An Abnormal Child

That Herbert surpassed the average mental development of children of a like age is an incontestable fact. According to the Binet-Simon test, the child was on the average three and a half to four years ahead of his age. The justification for considering his early intellectual development, at least tentatively, in a separate category from his mental illness, is based on the fact that this early intellectual development occurred first without a sign of his illness.

An insatiable thirst for knowledge such as appeared in this child simultaneously with his mastery of speech, has been observed with otherwise normal infant prodigies.4 Like Herbert, these children also, at least in whatever came within the scope of their unusual talent, exhibited an inordinate self overestimation.5 Although in all the biographies of early geniuses, traits and qualities are found which are identical with many of those which were observable in this case, nevertheless, there seems to be an essential difference between the talent of the infant prodigy and Herbert's intellectual precocity. The performance of all infant prodigies has occurred in a specific easily demarcated sphere. Many of them showed childish traits and retardations in development. Herbert's early intellectual development appears to have had a different character. There was no special field where his precocity appeared as extraordinary as it does in the case of infant prodigies whose performance is exceptional and far surpasses the average level of the adult. Herbert's development in the intellectual sphere was of a general nature. It appeared as if, at twenty-two months of age, he had endeavored to be an adult. His mathematical talent although far above the average, was not to be compared with that of a chess genius. Some quite extraordinary talent in some specific field in spite of his illness would have to be demonstrated to consider him a child prodigy. His literary production may be considered merely as a product