more intelligent of the idiots, and this example was followed, in 1831, by Dr. Fabret, at the Salpétriére. In 1839, when Dr. Voisin was made physician of Biçetre, a school was organised, which, although producing some good results, was very incomplete, until Mr. Seguin, who, since 1837, had occupied himself in private with the education of idiots, was, in 1842, named director. He had conceived and put in practice a method of education, the happy results of which were certified to by Esquirol, in 1839; by a committee of which Orfila was a chairman, named by the administrative council of Paris Hospital, in 1842; and, in 1843, of a committee of the Institute (Academy of Sciences) of which Serres, Flourens, and Paniel were members. During the time of his direction, Mr. Seguin published, in two pamphlets, the results of the 1st and 2nd quarters of his efforts at Biçetre. Here he remained, however, only one year, some personal difficulties having arisen between him and the physicians of the establishment, which resulted in the nomination of another to his place. The school has since been under the general superintendence of Dr. Voisin, and under the special direction of Mr. Vallée, while Mr. Seguin has confined himself to private instruction in Paris.

In Switzerland, Dr. Guggenbühl has founded an establishment for the education of crétins, which, within the past three years, has been most satisfactory in its results. More recently, at Berlin, Dr. Sargent has commenced the education of some 20 idiots, and has given an account of the results of one year's efforts, in a pamphlet, published at Berlin; also in reports made by Seguin, when director of the school at Bigetre, and in his large work, in which he explains fully the method he has been led, by experience and reflection, to adopt.

In the remarkable work of Seguin, he details the progress of his idiots stage by stage. He considers their treatment and education as possible on two conditions:-1st, that the treatment be not only hygienic, but moral; and 2dly, that the education be, not the putting in action of acquired faculties, which is the education of common schools, but the development of the functions, of the aptitudes, of the faculties, and of the instinctive and moral tendencies. These must be ascertained by a careful physiological and psychological examination or analysis of each case, a form or table for which is proposed by him. Another table proposed by Voisin, is contained in his memoir. The education of idiots may, of course, be attempted at any age; but little success can be counted on unless it commence when they are young. Indeed, Seguin considers this success to be the exception to a rule which applies not alone to idiots, viz: that the aptitude to receive instruction is peculiar to youth. After the prior examination has been made, the education is commenced upon :

1st. The moving power; and is followed up by

2d. The senses;

3d. The perceptive faculties;

4th. By gymnastics of comparison;

5th. By gymnastics of invention;

6th. Excitement of sentiments, and instincts by moral necessities; 7th. Special excitation of the faculty of spontaneousness;

8th. Incessant provocation to regular action, to speaking, and to the exercise of faculties then developed.

The aptitudes thus created are then applied to different specialities according to the fortune, age or position of each individual, taking care

* See Comptes Rendus de l'Acad. des Sciences, t. xvii. p. 1295.

to choose, in every case, an occupation which will keep in activity the muscular system as well as the mental faculties.

Mr. Seguin states, that the average proportion of cases which have come to his knowledge, in which this treatment has failed of success, is not more than one in a hundred; and if nothing more be done, the repulsive symptoms of idiocy, which are all the result of habit, and not imposed by nature, may at least be removed.

It is the system of Seguin which, as before observed, was put in practice at Bigetre. Since his separation from that establishment, some modifications have been made; but the same general method has been followed up under the direction of Dr. Voisin, and of the intelligent and devoted teacher, Mr. Vallée. The best idea of what may be done, will be formed from a knowledge of what is done there. It is to be regretted that no reports are published there; a fact which renders it necessary, in order to have anything like a satisfactory idea of the mode of proceeding, to follow up, personally, for a certain time, the course of treatment pursued; an undertaking the labor of which, I may say from personal experience, is more than compensated by the pleasure of becoming an eye-witness to such astonishing results.

Let us take a young idiot, in whom scarce any of the senses appear developed; who is abandoned to the lowest passions, and who is unable to walk or to execute voluntary movements. He is brought to Bicetre, and placed at once in the class of those boys who are executing the moving power. Here, with about twenty others, who have already learned to act somewhat in unison, he is made, at first by holding and guiding his arms and feet, and afterwards by the excitement of imitation, to follow the movements of his companions. These, at the order of the teacher, go through with various steps and movements of the head, arms and feet, which, at the same time that they give wholesome exercise to the animal part of the system, develop the first personal sentiment, that of rest and immobility. After this, the class is made, at the word of command, to designate various parts of the body. On the 20th January, the number in this class was 18; some of whom had been several months under treatment; others of whom had been but just attached to it. The teacher, 1st, indicated with his hand, a part of the body—as head, arms, hand, face, hair, eyes, and named it aloud; the children repeated the movement and touched the part. 2d. The teacher designated with the voice, a part which the idiot touched. 3d. He designated a part by gesture, and the pupils named it aloud. There are many, of course, who are slow to do this; but the love of imitation, and the care of teachers, produce, in time, the necessary regularity of movement. The organ of speech has yet, however, to be developed in others.

