Why was autism formerly only a wealthy disease?

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From Eduard Seguin in 1869:

"Among the wealthier classes, idiocy is not only oftener aggravated by accessory diseases, but also complicated with abnormal semi-capacities or disordered instincts, which produce heterogeneous types to an almost unlimited extent. It is from this class, almost exclusively, that we have musical, mathematical, architectural, and other varieties of the idiot savant; the useless protrusion of a single faculty, accompanied by a woful general impotence."

http://autismcrisis.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... story.html

Assuming this is talking about autism/Aspergers, why would it be primarily a disease found among the wealthy? Could this support either the Vitamin D or the toxicity hypothesis (wealthy people in the 19th century were either more likely to use chemicals or less likely to be in the sun than poor people while technology and suburban living later spread these factors to the poor as well)?

EDIT: Link fixed.

Not making this stuff up. The link contains descriptions of modern scholarship which basically agrees that the term "idiot savant" as used in the late 19th century likely referred frequently but not exclusively to individuals on the autism spectrum. I've read this other places, too, which makes me think it's a widely-held view among modern academics.

Non-royal autistics would probably have meltdowns more frequently, and get admitted as crazies/witches/etc.

That's a quite interesting conjecture.

I suspect that servant women working in wealthy homes in the old days probably didn't get much sun, either, but then my impression is that they were usually single. Is that right?

Poorer families were significantly less likely to get their children evaluated in this way, and they'd have fewer opportunities for any talented children to show off their abilities. It's not that autism was primarily an upper class condition, it's that upper class autistic individuals were more likely to be identified, and that talented autistic people were more likely to have their talents nurtured.

The link doesn't want to work, at least on my computer. It sees the period after the html as part of the url. Here is a fix with url tags enclosing the link and the period after so it should work much better.

Cause only the wealthy could afford the lab and genetic tests to determine whether they are autistic or not--it is a very subtle disorder.

Actually, there were no tests in that time frame. The usual fate of/for someone with an ASD was the insane asylum or prison. Earlier in time, there was always the stake & a nice bon fire waiting..
The reasons it *SEEMS* like there were more is because the wealthy could buy silence or take care of ( very discretely of course!) family members who were TOO different for their own good...


Sincerely,
Matthew