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 IDIOCY 171 guage. In 1819 Dr. Richard Pool of Edin- burgh, in an essay on education, advocated the establishment of an institution for imbeciles. In 1824 Dr. Belhomme of Paris published an essay on the possibility of improving the con- dition of idiots ; and in 1828 a few were in- structed for a short time at the Bicetre, one of the large insane hospitals of Paris. In 1831 M. Falret attempted the same work at the Salpetriere, another hospital for the insane in the same city. Neither of these efforts met with sufficient success to be continued. In 1833 Dr. Voisin, a French physiologist and phrenologist, organized a school for idiots in Paris, but it was not of long duration. In 1838 Dr. Seguin opened a school in the hospi- tal for incurables of the rue du Faubourg St. Martin, and was soon so successful that the idiots in the Bicetre were placed under his charge; and within three years he received from the French academy, whose committee had carefully tested his system of instruction, a testimonial of their approval. The previous efforts for the instruction of idiots had been made upon no definite plan, or with a view of testing some philosophical theory of the nature of mind or the original constitution of man. Dr. Seguin, starting with the postulate that idiocy is only a prolonged infancy, consulted nature as to the mode by which the physical Eowers are cultivated and the mind educated i the infant, and ended by adopting the physiological system of education. This sys- tem, considering all the manifestations of life as expressions of functions, and all functions as resultant from a certain organism, assumes that if we could take hold of an organ we should be able to make it perform its function ; and teaches that as the organs of sensation are within our reach and those of thought beyond it, the physiological education of the senses must precede the psychical education of the mind. Applying this method to the varying phases of idiocy, each function is to be trained with especial reference to the peculiarities and deficiencies of the individual, and also in its relation to all other functions, with a view to a harmonious whole. Important agencies are pure air and good food, to strengthen and in- vigorate the system ; gymnastic appliances, to exercise the various functions and correct ab- normal manifestations ; music, imitation, anal- ogy, contrast; the play ground, the workshop, and the farm, which furnish a definite object and lend reality to the exercises, while they initiate the pupil into the actual operations of life. The legs, if they do not bend, may be made to yield by placing the child in a baby- jumper; if the feet refuse to step, they may be taught by making them encounter, with the regularity of a walk, a spring board which alternately receives and throws them back; the gait is regulated by the use of dumb-bells and by conducting the child between the rounds of a horizontal ladder or over planes of various inclinations and conditions of sur- face, representing the principal difficulties likely to be encountered in nature. The hands are taught to grasp by clasping them about the rounds of an inclined ladder and requiring them to support the weight of the body, or by the use of the balancing pole, which is thrown back and forth between the child and the teacher. The sense of hearing, when wanting, is aroused by music, by surprise sounds, or by sounds connected with some natural desire, as the dripping of water when the pupil is thirsty; the vacant or wandering sight is fixed and awakened by the steadfast gaze of the teacher, by the admission of light at intervals into a dark room, or by the use of the kaleidoscope ; the touch, the taste, the smell are trained by appropriate exercises, and the refractory or- gans of speech are moulded and manipulated until they can utter the desired sounds. The operations are at first passive and in obedience to the will of the teacher ; an active perform- ance of the functions is gained by the presen- tation of motives within the understanding of the pupil. As each sense or organ is carried progressively toward the normal performance of its function, new avenues from without are opened by which ideas, at first concrete, but afterward more abstract, are instilled into the mind. Finding in idiots the infantile fondness for bright colors, teachers avail themselves of it to teach them the distinctions of color and form ; noticing their liking for playthings, they furnish them with builders' blocks, cups and balls, and other toys, by which they are instructed in number, form, and size; words, not letters (these, except as a training for the eye, come later), and the meaning of words are taught by pictures and objects. Throughout these processes individual training is alternated with instruction in groups. Simultaneously with the physical and mental training, the idiots are instructed as far as practicable in the social and moral relations and duties by practice and example. The system thus briefly sum- marized is the one now followed or aimed at in the principal institutions both in the United States and Europe. The enthusiasm of phi- lanthropists has perhaps in some cases led to the expectation of higher results than have been or are likely to be realized. A consider- able proportion of those under instruction will make little or no intellectual progress; the mind is too thickly shrouded for the light to reach it. The condition of those suffering from ep- ilepsy is still more hopeless. The training school may slightly improve their physical con- dition, but that is all. There is however a large number, and those often apparently the worst cases when admitted, who will attain to a considerable degree of intelligence under ju- dicious instruction, and will develop sufficient ability to be capable, under the direction of others, of acquiring a livelihood. A consid- erable number learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, in numbers below 100; but in most cases they grasp the idea of numbers