Jean Itard
Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard was a French physician, born in in a small city of Provence, in 1774.
He never went to a medical school. But he had to go to the army during the French Revolution and worked as an assistant physician at a military hospital, and did it very successfully. He was then appointed deputy surgeon at another military hospital in Paris, and in 1799 he became a physician at L'Institution Royale des Sourds-Muets (National Institution for Deaf Mutes).
In Paris, Itard began to work with Dr. René Laennec, a famous physician, the inventor of the stethoscope.
Laennec was a few years younger than Itard, but had had a formal education at the university at Nantes and later became a professor of medicine at the Collège de France.
In 1803 Itard described pneumothorax. Laennec, a few years later, described the disease in more detail.
In 1821, Itard published an important book on Otology – Traité des maladies d'oreille et de l'audition, describing the results of his medical research based on approximately 170 patients. He invented a catheter to inflate the Eustachian tube, that became known as "Itard's catheter".
In 1825 he became the head physician at L'Institution Royale des Sourds-Muets.
He is known as an educator of deaf patients and conducted several experiments in his students at the Saint-Jaques school in Paris.
His most famous patient was the “Savage Man.” Itard wrote a book on this patient, named An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man. In 1970 this true story was filmed by François Truffaut – L’Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child).
My description of this patient is a quotation from a book by Roger Brown, named “Words and Things.” Not only he tells the story, but also comments on the expectations of that time. And he clearly states that “the doctor’s (Itard) methods of instruction were founded on an analysis of the basic psychology of language which is the the same as the analysis on which the present book is founded.” Brown was a psychologist at Harvard University and later joined MIT. His excellent book was the recommended textbook for my course of Psycholinguistics at the Central Institute for the Deaf in Saint Louis.
Here is Roger Brown’s text:
“ ‘A child of eleven or twelve, who some years before had been seen completely naked in the Caune Woods seeking acorns and roots to eat, was met in the same place toward the end of September 1797 by three sportsmen who seized him as he was climbing into a tree to escape from their pursuit.’
“In these words Itard began his report on the education of the wild boy found in the Department of Aveyron. The discovery of a human creature who had lived most of his life outside of all human society excited the greatest interest in Paris. Frivolous spirits looked forward with delight to the boy's astonishment at the sights of the capital. Readers of Rousseau expected to see an example of man as he was ‘when wild in woods the noble savage ran.’ There were even some who counted on hearing from the boy mankind's original unlearned language – they conjectured that it was most likely to be Hebrew. The savage of Aveyron disappointed all of these expectations. He was a dirty, scarred, inarticulated creature who trotted and grunted like a beast, ate the most filthy refuse, and bit and scratched those who opposed him.
“In Paris he was exhibited to the populace in a cage, where he ceaselessly rocked to and fro like an animal in the zoo, indifferent alike to those who cared for him and those who stared. The great psychiatrist Philippe Pinel, who taught France to treat the insane as patients rather than as prisoners, was brought to examine the boy. After a series of tests Pinel pronounced him a congenital idiot unlikely to be helped by any sort of training.
“Many came to believe that the so-called savage was merely a poor subnormal child whose parents had recently abandoned him at the entrance to some woods. However, a young physician from the provinces, Dr. Itard, believed that the boy's wildness was genuine, that he had lived alone in the woods from about the age of seven until his present age of approximately twelve, and there was much to support this view. The boy had a strong aversion to society, to clothing, furniture, houses, and cooked food. He trotted like an animal, sniffed at everything that was given him to eat, and masticated with his incisors in the same way as certain wild beasts. His body showed numerous scars, some of them apparently caused by the bites of animals and some which he had had for a considerable time. Above all, a boy of his general description had been seen running wild in the same forest some five years earlier.
“Dr. Itard had read enough of Locke and Condillac to be convinced that most of the ideas a man possesses are not innate but, rather, are acquired by experience. He believed that the apparent feeble-mindedness of the boy of Aveyron was caused by his prolonged isolation from human society and his ignorance of any language and that the boy could be cured by a teacher with patience and a knowledge of epistemology. Itard asked for the job. He had been appointed physician to the new institute for deaf mutes in Paris and so asked to take Victor there to be civilized and, most interesting for us, to learn the French language. Permission was granted and Itard worked with the boy, whom he called Victor, for five years. Itard had little success in teaching Victor to speak, but had considerable success in teaching Victor to understand language and, especially, to read simple words and phrases.”
