Wild Boy (11 page)

One day at their house at number four, Feuillantines, Madame Guérin and Victor had a visitor.

It was J.-J. Virey, the scientist who had written a report about Victor years earlier when he first came to the Institute for Deaf-Mutes.

Seventeen years had passed. Victor was twenty-nine now. The scientist was curious: Had the Savage
ever
learned to talk?

And the answer, of course, was no.

Maybe, as J.-J. Virey sat in their little house, Victor looked at him with fear. For how was Victor (or even Madame Guérin) to know the scientist hadn’t come to take Victor away to be studied? After all, it had happened before.

Twice.

Maybe Victor and Madame Guérin were both relieved when, after a short visit, the scientist left.

In any case, all that J.-J. Virey thought worth noting down about Victor now was this: “Today he understands several things, without saying words. . . . He remains fearful, half wild, incapable of learning to speak, despite all the efforts that were made.”

Dr. Itard once wrote that people looked at the wild boy without really seeing him, passed judgment on him without knowing him, and that after that, they “spoke no more about him.”

And for the rest of Victor’s life, that was true.

Victor died in the winter of 1828, when he would have been about forty years old, but we know that only because of a few lines published nearly twenty years later, when Dr. Itard died.

The article didn’t say what caused Victor’s death. It said only that at the time he died, he’d been living with Madame Guérin at number four, Feuillantines and that he’d been saved from being thrown into Bicêtre by his “protector,” Dr. Itard.

The mist that hid his life had descended, deeper than ever, and this time it never lifted. Still, we know that Victor lived his whole life in freedom, close to the people he loved. We know he never ran away again — or at least, he always came back.

It never
did
take much to make him happy.

This book is Victor’s story told as it happened in his own time. For that reason, it doesn’t touch on something that often comes up today: the question of whether the Wild Boy of Aveyron had a condition now known as autism.

It’s true that some of the wild boy’s traits — his rocking from side to side and his love of order, for example — are sometimes seen in children with autism. On the other hand, his well-documented ability to read other people’s expressions is not typical of autistic children. Neither is the quick and intense attachment he showed for the people who cared for him during the course of his adventures.

I don’t think we can ever know whether the wild boy was autistic, but in any event, I believe he deserves to be remembered as more than a case study.

And in the end, though he never learned to talk, the days and months and years he spent working so hard on his lessons were not wasted.

In later years, Dr. Itard took what he had learned with the wild boy and used it to develop new ways of teaching deaf children. Still later, a student of Itard’s, a man named Édouard Séguin, used many of the same ideas to teach, for the first time ever, children once dismissed as “imbeciles” or “idiots.”

“It is in the Memoirs on the education of the Wild Boy of Aveyron that Dr. Itard set down the true and the only seeds of positive education,” Séguin wrote. Because of the wild boy, thousands and thousands of children who once would have been confined in boredom and misery in places like Bicêtre were sent to schools of their own and given a chance at a better life.

Later still, the famous educator Maria Montessori read Dr. Itard’s work. She used it to help develop new teaching methods that influenced teachers around the world. Because of that, today’s children enjoy more freedom to learn in their own way than they would have if one wild boy and his teacher had never met, so long ago in Paris.

Chapter One

Descriptions of the wild boy in the forest are based on the first eyewitness accounts of his sightings and captures and on later scientific observations. Many of these reports, such as Constans-Saint-Estève’s letters and the scientific reports of Pierre-Joseph Bonnaterre and J.-J. Virey, are reprinted in Harlan Lane’s
The Wild Boy of Aveyron
.

walked upright: per the vast majority of reports. Scattered observations of the boy going on all fours seem have been made at times when he was very tired, scrambling up slopes, or taking off running. The scientist J.-J. Virey wrote, “I have examined his knees; they are no harder, more calloused, or more worn than any ordinary child’s. It is very likely that he has always walked erect, except in a few rare instances and during infancy.” (Virey in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 35).

about nine years old: based on an orphanage administrator’s estimate in 1800 that the boy “appears to be twelve years of age at most” (orphange official to
Journal des débats
, January 1800, Ibid., p. 10)

Chapter Two

“Everyone came . . . wild beast”: Constans-Saint-Estève,
Journal des débats
, January 1800, Ibid., p. 7.

The dates and basic outline of the wild boy’s early sightings and captures follow Lane, pp. 6–7.

For Guiraud’s report, see Shattuck, pp. 19–20.

red tile roof and wooden balconies: Vidal’s workshop outside Saint-Sernin is still standing, surrounded by terraced gardens.

Chapter Three

“I will shortly . . . extraordinary being”: Constans-Saint-Estève,
Journal des débats
, January 1800, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 10.

“I found him . . . great pleasure” Ibid., p. 7.

The strange boy’s eyes . . . couldn’t quite read: Foulquier-Lavergne, p. 12.

“resisted vigorously” and “great impatience”: Constans-Saint-Estève,
Journal des débats
, January 1800, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 8.

“I had a hard time catching him” and “air of satisfaction that nothing could trouble”: Ibid., p. 8.

“I have ordered brought . . . unidentified…child,” “In every respect . . . philanthropic observer,” “I am informing the government,” and “Would you see to it . . . which he cannot escape”: Ibid., p. 9.

“A young savage, found in the woods near Saint Sernin. Deaf and mute.”: Saint-Affrique orphanage roll book, Archives Départementales de l’Aveyron.

“He took to running . . . and disappeared”: orphanage official to
Journal des débats
, January 1800, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 10.

“feeble in spirit”: Saint-Affrique orphanage roll book, Archives Départementales de l’Aveyron.

