Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/483

 CONCERNING A FORM OF DEGENERACY.

II. THE EDUCATION AND CARE OF THE FEEBLE-MINDED.

The history of the education of the feeble-minded begins with the present century.' The early recorded cases were in connection with schools for deaf-mutes, the first being a single case in Paris, France, in 1800. Later several cases are reported in Hartford, Conn., about 181 8, and in Paris from 1828 to 1833. The true method of education for this class of defectives had not been found, and the early attempts were not successful enough to justify continuance.

In 1837 the apostle to the idiot appeared in the person of Dr. Edouard Seguin, who began a work in Paris which continued until he came to America eleven years later, and opened the first school for idiots in New York. In 1842 a school for cretins was established in Switzerland, and one for idiots in Berlin. The first school in England began in 1846. It was private, but was soon followed by fine public institutions.

Dr. Seguin's efforts met with such remarkable success that his method was plainly indicated as the correct one. His Treatise on Idiocy, published in 1846, continues to be the text- book of the profession. The book was specially attractive to advanced educators and to alienists. The physiological method of education which Dr. Seguin taught has had a profound effect, not only on the methods of training defectives, but on the science of education in general.

Public attention to the needs of the idiot began in New York and Massachusetts in 1845, '" which year superintendents of hospitals for insane in both states made the necessity of some action in the matter a part of their public reports. The next

'See "The History of the Treatment of the Feeble-minded," by Walter C. Fernald, M.D., in proceedings of the Twentieth National Conference of Charities and Correction, Chicago, 1893.

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