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What were the medical standards for confirming that an individual was an imbecile? I know standards for surgeons were very loose with some apprenticing under a practicing doctor and others attending medical schools.
You do ask tough one's gary. I guess Stanford-Binet hadn't had their collaboration yet.
Curious as to why you ask. Where imbeciles confined? Exempt from army service? Were there other classes of menatally challenged?
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Hank Trent at Authentic Campaigner found this for me:
A Manual of instructions for enlisting and discharging soldiers: With Special Reference to the Medical Examination of Recruits, And the Detection of Disqualifying and Feigned Diseases. By Roberts Bartholow, A.M., M. D., ***’t Surgeon U. S. Army, Surgeon in Charge of McDougall General Hospital. Prof. Of Mil. Med. Jurisprudence, Army Medical School. Published in Philadelphia by J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1864
From pages 17-20:
“The term imbecility of mind is usually employed by writers on the subject of enlisting soldiers, and intended to apply to Idiocy, Imbecility, and Dementia, rather than to the higher types of Insanity. Idiocy is a congenital condition; Cretinism, although not to be diagnosed usually at birth,is hereditary; Imbecility is a minor degree of mental deficiency than idiocy; and Dementia is the result of diseased action supervening upon a healthy mental state, or a sequel of more acute forms of mental derangement. In the lower forms of idicoy the functions of animal and organic life are greatly impaired: the idiot is below the plant, and is scarcely alive to external impressions. Cretinism is not frequently seen in this country; and it is scarcely necessary to enter into a description of it. Hitherto it has existed mainly in Switzerland, Valais, Savoy, Italy, and Piedmont, where it is endemic; but it is also sporadic, “an occasional case being found, presenting the characteristics of genuine Cretinism, in the cities of various countries.” A very well-marked case is not in the Fort Schuyler General Hospital. Imbecility of mind is a term admitting of wide application. From the highest to the lowest order of mental soundess there are an infiite number of degrees of intelligence. The same variations are found in mental deficiency. It is not always easy, in a given case, to determine whether the intelligence is, or is not adequate to the performance of military duty. In the lower forms, imbeciles produce nothing, and all their movements, both intellectual and moral, are aroused only by impulses from without. They reply correctly; but they must not be asked too many questions, nor required to make responses which demand reflection or are contrary to their habits. Other display considerable shrewdness, and are constantly indulging in jokes: they pass for half-witted people, whose droll behavior and ready repartees created amusement. Imbeciles possessing this degree of intelligence may perform the duty of soldiers, as far as it is merely mechanical, with exactness, but they are, of course, unfitted for any duty requiring discretion or judgment. They are, moreover, preculiarly liable to insane impules to commit theft and other crimes, although competent to the performance of many of the ordinary duties of life and able to take care of themselves.... Idiocy, Cretinism, Imbecility, and Dementia are, usually, easily enough recognized by want of harmy and vacuity in the expression, obvious deficiencies of mind, imperfect development of body, ill habits, limited but imperious instincts, and various hallucinations and delusions.”
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
OK, gary, let's try to take it seriously. That there was official Union medical recognition of the question in late '64 indicates that there were questions among the examiners of recruits regarding those of marginal intelligence.
That the Union medics had questions indicates, to me at least, that Confederate medics had similar questions. We do not, to my very limited knowledge, have a similar description from a CSA medic in charge of something. (Was there one?) That is, I suspect CSA surgeons were every bit as good as their US counterparts (with the exception of lack of supply).
So I conclude that Bartholow's missive makes formal a judgement that must have been close to univeral during that time. Your question as to the difference between a moron, idiot, imbecile and cretin are well taken, and are certainly as confusing now as they were then.
Meanwhile, I'll await with you someone who has reference to a similar document from a Confederate medical authority.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Good idea. Ask at what point a knuckle-dragger was considered unfit, and what was the name given to that condition. (Does this belong in OIJ's PC thread?)
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
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