The major contributions of this extraordinary physician can be summarized as this:
1. He was one of the founders of Oto-Rhyno-Laryngology.
2. He was a patriarch of special education – he influenced the work of his disciple, Dr. Eduard Séguin, and Séguin, in turn, influenced his disciple Maria Montessori.
Before his death in 1838, Itard was succeded in L'Institution Royale des Sourds-Muets by another very famous physician: Dr. Prosper Menière.
 |
| Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard - Wikimedia Commons |
In Paris, Itard began to work with Dr. René Laennec, a famous physician, the inventor of the stethoscope.
Laennec was a few years younger than Itard, but had had a formal education at the university at Nantes and later became a professor of medicine at the Collège de France.
In 1803 Itard described pneumothorax. Laennec, a few years later, described the disease in more detail.
 |
| Itard's Otology Book - Wikimedia Commons |
In 1825 he became the head physician at L'Institution Royale des Sourds-Muets.
He is known as an educator of deaf patients and conducted several experiments in his students at the Saint-Jaques school in Paris.
His most famous patient was the “Savage Man.” Itard wrote a book on this patient, named An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man. In 1970 this true story was filmed by François Truffaut – L’Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child).
 |
| Victor of Aveyron - Wikimedia Commons |
Here is Roger Brown’s text:
“ ‘A child of eleven or twelve, who some years before had been seen completely naked in the Caune Woods seeking acorns and roots to eat, was met in the same place toward the end of September 1797 by three sportsmen who seized him as he was climbing into a tree to escape from their pursuit.’
“In these words Itard began his report on the education of the wild boy found in the Department of Aveyron. The discovery of a human creature who had lived most of his life outside of all human society excited the greatest interest in Paris. Frivolous spirits looked forward with delight to the boy's astonishment at the sights of the capital. Readers of Rousseau expected to see an example of man as he was ‘when wild in woods the noble savage ran.’ There were even some who counted on hearing from the boy mankind's original unlearned language – they conjectured that it was most likely to be Hebrew. The savage of Aveyron disappointed all of these expectations. He was a dirty, scarred, inarticulated creature who trotted and grunted like a beast, ate the most filthy refuse, and bit and scratched those who opposed him.
“In Paris he was exhibited to the populace in a cage, where he ceaselessly rocked to and fro like an animal in the zoo, indifferent alike to those who cared for him and those who stared. The great psychiatrist Philippe Pinel, who taught France to treat the insane as patients rather than as prisoners, was brought to examine the boy. After a series of tests Pinel pronounced him a congenital idiot unlikely to be helped by any sort of training.
“Many came to believe that the so-called savage was merely a poor subnormal child whose parents had recently abandoned him at the entrance to some woods. However, a young physician from the provinces, Dr. Itard, believed that the boy's wildness was genuine, that he had lived alone in the woods from about the age of seven until his present age of approximately twelve, and there was much to support this view. The boy had a strong aversion to society, to clothing, furniture, houses, and cooked food. He trotted like an animal, sniffed at everything that was given him to eat, and masticated with his incisors in the same way as certain wild beasts. His body showed numerous scars, some of them apparently caused by the bites of animals and some which he had had for a considerable time. Above all, a boy of his general description had been seen running wild in the same forest some five years earlier.
“Dr. Itard had read enough of Locke and Condillac to be convinced that most of the ideas a man possesses are not innate but, rather, are acquired by experience. He believed that the apparent feeble-mindedness of the boy of Aveyron was caused by his prolonged isolation from human society and his ignorance of any language and that the boy could be cured by a teacher with patience and a knowledge of epistemology. Itard asked for the job. He had been appointed physician to the new institute for deaf mutes in Paris and so asked to take Victor there to be civilized and, most interesting for us, to learn the French language. Permission was granted and Itard worked with the boy, whom he called Victor, for five years. Itard had little success in teaching Victor to speak, but had considerable success in teaching Victor to understand language and, especially, to read simple words and phrases.”
The major contributions of this extraordinary physician can be summarized as this:
1. He was one of the founders of Oto-Rhyno-Laryngology.
2. He was a patriarch of special education – he influenced the work of his disciple, Dr. Eduard Séguin, and Séguin, in turn, influenced his disciple Maria Montessori.
Before his death in 1838, Itard was succeded in L'Institution Royale des Sourds-Muets by another very famous physician: Dr. Prosper Menière.
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