A complete series of gymnastic exercises, adapted to the various necessities which the physiological examination bas established for each case, is now followed up; the result of which is, to create an equilibrium between the muscular and the over-excited nervous system; to fatigue the idiot sufficiently to procure him a sound and refreshing sleep, and to develop his general intelligence. At the same time the hygienic treatment, adapted to his peculiar case, is applied; he is exposed to the light of the sun, to fresh air-is made to go through frequent ablutions, and is warmly clad. In most cases, a tonic diet is adopted, and he is placed at table where the monitors, by dint of industry and example, teach him to eat as do those around him.

The next step is to educate the senses, beginning with that of feeling; and beginning with this, inasmuch as it is the sense by which the idiot

acquires most readily a knowledge of external objects, long before his eye is accustomed to fix their image, or his ear to listen to sounds. Smell and taste are next cultivated; the former, by presenting to the pupil various odors, which at first make no impression whatever-rose and assafoetida being received with equal favor. By degrees, and as the harmony of the functions is restored, and the intellectual activity developed, this sense is awakened, and lends again its aid to awaken others. The sense of taste is roused in the same manner, by placing in the mouth various substances, alternately, sapid and acid, bitter and sweet.

The power of speech, so imperfect in all, is the most difficult to develop; but a method, improving upon that which Pereira practised in 1760, and which has been since successfully followed up in Germany, has been adopted at Bigetre, and also in the private practice of Seguin, with great success. This is, however, the part of idiot education that proceeds the slowest, and which more than any other, except, perhaps, the moral treatment, requires the greatest attention, patience and intelligence, on the part of the teacher.

The sight is next cultivated; and here, as indeed in every part of this miracle of instruction, great difficulties were at first encountered. The eyes of the idiot are often perfectly formed, but he sees nothing; they fix no object. The organ he possesses, but it is passive and dormant. The senses of smell and taste have been developed by direct action upon them; that of touch, by putting the hand in contact with different bodies. The stagnant eye of the idiot cannot, however, be moved by the hand of another. The method employed is due to the ingenuity of Seguin. He placed the child in a chamber, which was suddenly darkened, so as to excite his attention; after which, a small opening in a shutter let in a single ray of light, before which various objects, agreeable to the pupil, arranged upon slides, like those of a magic lantern, were successively passed. The light and its direction having once attracted his attention, was then, by a change of the opening in the shutter, moved up and down, to the right and left, followed, in most cases, by his heretofore motionless eyeballs. This is succeeded by exercises of gymnastics, which require the attention of the eye to avoid, not a dangerous bruise, but a disagreeable thump. Games of balls and battledoors are also used to excite this sense. Another means employed, is to place yourself before the idiot, fix his eye by a firm look, varying this look according to various sentiments; pursuing, for hours even, his moving but unimpressioned orbit; chasing it constantly, until finally it stops, fixes itself, and begins to see. After efforts of this kind, which require a patience and a superiority of will that few men possess, the first reward comes to the teacher himself, for his identity is recognized by other means than the touch, and he catches the first beam of intelligence that radiates from the heretofore benighted countenance.

As a consequence of this development of sight, certain notions—not ideas are taught the child; these are those of form, color, dimension, configuration, &c. &c. Form is taught by means of various objects-by solid blocks, such as cubes, hexædrons, &c., and by sheets of pasteboard cut in squares, and other geometrical figures. The pupils soon distinguish and name the different varieties of triangles, isosecles, scalene, equilateral and right-angled, and distinguish the square from the parallelogram, lozenge, and trapezium. There are now at Biçetre, some in whom the sense of feeling is more acute than that of seeing, and who can distinguish and name these different forms by the touch, without being able to do so by the eye. For giving the notion of color, one,

among various means, which is the most simple, appears to me at the same time the most useful, inasmuch as it excites the reflective faculty. Two large sheets of pasteboard have drawn upon each of them a staron one, in simple lines-on the other, with its rays painted with prismatic colors. Small pieces of pasteboard, corresponding in color and form to these rays, are given to the pupil, who is taught to observe the similarity between the rays which he holds and those of the colored star, and then to cover the original rays of this star by the similar rays which are in his hands. After this, by the example of his teacher, and by the exercise of his reflective power, he compares, with his moveable rays, upon the uncolored pasteboard, the colored star.

To teach these distinctions of color and form, the same patience and will are necessary, as in all the other parts of this most interesting system of instruction. During the autumn of 1845, I watched with interest, at Nantes, the first essays made by the distinguished oculist, Dr. Guépin, to educate the sight of a young man from whose eyes he had a short time before removed cataracts, but who enjoyed all his faculties but that of sight. The labor in this case, to develop one faculty, was indeed great, although aided by all the other faculties. Imagine what that labor must be in the case of the idiot, where this mutual assistance is wanting.

