Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T20:41:11.200Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the Arithmetical Faculty and its Impairment in Imbecility and Insanity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Extract

The operation of counting is so familiar to us, and so easily brought under mental observation, that a definition of what it is in learned terms does not make anything clearer to our minds. The abstract idea in numbers is as many as, five, that is, as many fingers as I have, as many as you have, as many as your mouth and eyes and ears together, or as many as the sepals of the rose.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1891 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* “Sociology based upon Ethnography,” by Letourneau, Charles Dr., English translation, London, 1881, p. 583.Google Scholar

See a paper on the “Ethnography of the Western Tribes of Torres Straits,” by Haddon, Alfred C., “Anthropological Journal,” Vol. 19, p. 303. Taine in his book on Intelligence, London, 1871, has the following note: “As to the primitive meaning of our nouns of number, see Bopp. Comparative Grammar (tr. Breal), ii, 221. Tri (three) means exceeding, i.e., the two inferior numbers. Four probably means three plus one; five, four plus one; ten, twice five. A hundred certainly means ten times ten. A thousand probably means many, a great number” (p. 412.) Google Scholar

* Of course IV. means one finger less than a hand. In some cases numbers are expressed by a subtraction from a round number like ten, as in the Latin undeviginti, in the Hindustani unis, = 19, one from bis = 20, untis = 39, one from tis = 30, untalis = 49, one from chalis = 40. The Yombas of Western Africa, who have a curious system of numerals, also, in some instances, make use of subtraction. See paper on “The Numerical System of the Yomba Nation,” by Mann, Adolphus, in the “Anthropological Journal,” Vol. 16, p. 60.Google Scholar

“Conquest of Mexico,” Vol. 1, Chap, iv., p. 98.Google Scholar

* “Inquiries into Human Faculty,” by Galton, Francis, London, 1883, pp. 114145.Google Scholar

“Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human Faculty,” by Romanes, George John, London, 1888, p. 215. The reference is to Galton, , “Tropical South Africa,” p. 213.Google Scholar

* See his letter in Bateman's, Dr. “Darwinism tested by Language,” London, 1877, p. 176. Baker adds: “They usually count in tens, taking for the base of their calculations their digits.” Google Scholar

* Dr. Turner has published two books which are full of observations of great interest to the anthropologist, “Nineteen Years in Polynesia,” London, 1861, and “Samoa a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before,” London, 1884. While correcting the proofs I have heard with much regret of the sudden death of this distinguished missionary.Google Scholar

See paper on the Maoris of New Zealand, in Vol. 19. of the Anthropological Journal,” p. 118.Google Scholar

* “New York State Reformatory at Elmira,” by Winter, Alexander. London, 1891, p. 139. Google Scholar

* “Allgemeine Psychopathologie,” Leipzig, 1878, p. 186.Google Scholar

“Les Epileptiques Arithmomanes, Annales Medico-Psychologiques,” Tome xi., N. 1, p. 25. See also Ball, B., “Leçons sur les Maladies Mentales,” p. 449.Google Scholar

Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.