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Rh the Inner Mission were certain inventions in the field of charity. In the eighteenth century Abbe l' Epée invented a language for deaf mutes and made their education possible. This method was further developed by S. Heinecke (1778). John Howard (1775–81), had journeyed through Europe, descended into dungeons, measured the misery of prisoners and of the insane, and appealed to the humanity of Christendom. Dr. Pinel at Paris had released the insane from their chains, and helped to free mankind from oppressive superstitions in respect to nervous diseases. Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) exercised a remarkable influence on European charity. He not only studied theology but natural science, mathematics and political economy, and he devoted his immense powers to practical measures for the welfare of the common people of Glasgow and elsewhere. He sought to make the church of a parish the responsible agency of poor relief, and under his management the plan succeeded. But the forces of the century were moving in another direction and the civil authorities afterward assumed control. His thought of assigning a small number of families to a friendly visitor was a contribution of high value, and it has been adopted into the Elberfeld system of municipal relief and into the parish methods of the German churches.

Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845), a Quaker lady of England, came into helpful contact with the German movement of charity. After her marriage she was busy for many years with the care of a family of eleven children, and yet her residence was the center of large and generous efforts. The Society of Friends train women for religious work and the world is richer for this fact. In 1813 Mrs. Fry made her first historic visit to Newgate Prison. She was profoundly moved by the condition of the women she found there and she set about securing important reforms; the separation of women from men, the organization of visitors and the provision for moral and spiritual instruction. Her labors were crowned with success, and she became so famous that she was invited to the continent, where she stirred many hearts to work for the fallen. Her motto expresses one of the principles