VII Child Health

In matters relating to health, the children benefiting most from the welfare movements of the early nineteenth century were the deaf-mute, the blind, and the feeble-minded. The relationship of the modern concept of health to advancements made with deaf and blind children, and to a lesser degree with the mentally ill, must, however, be interpreted only in the broadest sense. Helping handicapped children had more in common with the general movement of humanitarianism and the growing concern with education than with the medical aspects of health.

Proposals for education of the deaf were by no means accepted with assurance and certainty. The idea that young people with such physical handicaps could be educated to assume a normal place in society was considered strange and unlikely. Nevertheless, some Americans were aware of and interested in European experiments in education of the deaf. In 1815 friends of Alice Cogswell, a young deaf girl living in Hartford, Connecticut, provided funds to permit Thomas H. Gallaudet, a theology student, to visit England and France to observe methods of instructing the deaf. On Gallaudet's return to America he initiated efforts to open a school for the deaf. In 1816 the legislature of Connecticut incorporated the institution and appropriated an initial sum of five thousand dollars.

Admission to the American Asylum at Hartford for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb was not limited to residents of Connecticut. Students came from neighboring states whose legislatures appropriated funds to help defray the costs of their instruction. In 1819 the Massachusetts legislature allocated funds for its students at the Asylum. New Hampshire did the same in 1821, and Vermont and Maine in 1825. Beginning in 1834, Georgia and South Carolina, neither having institutions for the education of the deaf, provided funds to send some of their children to out-of state institutions. The practice of supplying funds to send young people to out-of-state institutions continued until each state provided facilities to care for its own indigent handicapped. This policy applied not only to the deaf but also to the blind.

The first formal attempt to educate the blind did not occur until 1832, when the New England Asylum for the Blind in Boston, under the direction of Samuel Gridley Howe, received its first six pupils. Like Gallaudet, Howe first traveled to Europe and visited schools to learn methods of teaching the handicapped. Shortly after Howe's venture, institutions opened in New York and Philadelphia. In 1837 Ohio founded a state school for the blind and in 1839 Virginia established an institution for the blind and the deaf.

Funds for the support of institutions for the deaf and blind were not limited to state appropriations. The federal government made sizeable grants of land to the Connecticut and Kentucky institutions for the deaf. Philanthropy added large sums toward the maintenance at the institutions and the support of their students. Money was also acquired from subscriptions, fairs, and from exhibitions at which pupils were displayed. In 1833 the Massachusetts legislature offered the New England Asylum an appropriation of ten thousand dollars if twice the sum could be secured from private sources. The money was raised in a short time.

Howe's work with children was not limited to the blind. His interest in feeble-minded children inspired him to bring several of them to the Perkins Institution for the Blind. [la] Howe's campaign to provide an institution for the feeble-minded of Massachusetts resulted in the appointment of a committee in 1846, "to consider the expediency of appointing commissioners to inquire into the condition of the idiots of the commonwealth, to ascertain their number and whether anything can be done for their relief." [1b] Within two years the Massachusetts legislature appropriated seventy-five hundred dollars for an experiment in the teaching and training of ten idiot children. By 1851 New York had opened a state asylum for the feeble-minded, and in 1853 the legislature of Pennsylvania incorporated a training school for feeble-minded children.

The hygiene and medical care of children received more attention during the first half of the nineteenth century than ever before. In 1825 William P. Dewees, lecturer on midwifery at the University of Pennsylvania, published a paper on the physical and medical treatment of children which may be considered the first comprehensive American work to treat the subject of child health in a scientific manner. Joseph Parrish, William E. Horner, J. Forsyth Meigs, and Charles D. Meigs also wrote significant works on diseases of children. Pediatrics was not yet a defined subject, but changes taking place in the medical world would have a direct bearing on the development of specialized medical care for children. The number of medical institutions of all types, especially hospitals, schools, and professional societies, increased greatly. The American Medical Association was established in 1847. During the 1850's the first two American hospitals intended exclusively for children were founded in Philadelphia and New York. Clinical medicine developed significantly as observation replaced theory in the treatment of sickness and the old practices of bleeding and purging declined in popularity. [1c]

