"Not only has the institution of intelligence in idiots dated
from falls upon the head, but extra mentality has been conferred
by such an event Pritchard tells of three idiot brothers, one of
whom, after a severe head injury, brightened up and became a
barrister, while his brothers remained idiotic. 'Father
Mabillon,' says Winslow, 'is said to have been an idiot until
twenty- six years of age, when he fractured his skull against a
stone staircase. He was trepanned. After recovering, his
intellect fully developed itself in a mind endowed with a lively
imagination, an amazing memory, and a zeal for study rarely
equaled.' Such instances can be accounted for by the brain having
previously been poorly nourished by a defective blood supply,
which defect was remedied by the increased circulation afforded
by the head-injury.
"It is a commonly known fact that activity of the brain is
attended with a greater head-circulation than when the mind is
dull, within certain limits. Anomalous development of the brain
through blood-vessels, affording an extra nutritive supply to the
mental apparatus, can readily be conceived as occurring before
birth, just as aberrant nutrition elsewhere produces giants from
parents of ordinary size.
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