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K aspar Hauser.
30
while his philosophical and highly cultivated mind perceived the
great importance of a careful study of so anomalous a subject.
His government of the foundling was tender and judicious, and
he placed on record Kaspar’s sayings and doings and the manner
»f his gradual development.
In the Daumer house Kaspar slept for the first time in a bed,
ind he greatly enjoyed its comfort. Until that time, however, he
had never dreamed, and he believed his visions of the night to be
sctual occurrences, until convinced of the difference between
vaking and sleeping experiences.
His diet was regulated with great care. The extreme sensitive-
sess of his nervous system, and his almost complete lack of
nuscular force, seemed to imply that his body demanded more
Jourishment than was to be found in bread and water; accordingly,
2s soon as he began to recover from the effects of his exciting life
in the Tower, he was gradually accustomed to stronger food, and
Jfter three months, was able to digest and enjoy vegetable soup,
slain chocolate, milk gruel, and potatoes. His eyes being still
-xtremely weak and his head inclined to ache, his teacher did not
At first allow him to study, but taught him to play chess and
hackgammon, and to make boxes and other trifles out of paste-
board : he was also encouraged to occupy himself with light work
in the garden, as a means of keeping him a great deal in the open
air, and of teaching him in an easy way to distinguish the nature
ind qualities of various objects concerning which he had at first
no 1dea.
He supposed trees and plants to be as much alive as men and
nimals; the waving of branches in the wind he considered a volun-
ary movement ; to strike a tree, he thought, gave it pain. So, too,
victures and statues were as real to him as the persons and things
represented : he was surprised that the sculptured animals on the
houses remained always in the same place ; he was angry with a
statue in the garden because it did not wash away the dust and
dirt which accumulated upon it ; he was horrified at the crucifix
on the outside of St. Sebald’s Church, and begged that the suffer-
ing man might be taken down.