The muscular and the sensorial system having been developed, the moral education follows; and here we are brought to observe the great difference between the system adopted by Seguin and successfully pursued at Bicetre, and that which failed in the hands of Itard. Itard held, with Condillac, that all simple ideas are the result of sensation alone, while Seguin insists on the existence of an internal, intelligent, reflective power, which, seizing the notions furnished by the senses, reasons upon them and produces ideas.

"The senses," says Seguin, (p. 459,)" are the immediate agents of notions; the intelligence, the immediate agent of ideas. But the capital difference between a notion and an idea is, that the first appreciates the physical properties of things, and the second, their relations. Thus the child, placed in presence of an unknown object, acquires by his senses, notions of its form, size, sound, color, &c., but he acquires the idea only by a knowledge of the relations of that object to other objects or phenomena which surround him.

An idiot, or a child, may acquire a notion of a key so as to distinguish it from other objects or other keys; but it is only by seeing it in connection with a lock, by observing and reflecting upon its function there, that he forms an idea of a key."

This difference of the notion and the idea once established, the great moral task is to exercise the inborn intelligence, by bringing the pupil to perceive and reflect upon the relations that exist between the notions which he has acquired. In connection with this, it is but proper to correct an error into which Seguin, throughout his work, and Voisin, in his memoir, have both fallen, in common, however, with most French and many German writers, viz: that of placing in the same category the systems of Condillac and Locke. Condillac taught that all simple ideas are derived immediately from the senses, and that the faculties of our mind are but our sensations transformed; while the system of Locke, on the contrary, which, deriving our knowledge of external objects from the senses, recognizes at the same time, the existence of an independent, reflectire power, essential for the completion of our stock of ideas,* would seem to be directly in accordance with the results obtained by this experiment of education.

* See Locke on the Understanding, book ii, ch. i. § 4.

Another great task in the moral education, which commences, however, with the first contact of the teacher and pupil, is to inspire the sentiment of authority, and, relative to this, the duty or faculty of obedience. Experience has shown, that it is not by severity that this can be brought about, for that can seldom be long maintained; and the alternations which teachers, who indulge in passionate severity, so often present of brutal harshness and insignificant weakness, inspire in the idiot, as well as in every one who thinks, the idea, not that the authority embodied in his teacher is the firm, calm expression of a moral law, but that it is the result of caprice and selfishness, against which his own instinct of self-defence compels him to combat. Brute force and distrust never yet created any thing good. Not so firmness, calmness, sympathy, justice.

It is to his being thoroughly penetrated with this sentiment, that I attribute much of the success of Mr. Vallée, at Bigetre. What that success has been, and what the present school is, thanks to the efforts of Seguin, Voisin and Vallée, will be better seen, perhaps, by following up a day's work at the school, than by tracing out the progress of an individual idiot. This will give us the division of time, the different studies and labor pursued, and will enable me to make some necessary observations, which I could not, without disturbing the order of my letter, introduce in any other place.

The number of pupils in the school has varied, for some time past, from 80 to 100. At 5 o'clock they rise, and pass half an hour in washing, combing and dressing; the monitors, pupils more advanced, aiding those whose instruction is but recently commenced. They then pass into the hall of classes, and range themselves in a double line-no easy task for the beginners-when they sing a simple morning prayer, repeated to them by the teacher. After this, they make their first breakfast of a simple slice of bread. The class for the education of the senses now begins, and fills up the time till 81, A. M. In the first or highest division, several occupy themselves with face and landscape drawing; and others, less advanced, with geometrical drawing upon the blackboard. The 3d division, divided into sections, is of those who are exercising the senses of smell, taste, sight, and observing color and form, by the method I have before described. The sense of hearing is exercised, among other means, by the pupils' learning to distinguish and name, while blindfolded, the natural sounds as produced by the chords of a bass-viol. Meanwhile, the youngest class of 18 or 20 is going through its elementary gymnastics of the moving power.

From 8 to 9, A. M., is taken up by the study of numeration and arithmetic. Here the whole school is divided into frequently changing groups, according to the various capacities developed. The lowest of all is ranged in line, and taught to count aloud up to 30; a series of sticks, balls, or other material objects, being given them at the time. This helps to ameliorate their speech, and to stimulate to imitation those who have not that faculty. Another group is set to climb upon ladders, counting the number of rounds as they go up, and thus the muscular system and knowledge of numeration are simultaneously developed. higher group is of those who count up to 50 with counters, and who, by means of them, get an idea of unity, plurality, subtraction, addition and equality. A higher group still has learned to count up to 100, and another group is learning, by means of movable figures taken from a case, the combinations of numbers. Higher still are boys working upon their slate, or going through calculations upon the black-board, with a facility and precision that any pupil of Warren Colburn might envy.

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