Futility Closet

In 1800 a 12-year-old boy emerged from a forest in southern France, where he had apparently lived alone for seven years. His case was taken up by a young Paris doctor who set out to see if the boy could be civilized. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll explore the strange, sad story of Victor of Aveyron and the mysteries of child development. We'll also consider the nature of art and puzzle over the relationship between salmon and trees. Intro: Reading Luc Étienne's expressions forward and backward produces sentences in different languages. In 1883 John Maguire invented a raincoat that wouldn't make your legs wet. Sources for our feature on Victor of Aveyron: Harlan Lane, The Wild Boy of Aveyron, 1976. Geoff Rolls, Classic Case Studies in Psychology, 2010. Julia V. Douthwaite, The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster: Dangerous Experiments in the Age of Enlightenment, 2002. Adriana S. Benzaquén, Encounters With Wild Children: Temptation and Disappointment in the Study of Human Natu