Kalmuc Idiocy: Report of a Case with Autopsy

Abstract

My attention was directed to this case by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Commissioner in Lunacy, in the course of his official visit last spring. He informed me that it was one of so-called Kalmuc idiocy, a form of idiocy rarely met with in asylums, but nevertheless not really uncommon. Dr. Mitchell pointed out in this case the distinguishing physical characters of this class of idiots. Some of the more prominent of these are obliquity of the eyes and palpebral slits, shortness and flatness of the nose, depression at its root, broadness or squatness of the hands, transverse fissuring of the tongue, shortness of stature, disproportion between different parts of the limbs, smallness of the head, and shortness of its antero-posterior measurements. Certain mental characteristics are said to be very constantly present, and these will be referred to in the details of the case. The peculiarity of the eyes and nose give the face a Kalmuc look, and hence the name.