Victor (Wild Boy of Aveyron)

Hearing. Captured in south central France by hunters in June 1799, he had been living a wild existence for years, and was unable to speak and without language. He was sent to the care of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (q.v.), a physician who attempted to teach and "civilize" the boy, who was given the name Victor. Despite intensive teaching work, Victor never got beyond very basic life skills, and never did learn to speak. Feeling that he had failed, Itard abandoned his efforts after 5 years. However, the educational experience that Itard gained gave him a solid basis for his later work in education of the deaf. Victor lived out the rest of his life in the care and home of a woman and died at approximately age 40. The story is told in Harlan Lane's The Wild Boy of Aveyron (1976) as well as Itard's own report with the same title.