The Early History of Savant
Syndrome
Savant Syndrome: Early Studies
The Origins of the Term "Savant"
The term "savant" is derived from the French word "savoir," which means
"to know." These rare and extraordinarily talented individuals are sometimes
referred to as "an island of genius."
Early Descriptions of Savant Syndrome
One of the first scientists to describe the savant syndrome was Benjamin
Rush, who in 1789 presented the case of Thomas Fuller, nicknamed "a
lightning calculator." Rush described how Fuller could perform
extraordinary calculations, such as determining the number of seconds a
man had lived if he was 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours old (the correct
answer was 2,210,500,800 seconds, which Fuller provided in 90 seconds,
even correcting for the 17 leap years).
The first scientific description of a savant case was published in the German
psychology journal Gnothi Sauton in 1783. The case of Jedediah Buxton, a
lightning calculator with an extraordinary memory, was presented in this
journal. However, it took several more decades before the phenomenon of
savant syndrome was more clearly described and investigated.
Dr. J. Langdon Down's Studies
In 1887, Dr. J. Langdon Down investigated the syndrome, which at the time
was referred to as "idiot savants." Idiot savant was an accepted medical
description of someone suffering from savant characteristics, used to
describe a person with an IQ below 25 who still seemed to be a
"knowledgeable person."
Dr. Down described several savant cases and found that the syndrome was
characterized by "verbal adhesion," meaning that some savants seemed to
have memory without reckoning. He also noted the link between the savant
syndrome and autistic characteristics, although he did not recognize this
connection at the time, as autism was not a known diagnosis.
The Prevalence of Savant Syndrome
Today, there is substantial knowledge about savant syndrome, and over the
last century, about a hundred cases have been described in the scientific
literature.
