Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/183

 IDIOCY 175 Bonville in 1865 as an experimental school, under the charge of the hoard of directors of the institution for the deaf and dumb, and was incorporated under its own board of trustees in 1871. It has been from the first under the superintendence of Dr. Charles T. Wilbur, brother of the superintendent of the New York institution. The number under instruc- tion in 1873 was 126; remaining at the close of the year, 100, of whom 66 were males and 34 females; teachers, 4; other officers, &c., 3 ; expenditures, $25,777 49. The pupils are divided into seven classes. The expenses of the institution, except for clothing of pupils, are defrayed by the state. The idiot asylum on Randall's island, supported by the city of New York, is under the charge of Mrs. Her- bert, matron, and in 1874 had 167 inmates, of whom 91 were males and 76 females ; 44 were unimprovable cases; the remaining 123 were receiving instruction in a school opened in Oc- tober, 1867, and conducted by Miss Mary 0. Dunphy (who has been principal from the first), with three assistants. The private institution at Barre, Mass., has since 1851 been carried on by Dr. George Brown. It embraces ample grounds, handsomely laid out, with several buildings, in which the patients are classified according to their condition and the pecunia- ry ability or inclination of the parents. The number of inmates is about 60, of whom part, as epileptics, &c., are received for medical treatment, part for custody, and part for in- struction. A private school was opened in 1871 at Fayville, Worcester co., Mass., by Mrs. O. H. Knight and Mrs. M. A. F. Green, formerly teachers at South Boston. The num- ber of pupils is limited to 12. The num- ber of idiots in the United States, according to the census of 1870, was 24,527, of whom 14,485 were males and 10,042 females; 3,188 were colored, and 1,645 foreign-born ; 140 were also deaf and dumb, 105 blind, and 11 both deaf and dumb and blind. There were 437 under 5 years of age, 1,616 from 5 to 10, 3,088 from 10 to 15, 3,706 from 15 to 20, 6,476 from 20 to 30, 3,938 from 30 to 40, 2,571 from 40 to 50, 2,676 of 50 and upward, and 19 of unknown age. The number in each state is shown in the following table : Alabama 721 Arkansas 289 California 8T Connecticut 841 Delaware 69 Florida 100 Georgia 8T1 Illinois 1,244 Indiana 1,860 Iowa 633 Kansas 109 Kentucky 1,141 Louisiana 286 Maine 628 Maryland 862 Massachusetts 778 Michigan 618 Minnesota 184 Mississippi 485 Missouri 779 Nebraska. .. 25 New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Bhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia West Virginia "Wisconsin District of Columbia... New Mexico Utah Other territories and Nevada 825 436 2,486 976 2,883 65 2,250 128 465 1,091 IM 825 1,180 427 560 BO 46 ir. 425 VOL. IX. 12 The number of idiots and their proportion to the population cannot, however, be ascertained with any satisfactory degree of accuracy. The census statistics are untrustworthy, both from the different standards adopted by enumera- tors, and from the difficulty of persuading parents, from whom the returns are usually obtained, that their children are idiots. Some of the worst cases in idiot asylums were brought there by their friends, not as idiots, but as being a little peculiar in their habits. The effort has been made in several states to obtain returns from physicians, clergymen, and town officers, but with very moderate success. So far as these returns go, however, they show a much greater prevalence of idiocy than has been commonly supposed ; and it is now gen- erally conceded by competent judges that the number of idiots is greater than that of the deaf and dumb or of the blind, and as great as that of the insane, the proportion being not less than 1 in 1,000 of the population. As- suming this ratio, the number of idiots in the United States would be more than 38,000. Ac- cording to the census of 1871, the number of idiots and imbeciles in England and Wales in that year was 29,452, of whom 14,728 were males and 14,724 females ; but the actual num- ber in those two countries has been estima- ted as high as 50,000. The number in Scot- land is stated at 3,000; in Ireland as high as 7,000. The number of idiots in the Nether- lands, according to Dutch authorities, is be- tween 3,000 and 4,000 ; the census of Norway in 1865 enumerated 2,039. The number of idiots and cretins in Switzerland was estimated in 1868 at 3,800. Under the common law, " an idiot or natural fool," according to Blackstone, " is one that hath had no understanding from his nativity, and therefore is by law presumed never likely to attain any." " A man is not an idiot if he hath any glimmering of reason, so that he can tell his parents, his age, or the like common matters." His custody and the care of his lands were at first vested in the lord of the fee, but subsequently in the crown, and exercised through the lord chancellor. The sovereign took the profits, supplied the idiot with necessaries, and upon his death re- stored the estate to his heirs. There was a writ de idiota inquirendo, to inquire whether a man was an idiot. The jury, however, rare- ly found a person an idiot from nativity, but in most cases only non compos mentis, in which case a different rule applied. For the present legal status of idiots see LUNACY. See " Essay on Education," by Dr. Richard Poole (first published in the " Edinburgh Encyclopedia," 1819, afterward in a separate volume, 1825); Traitement moral, hygiene et education de idiots, by Dr. E. Seguin (Paris, 1846) ; " Re- ports of Commissioners on Idiocy in Massachu- setts " (Boston, 1848-'9) ; " Statistical Studies on Idiocy," by M. Hubertz (Copenhagen, 1851); "Mental Alienation and Idiocy in England, Scotland, and Ireland," by Dr. Stark