Ah..have found a reference to that story apparently it happened in a village called Saint Serin in southern France.
“The Wild Boy of Aveyron” Victor
Victor was found on January 9, 1800 in a village of Saint-Serin in the South of France. He became the first feral child to be studied by
practitioners of the newly emerging human sciences.
Eyewitness Constant-Saint-Estave’s account three weeks after his capture states:
“I found him sitting by a warm fire, which he seemed to enjoy, but showing signs of uneasiness from time to time, probably because of the great
crowd of people around him… When I talked to him, it did not take long to discover he was a mute. Soon after that, when I noticed that he made no
response to various questions I put him, in both a loud and soft voice, I decided that he must be deaf….When we reached my house, I decided he must
be hungry…To find out what he liked, I had my servant offer him on a big earthernware platter raw and cooked meat, rye, and wheat bread, apples,
pears, grapes, nuts, chestnuts, acorns, potatoes, parsnips, and an orange. He picked up the potatoes confidently and tossed them into the firs to cook
them. One at a time he seized the other items, smelled them, and rejected them. With his right hand he picked the potatoes right out of the live
coals and ate them roasting hot. There was no way to persuade him to let them cool off a little….When he got thirsty, he glanced around the room.
Noticing the pitcher, he placed my hand in his without any other sign and led me to the pitcher…Some wine was brought, but he scorned it and showed
impatience at my delay in giving him water to drink…” (cited in Shattuck 1980, 6-7) adapted from Sociology: a Critical Introduction 1996,
111.
Victor was not toilet trained and would go anywhere when he felt the need. When he was first in the hospital when dressed, Victor tore the cloths
off. He would not sleep in the bed and he would try to escape whenever he could.
Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre noted that the boy was about 12 or 13 years old. He also noted that his body was covered in scars and stated that the boy
had no malformation of the tongue or mouth or vocal cords.
He also observed that Victor relied on his senses in a different order than others. Victor’s sense of smell came first, then taste, and then touch.
After studying him, Bonnaterre concluded that the boy was an imbecile.
Victor’s case was also taken on by Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard. He worked with deaf children. Itard did not believe Victor was an imbecile and he was
going to try and socialize the boy. Itard wrote, “Humans are only what they have been made to be. Any human being has to learn his or her habits,
needs, and ideas, and does so by imitating others under the influence of society.”
Itard taught Victor to learn how to dress himself, use the bathroom properly, and even showed him some letters. Victor even learned how to say some
words. Other several years he displayed evidence of both intellectual and emotional growth. Victor eventually could set the table, garden, and saw
wood. Itard eventually tired of his work and left Victor in the car of Mme Guerin. Victor died at the age of 40 in 1828.