If there was progress toward a recognition of child health problems in American cities the same was not the case on the frontier. The opportunity to acquire medical care was at a minimum among the pioneers in the West and South; home remedies, superstitions, and quackery were common. Whooping cough, diphtheria, and epidemics of other contagious diseases, as well as the hard life, kept the mortality rate high among children. Nevertheless, early marriages and large families were the rule and the population continued to grow. "Why sir, you may visit the humblest cottage in our country, and you will find everything to admire," said a Kentucky congressman in 1824. "You would have the singular felicity of beholding a most delightful spectacle – about twelve or thirteen fine, ruddy, well-formed, hearty-looking young Democrats, would run out to see the stranger; and upon entering the house, you would be met by a very plain unaffected woman, to all appearances about thirty years old, whose countenance would at once tell you to make yourself easy; you would meet with kindness, and, in casting your eyes around, you would see two more little fellows, who were too small to run out at the first alarm." [1d]

About 1820 the United States entered a new epidemic period in which yellow fever, smallpox, typhoid fever, and especially cholera swept through cities and rural communities. Tuberculosis was also responsible for increasing mortality; among children diarrhea and enteritis were the chief causes of death. In 1850 statistics of mortality indicated no improvement since 1790. Proportionately as many children under five years of age died in 1850 as in 1789 and the percentage of total deaths for all age groups showed that more children and youths between the ages of five and nineteen died in the mid-nineteenth century than at the end of the eighteenth century. [1e]

Progress in medical treatment of children was accompanied by growing interest in public health and growing awareness of the relationship between child health and sanitary conditions. Initial investigative and legislative works included John Griscom's study of tenement conditions in New York City (1845), Lemuel Shattuck's survey of sanitation in Massachusetts (1850), and Stephen Smith's authorship of the New York City Metropolitan Health Law (1866). These efforts prepared the groundwork for the public health movement of the later nineteenth century.

1a. Formerly the New England Asylum, the institution was renamed in honor of its early benefactor, Thomas Handasyd Perkins.

1b. Quoted in Leo Kanner, A History of the Care and Study of the Mentally Retarded (Springfield, Ill., 1964), p. 41.

1c. Physician John B. Beck supported the bloodletting of adults but opposed practicing it on children because, "important peculiarities. . . [showed] a difference in the effects produced in the young subject, from those in the adult." John B. Beck, Effects of Bloodletting on the Young Subject [New York, 184?], p. 1.

1d. Quoted in Madge E. Pickard and R. Carlyle Buley, The Midwest Pioneer; His Ills, Cures and Doctors (Crawfordsville, Ind., 1945), p. 31.

1e. James A. Doull, "The Bacteriological Era (18761920)," in Franklin H. Top, The History of American Epidemiology (St. Louis, 1952), pp. 68-69.

A. AFFLICTED CHILDREN

During the half century before 1815 two different methods of educating the deaf came into use in Europe. In England and Scotland members of the Braidwood family and persons licensed by them taught lip reading and articulation; in France the prevailing system was the sign language developed by Charles Michel, Abbe de l'Epee and Roche-Ambroise, Abbe Sicard. Most of the early American institutions for the deaf adopted the sign language system.

1. Founding of the first free school for the deaf in the United States, Hartford, Connecticut, 1815-1817

Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, [First Annual] Report, 1817 (Hartford, 1817), pp. 5-7.

The Connecticut Asylum was a private institution, incorporated and subsidized by the state of Connecticut, which was intended for both charity and tuition-paying students. Massachusetts, beginning in 1819, New Hampshire in 1821, and Vermont and Maine in 1825, made annual appropriation to the Asylum for the education of deaf children from those states.

