NATURES EXPERIMENTS, SOCIETY CLOSURES

The Wild Child, who lives through much of childhood without exposure t o language or culture, is exceedingly rare. I examine three of the mos t famous and most well authenticated cases: Helen Keller, who was isol ated from eighteen months until her seventh year; 'Victor', the wild b oy of the forest near Aveyron, whom Itard studied; and 'Genie,' who wa s isolated from language from age two until the middle of her thirteen th year. Attention is paid both to the development of these individual s and to the conduct and misconceptions of those who examined and trai ned them. Various morals are drawn, which might also have application to research on non-human primates.