“His eyes are dark . . . means of escape” and “We made him a gown . . . lets out sharp cries”: orphanage official to
Journal des débats
, January 1800, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 10.

Chapter Four

“From external appearance . . . pleasant smile”: Bonnaterre, Ibid., p. 33.

“It was only with some difficulty . . . Central School”: Aveyron commissioner J.-P. Randon to Constans-Saint-Estève, February 5, 1800, Ibid., p. 15.

“When he raises his head . . . cutting instrument,” “There is one . . . left cheek,” “His whole body is covered with scars,” and “Did some barbaric hand . . . death-dealing blade?”: Bonnaterre, Ibid., p. 34.

For Bonnaterre’s account of these wild children, see Gineste, pp. 182–193.

“The sounds of the most harmonious . . . turn around to seize them”: Bonnaterre in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 39.

“He has been seen, when tired, to walk on all fours”: Ibid., p. 47.

“He is always looking . . . distance from the town”: Ibid., p. 44.

“When it is time . . . furious if not obeyed”: Ibid., p. 46.

“His sleep . . . pain or pleasure”: Ibid., p. 45.

as though he were having a seizure: Ibid., p. 36.

Chapter Five

“This eagerness . . . just experienced,”: Ibid., p. 44.

“I could not imagine . . . impressions of heat,” “One evening . . . rid of these garments,” “Next I pretended . . . the school building,” and “Instead of showing . . . repeated yanks”: Ibid., p. 44.

“comfortably warm”: Ibid., p. 45.

“He can be indifferent . . . with the same habits”: Ibid., p. 44.

Clair’s age and origin: baptismal records for the village of Connac, May 9, 1736, Archives Départementales de l’Aveyron.

“He was constantly occupied . . . the most practiced man,” “He opened the pods . . . movement,” “As he emptied . . . nearby coals,” and “When he felt . . . cooking oil was stored”: Bonnaterre in Lane,
Wild Boy
, pp. 39–40.

“I saw him . . . without being caught”: Ibid., p. 41.

“a captain of the auxiliary . . . sausage on the plate”: Ibid., p. 40.

“His affections . . . satisfying his needs”: Ibid., p. 39.

“Suspicion of imbecility”: Ibid., p. 41.

“This child . . . reflects on nothing,” “no imagination, no memory,” and “This state of imbecility . . . and determination”: Ibid., pp. 41–42.

“Unfortunate boy” and “I claim him . . . forthwith”: February 1, 1800, Bonaparte to Aveyron commissioner J.-P. Randon, Ibid., p. 14.

Chapter Six

“Provided that the state of imbecility . . . kind of education”: Bonnaterre, Ibid., p. 47.

“Whenever we changed . . . dearest affection”: Ibid., p. 41.

old maps of the time: Arbellot, p. 46.

“putting his chin . . . up to his mouth”: Bonnaterre in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 47.

“During our trip . . . attempts at escape”: Ibid., p. 44.

Description of Clermont: Young, Arthur.
Arthur Young’s Travels in France During the Years 1787, 1788, 1789
. Matilda Betham-Edwards, ed. London: George Bell and Sons, 1909. Library of Economics and Liberty.
www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Young/yngTF.html
. Entry for August 11, 1789 (¶4.75) “Clermont is in the midst of a most curious country, all volcanic; and is built and paved with lava: much of it forms one of the worst built, dirtiest, and most stinking places I have met with. There are many streets that can, for blackness, dirt, and ill scents, only be represented by narrow channels cut in a night dunghill. The contention of nauseous savours, with which the air is impregnated, when brisk mountain gales do not ventilate these excrementitious lanes, made me envy the nerves of the good people, who, for what I know, may be happy in them.”

pestered by “curious people . . . along our route”
[l’importunité dae curieux qui se portaient en foule sur notre route]
: Bonnaterre to Aveyron official, September 2, 1800, in Gineste, p. 145.

“He refused to eat . . . any medicine” and “He recovered very well in a few days”: J.-J. Virey in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 46.

“arrived . . . Bonnaterre”:
Gazette de France
, August 9, 1800, in Shattuck, p. 190.

“As yet we know . . . visited promptly” and “down to . . . first thoughts”:
Gazette de France
, August 9, 1800, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 18.

“in the hands . . . deaf-mutes”:
Gazette de France
, August 9, 1800, in Shattuck, p. 190.

Chapter Seven

“Many people . . . past life”:Itard, p. 4.

“a certain amount of ill-natured treatment” from “children his own age”: Ibid., p. 11.

“He detests children . . . without fail”: Virey in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 42.

“He likes solitude . . . as much as possible” and “If he is afraid . . . and remain alone”: Virey, Ibid., p. 43.

“The Savage of Aveyron, currently at the Institute for Deaf-Mutes”
[Le Sauvage de l’Averyon, actuellement à l’Institution des Sourds-Muets]
: Archives Départementales de l’Aveyron.

“annoyed and victimized . . . just as much”: Itard in Shattuck, p. 29.

“he stood at the window . . . countryside” and “Sometimes he dreams . . . during the day”: Virey in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 45.

“young savage of Aveyron”
[le jeune sauvage de l’Averyon]
: Bonaparte to Abbé Sicard, August 29, 1800, in Gineste, p. 144.

One person who saw the wild boy . . . door and windows
[Il a . . . un balancement . . . qui ressemble à celui de l’ours de la ménagerie . . . ses yeux se portaient d’une manière inquiète vers la porte où les fenêtres.]: le Courrier des spectacles
, September 2, 1800, in Gineste, p. 478.