About two years since, seven persons met in this city, and appointed a committee to solicit funds to enable Mr. Gallaudet [2a] to visit Europe, for the purpose of qualifying himself to become an instructor of the deaf and dumb. The generous promptitude with which means were furnished, put it in his power to embark soon after for England. Not meeting with a satisfactory reception at the London Asylum, he went to Edinburgh. Here new obstacles arose from an obligation which had been imposed upon the institution in that city, not to instruct teachers in the art for a term of years; thus rendering unavailing the friendly desires of its benevolent instructor, and the kind wishes of its generous patrons. After these repeated disappointments and discouragements, in which, however, let us behold a providential hand, Mr. Gallaudet departed for Paris, where he met with a very courteous and favourable reception from the Abbe Sicard, and soon commenced his course of lessons in the establishment over which that celebrated instructor presides. An arrangement made with Mr. Laurent Clerc, himself deaf and dumb, one of the professors in the institution of Paris, and well known in Europe as a most intelligent pupil of his illustrious master, enabled Mr. Gallaudet to return to his native country, with this valuable assistant, much sooner than had been expected. By this circumstance, a new zeal in the cause was excited, in some measure commensurate with the more favourable auspices under which the interests of our Asylum now appeared. They arrived in this place in August last, and soon after visited some of our large cities, for the purpose of soliciting funds for the establishment . . . Many instances of individual munificence will be found recorded in the list of donations. The patrons of this institution need not our thanks: they have a higher gratification in the reflection, that they have contributed to the means which are now using, for shedding light upon many an immortal mind which, but for their munificence, might otherwise have remained in darkness. We solicit their prayers that the means they have furnished may be so blessed as to promote the cause of Christ, and the eternal welfare of those who are here benefited by their bounty.

In May, 1816, the legislature of this state passed an act incorporating this institution; and in October last made a grant of five thousand dollars in aid of its funds.

The establishment was opened on the 15th April, and it already contains upwards of twenty pupils. . . A number of them are of full age, some of whom have expressed much interest at the attempts which have been made, as yet in a very imperfect manner, to explain to them some of the simplest doctrines of revelation.

When we look back we have surely cause for abundant gratitude to God for what has already been accomplished; and although we have to lament that our means are altogether inadequate to the support and instruction of those pupils who are in indigent circumstances, let us look forward with humble confidence that HE, by the word of whose power the dumb spake, can prepare the way before us, and will, if he see fit, make use of this Asylum as an instrument, not only to increase the temporal happiness of those who may become the objects of its care, but to communicate to them a knowledge of himself, as their only Saviour, and of those mansions of rest, where all will equally rejoice in the participation of happiness without imperfection, and without end.

2a. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), the principal founder of the Connecticut Asylum and superintendent of the institution from 1817 until 1830.

2. "There are chains more galling than those of the dungeon"

Thomas H. Gallaudet, A Sermon Delivered at the Opening of the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (Hartford, 18l7), pp. 6-8.

The instruction of the deaf and dumb, if properly conducted, has a tendency to give important aid to many researches of the philanthropist, the philosopher, and the divine. – The philanthropist and the philosopher are deeply interested in the business of education. The cultivation of the human mind is paramount to all other pursuits; inasmuch as spirit is superior to matter, and eternity to time. Youth, is the season in which the powers of the mind begin to develope themselves, and language, the grand instrument by which this developement is to take place. Now it is beyond all doubt, that great improvement has been made in the mode of instructing children in the use and power of language. To what extent these improvements may yet be carried, time alone can determine. The very singular condition in which the minds of the deaf and dumb are placed, and the peculiar means which are necessarily employed in their instruction, may furnish opportunities for observation and experiment, and the establishment of principles, with regard to the education of youth, which will not be without essential service in their general application. How much light also, may in this way, be thrown upon what are supposed to be the original truths, felt and recognised to be such by the mind, without any reasoning process. Many speculations, too, which now are obscure and unsettled, respecting the faculties of the human mind, may be rendered more clear and satisfactory. How many questions, also, may be solved, concerning the capability of man to originate of himself, the notion of a God and of a future state, or, admitting his capacity to do this, whether, as a matter of fact, he ever would do it. What discoveries may be made respecting the original notions of right and wrong, the obligations of conscience, and, indeed, most of the similar topics connected with the moral sense. These hints are sufficient to show, that aside from the leading and more important uses of giving instruction to the deaf and dumb, their education might be made to subserve the general cause of humanity, and of correct Philosophy and Theology.

But there is a sickness more dreadful than that of the body; there are chains more galling than those of the dungeon – the immortal mind preying upon itself, and so imprisoned as not to be able to unfold its intellectual and moral powers, and to attain to the comprehension and enjoyment of those objects, which the Creator has designed as the sources of its highest expectations and hopes. Such must often be the condition of the uninstructed deaf and dumb! What mysterious darkness must sadden their souls! How imperfectly can they account for the wonders that surround them. Must not each one of them, in the language of thought, sometimes say, "What is it that makes me differ from my fellow men? Why are they so much my superiors? What is that strange mode of communicating, by which they understand each other with the rapidity of lightning, and which enlivens their faces with the brightest expressions of joy? Why do I not possess it, or why can it not be communicated to me? What are those mysterious characters, over which they pore with such incessant delight, and which seem to gladden the hours that pass by me so sad and cheerless! What mean the ten thousand customs, which I witness in the private circles and the public assemblies, and which possess such mighty influence over the conduct and feelings of those around me? And that termination of life; that placing in the cold bosom of the earth, those whom I have loved so long and so tenderly; how it makes me shudder! – What is death? – Why are my friends thus laid by and forgotten? – Will they never revive from this strange slumber? – Shall the grass always grow over them? – Shall I see their faces no more forever? – And must I also thus cease to move and fall into an eternal sleep!

