IDELER IDIOCY 169 are rich placer mines of gold. The produc- tions in 1870 were 1,111 bushels of wheat, 1,580 of Indian corn, 1,675 of oats, 6,310 of potatoes, and 63 tons of hay. There were 285 horses and 663 cattle. Capital, Washington. IDELER, Christian Lndwlg, a German mathe- matician, born at Gross-Brese, in Brandenburg, Sept. 21, 1766, died Aug. 10, 1846. His earliest work was the editing in 1794 of an astronomi- cal almanac for the Prussian government. He taught mathematics and mechanics in the school of woods and forests, and also in the military school, and in 1821 became professor in the university of Berlin. His works include Ilis- toruche Untersuchungen uber die astronomi- schen Beobachtungen der Alien (Leipsic, 1806) ; JIandbuchdermathematischen und technischen Chronologic (Berlin, 1825-'6); and Die Zeit- rechnung der Chinesen (Berlin, 1839). IDES, in the Roman calendar, the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. The eight days preceding the ides were named from it, and styled the 1st, 2d, 3d, &c., day before the ides. Under the empire the senate sat regularly on the ides and on the calends, with the exception of the ides of March, the anniversary of Caesar's death, which was regarded as a dies ater. IDIOCY, or Idiotcy, a term now used to ex- press a condition of mental imbecility, though this idea was not originally contained in the root from which it is derived. The idiot (J.SIUTIK) among the Greeks was primarily the private individual, in distinction from the man who participated in public affairs ; next, as the educated classes, especially in Sparta, where the word is believed to have originated, alone took part in public life, IStCirtif came to mean an ignorant or unlettered man ; and finally, as ignorance tended to mental degradation, it was applied to one who did not possess the capa- city to learn. Numerous attempts have been made to define idiocy, but none of them have been perfectly satisfactory. Dr. H. P. Ayres defines it as " that state of human existence which continuously manifests no signs of in- telligence nor instinct." " The type of an idiot," says Dr. Seguin, "is one who knows nothing, can do nothing, wishes for nothing; and each idiot approaches in a greater or less degree this standard of idiocy." In a later work he writes more definitely : " Idiocy is a specific infirmity of the cranio-spinal axis, pro- duced by deficiency of nutrition in utero and in neo-nati. It incapacitates mostly the func- tions which give rise to the reflex, instinctive, and conscious phenomena of life ; consequent- ly, the idiot moves, feels, understands, wills, but imperfectly; does nothing, thinks of noth- ing, cares for nothing (extreme cases)." This deficiency of nutrition, occurring before birth, arrests the foetal progress, and gives perma- nence to the transitory type through which the foetus was passing ; a similar arrest of de- velopment takes place after birth. The whole being may be affected, or more commonly one set of organs, as those of speech, &c. In this aspect idiocy may be considered as a prolonged infancy, in which, the infantile grace and in- telligence having passed away, the feeble mus- cular development and mental weakness of that earliest stage of growth alone remain. Dr. Sagert of Berlin, a high authority on the sub- ject, on the other hand, regards it as depend- ing upon a faulty organization of the brain; and Dr. S. G. Howe considers "the pure type of idiocy to be a person whose lack of under- standing arises from the smallness of his brain," though acknowledging that for one person in whom idiocy is caused by this circumstance there are many in whom it is occasioned by other causes. It occurs in various degrees, separated by no definite line of demarkation, from the typical condition to a state scarcely distinguishable from normal humanity. Idiocy has been variously classified, according to the point of view or object aimed at. Dr. Seguin recognizes, in different aspects, eight classes, viz. : endemic, when connected with some form of cretinism (see CRETINISM) ; hereditary, when ancestors or collateral relatives have been af- fected by idiocy or insanity; parental, when referred to certain conditions of the father or mother; accidental, when occasioned by va- rious post-natal causes; profound, when the ganglia are altered ; superficial, when only the peripheral termini of contractility and sensa- tion appear to be affected ; organic, when the organs are sensibly altered; and functional, when no organic lesion is observable. The terms " profound " and " superficial " are by others used simply to indicate the degree of idiocy. No particular physical trait is a crite- rion of this infirmity. It is accompanied by no special shape of the body, though a certain want of proportion is generally observable. The size of the head, except in extreme cases of hydrocephaly or microcephaly, is commonly quite normal, though appearing in infancy too large and later in life too small; nor is its shape a test, though generally somewhat de- formed. But any deviation in the relative de- velopment of the segments of the brain from the type of a race, or any imperfection in the mode of union of the segments of the skull, indicates a priori some anomaly or imperfec- tion of the faculties. Idiocy in infancy is dif- ficult to detect, and can generally be determined only by comparison with a healthy child in the advance toward certain powers that mark the progress of ordinary infancy, as the ability to hold up the head, to sit erect, to use the hands, to take notice, &c. ; the lapse of time leaving the idiot further and further behind in the race. In many cases premature senility is ex- hibited, which is believed to be peculiar to idiots. The symptoms of this condition are various. The body is generally feeble, the cir- culation particularly in the extremities imper- fect, the respiration not deep, and the appetite sometimes abnormal. The gait is accompanied by a sidewise swinging or by forward plunges,
