Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/79

with more than the usual number of fingers," all these are mentioned by Dr. Kerr in his pamphlet on defectives as stigmata which are found very much more often in the feeble minded than in other children. A deeply seamed and ever-frowning forehead, an open mouth, tight nostrils, are also common in them. Every one of these signs tells something about the unseen brain. And yet a great deal is left untold. Some of these children are always surprising their teachers and friends. One has an extraordinary memory for certain things—remembers when trains start or are due, finds things that are lost or remembers things that were done and forgotten long ago by other people. Some take a great interest in certain things, such as horses, or ships, or fire-engines, or in their father's trade. Some can draw better than the child in the ordinary schools. They show you vigorous sketches, of cows, dogs, and parrots, and some (even among the more hopeless cases) can remember a great many airs, and can sing well and even play on instruments. None, so far as I know, have shown the usual amount of inventive power, or have made tools and used them masterfully. Speech offers a great many difficulties for a large number of them. Through their various failings in language we have indeed learned what a wonderful conquest