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An imbecile who may be sent to the front.

Case 41. (Pruvost, 1915.)

A Parisian sandwichman, 25, of unknown parentage and a state ward, placed out with a farmer at 12, escaping with a friend to Bordeaux at 14, thence leading a wild, improvident life at Lyons, Marseilles and Paris, sleeping in fields and hedges, earning 22 sous a day but in no case mixing with the police, was examined for physical inefficiency at 20 years. He wanted to enlist but was refused. He insisted and was very proud of the fact that he got in as the Major said to them, “Let him go in.” He could hardly read, write or calculate but was by reason of his adventurous life full of practical resources. He was irascible and frequently crimed, whereupon he would cry under the Captain’s window, “Robber band, idiots, I shall write to the Minister.” He was passionately fond of military life, though he had but the vaguest notions about the commands, the names of generals and the like. He wanted to drill. His comrades played practical jokes upon him asking him to look for a trajectory, for the squad’s umbrella and the key to the drill ground. They also told him he had been proposed to be corporal, whereupon he was greatly overjoyed and immediately sewed stripes on his sleeve and began to give commands. He said if they put him among the auxiliaries he would throw the adjutant in the water. He sang and swung his gun with joy when he went to the front. He thought there were stripes hanging to the barbed wire and wanted to pick as many as possible. Such a man may be safely sent to the front although he will bear watching. At the date of report this man had been at the front two months doing very well.

Re the comparative success of the Germans in the matter of excluding imbeciles, Meyer found that 8 per cent of the mental cases in the army were cases of mental defect.