Jean Marc Gaspard Itard



Victor of Aveyron

This is an excerpt from Jean Marc Gaspard Itard's, work, An Historical Account and Educaton of  a Savage Man:or,the First Developments, Physical and Moral, of  Young Savage Caught in the Woods Near Aveyron in the year 1798
“In the savage horde the most vagabond, as well as in the most civilized nations of Europe, man is only what he is made to be by external circumstances; he is necessarily elevated by his equals; he contracts from them his habits and his wants; his ideas are no longer his own; he enjoys, from the enviable prerogative of his species, a capacity of developing his understanding but the power of imitiation, and the influence of society.”
― Jean Itard

One of his  conclusions after his study of Victor.... "The progress of teaching may, and  ought to be  aided, by  the  light of  modern medicine, which of  all the  naturla sciences can co-operate the  most  effectually towars the amelioration of  the  human species, by  appreciating the  organical and  intellectual peculiarities of  each individual;and  by that means determining what education is  likely  to do for  him and  what  society  my  expect  from his  future character.- Jean Itard