Idiot

A person who has been without understanding from his nativity, and whom the law, therefore, presumes never likely to Attain any.

Shelf. Lun. 2; 3 Wltth. & Beck. Med. Jur. 371.

It is an imbecility or sterility of mind, and Abr. Idiot (A); Brooke, Abr.; C!o.

Lltt. 246, 247; 4 Co. 126; 1 Bla. Cora. 302; Tayl. Med. Jur. 688.

When a man cannot count or number twenty, nor tell his father’s or mother’s, name, nor how old he is, having been frequently told of it, it is a fair presumption that he is devoid of understanding; ^tzh.

N. B. 233. See 1 Dow, P. Cas. N. S. 392; 3 Bllgh. N. S. 1.

Persons bom deaf, dumb, and blind were presumed to be idiots; for, the senses being the only Inlets of knowledge, and these, the most important of them, being closed, all ideas and associations belonging to them are totally excluded from their minds; Co. Lltt. 42; Shelf. Lun. 3. See State V. Howard.

118 Mo. 127, 24 S. W. 41.

But this is a mere presumption, which, like mo.st others, may be rebutted; and doubtless a person born deaf, dumb, and blind, who could be taught to rend and write, would not be considered an idiot. Remarkable instances of such are found in the persons of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller who have been taught how to converse, and even to write. See Locke, Hum, Und. b.

2, c. 11, §§ 12, 13; Ayllflfe, Pand. 234; 4 Comyns, Dig. 610; 8 id. 644.

See Deaf and Dumb; Deaf, Dumb and Blind; Idiocy. Idiots are Incapable of committing crimes, or entering into contracts. They cannot, of course, make a will; but they may acquire property by descent,