogue of Scientific Papers of the Royal Society, 1800-1863 gives two titles: is La Eousse, op. cit., Vol. 9, p. 843.
1. Memoire sur quelques fonctions involuntaires des appareils, la locomotion, de la prehension et de la voix. Archiv. Gen. de Med. VIII, 1825 pp. 385-407.
2. I)e la parole consideree comme de developpement de la sensibilitie organique. Revue Med. Franc, et Etr. II, 1828, pp. 359-370. The three series of the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office U. S. Army show that the following reprints or titles were presented to the Library: 1. Sur le pneumo-tliorax, ou les congestions gazeuses qui se forment dans la poitrine. 20 pp. 8? Paris an XI 1803 v. 32. Sur. Gen. Index, Series 1, Vol. 7. 2. On the Surgical Treatment of Deafness. In Dunglison’s American Medical Library 8? Phila., 1838, pp. 75-92. Sur. Gen. Index, Series II, Vol. 8. 3. L’Art de prolonger da vie humaine, etc., by Anthony Florian Madinger Willich, translated from English with a great number of critical and explanatory notes, by Itard. 2 ed., 2 v. IV, 600 pp. 11 8? Paris, Chez Artaud, 1805. Sur. Gen. Index, Series I, Vol. 7. (Itard’s two well known reports on the Savage are also listed.) Close upon the lament that this great man left us so little of the fruits of his labors in concrete form, comes the even greater lament that so very few of his writings are even available. His first report on the young savage, to which we have referred so often, was first published in Paris in 1801. In 1802 an English edition was printed in Paris. According to Fynne this is available in the British Museum in London. Recently, one has been located at Lunt Library, Northwestern University. As there is no mention of any translator we may assume that Itard wrote this English version himself. The occasional stilted expressions and unusual words bear out this observation and his translation of Willich’s 600 page book adds further weight to the assumption. The French edition of this is available in the Bibliotheque Speciale II, Publications du Progres Medical, Paris, 1894. A copy of this is also to be found at Lunt. As has been mentioned before the entire contents of this monograph, excepting the preface by Bourneville, is included in the second edition of Trait e des Maladies de VOreille. (Available in both first and second editions at Crerar Library, Chicago.) In collaboration with Esquirol he contributed some notes to A. M. Chambeyron’s translation of Johan Christoph Hoffbauer’s German book: Medicine legale relative aux alienes et aux sourdmuets, ou les lois appliques aux disordres de 1’intelligence. Paris 1827, J. B. Bailliere.
Nicholas Deleau in Sur le cathererisme de la trompe d’Eustaclie, cites many of Itard’s cases. In the Bulletin d ‘oto-rhino-laringol., 1919-20, n.s., xviii, pp. 239-253, A Castex has some notes on Itard, his life and works.19 Two German authors, Baldrian and Schroder also saw fit to publish short articles on Itard.20 However, as they only used Bousquet’s eulogy as a source, they yield nothing new. The only other source found which contributed anything new was Hirsch’s Lexicon der Aerzte, Vol. 3, 1886. Here we find that Itard was at one time Co-editor of Journal TJnivers. des Scienc. med. In 1822 he edited Revue Med. and in 1832 he helped edit Diet, de med., to which he contributed the article on dropsy. Hirsch gives as sources the eulogy and Biogr. Univ. XXVI p. 102.
The best available, in fact the only English source of Itard’s life is in Fynne’s book. He has translated very literally the main facts of Itard’s life as given in Bousquet’s eulogy. His treatment of Itard’s two pamphlets on the savage is also very good. He quotes extensively from Itard, especially from the English version of the first paper. There is no English translation of the second report, a work which seems worth doing. And in passing we might mention that it seems strange that no otologist has deemed Itard’s work important enough to translate into English. (There is a German translation, Weimar 1822.)
Itard’s Death and Testament
Having devoted his life to the advancement of science and to the aid of unfortunates, especially deaf-mutes, Itard again displayed his generous spirit in his bequests. To the Institution for Deaf-Mutes he gave a large sum of money. (Varying amounts from 100,000 to 160,000 francs have been stipulated.) To the Royal Academy he gave 1,000 francs, the interest of which was to be given triennially as a prize for the best memoir “de medicine pratique et de therapeutique appliquee.” But even here Itard displayed his wisdom. No work was to be submitted for competition that, had not been published two years. Time was thus to be a guaranty against the “illusion of the experiment.”
1? Not available. 20 Schroder, and Baldrian, op. cit., see page 1.
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