Abstract
This article examines the reception of the story of Kamala, the wolf girl of Midnapore, in the Anglo-American scientific community. Two aspects of the case are analyzed in detail: the controversy regarding the authenticity of the reports and the meaning of the evidence, and Arnold Gesell's (1941) psychological biography of Kamala, Wolf Child and Human Child. Although most scientists interested in wild children approach them with the expectation that these children might furnish the key to human nature and development, Gesell turned to Kamala for confirmation of a knowledge he already had. Gesell's obsession with Kamala is connected to his conception of development: He advanced an alternative interpretation in maturational terms to counter the prevalent environmentalist interpretation of the wolf girl, and he integrated her radical difference into his theory to prove its claim to be a truly universal account of childhood and growth.
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