3. The Kentucky institution for the deaf and dumb, 1822

"An act to endow an asylum for the tuition of the deaf and dumb," 1822 – ch. 481, Acts of the General Assembly, Commonwealth of Kentucky (Frankfort, 1822), pp. 179-180.

Contrary to Gallaudet's hope that the country's resources for the deaf would be concentrated in one establishment, the Connecticut Asylum, additional institutions for the deaf were established in New York. (1818), Pennsylvania (1820), and Kentucky (1822). Southern states sent their deaf children to the Kentucky institution just as the New England states sent theirs to the Connecticut Asylum.

Whereas, It is desirable to promote the education of that portion of the community, who, by the mysterious dispensation of Providence, are born deaf and of course dumb, and experience in other countries having evinced the practicability of reclaiming them to the rank of their species, by a judicious and well adapted course of education – it is represented that many of our philanthropic citizens would contribute to promote an. object so benevolent and humane, if this legislature would co-operate, by affording pecuniary aid, and designating a mode by which the gratuities devoted thereto could be effectually applied. Therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, That the trustees and their successors of the Central College at Danville, shall be, and they are hereby authorised and empowered to receive by legacies, conveyances or otherwise, lands, slaves, money and other property, and the same to retain, use and apply to the education of the deaf and dumb within this commonwealth, to any amount, the interest, profits or proceeds of which, shall not exceed the sum of thirty thousand dollars per annum.

The institution shall be located at Danville, in Mercer county, and supported by the donations and legacies of the charitable, by such aid as the legislature may be pleased to afford and by the money to be received for the education of children whose parents, guardians or friends are of ability to pay.

Indigent children resident any where within the state, shall be received into the asylum, maintained and educated gratuitously, so far as the funds of the institution will admit: Provided, that where more children shall be offered for the benefit of this institution than can be received at anyone time, the trustees shall so apportion their number among the several counties of this 'commonwealth, according to their representation, when application shall be made, that every county may equally receive the benefits of the same.

SEC. 2. That in order to aid the funds of the said asylum, the governor is hereby authorized and required to draw his warrant on the auditor of public accounts in favor of said trustees, for the further sum of one hundred dollars for every indigent pupil taught in said asylum. . . Provided, That no one scholar shall be taught at the expense of the state more than three years; and Provided also, That the sum so to be drawn from the treasury, for such tuition shall, in no one year, exceed the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars.

4. State pupils in New York

New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, Eighth Annual Report, 1826 (New York, 1827), pp. 4-8.

The New York Institution was a private charity which, after 1822, admitted a limited number of "state pupils" – poor children who received three years of instruction at the expense of the state.

Several of the pupils now in the school have expressed to their teachers the impropriety of their former conduct towards their friends and parents, in telling lies, stealing, and misbehaving in a variety of ways, the evil of which they were not aware before instruction. One of these, from Saugerties in Ulster County, is a most promising young man, about 19 years of age; kind, obedient, and well disposed, and will do credit to himself and the Institution. He has fifteen months yet to remain in school under the state laws.

Another about the same age, from Salina in Onondaga County, will also afford a bright example of moral as well as intellectual improvement. His time as a state pupil expires on the 10th January, inst. and the Directors have determined to retain him till spring at the expense of the Institution.

Among the moral effects of instruction may be mentioned a number of the former pupils of this school, whose ability to communicate and understand, has enabled them to acquire trades and obtain a living by their industry. Some of these are in the city of New York working at their trades, and others have been reported as residing in different parts of the country, much respected and esteemed.

A female pupil (whose surviving parent was reduced by misfortune), was patronized by this Institution, brought up and instructed here, until nearly nineteen years old, when she was married to the young gentleman who is now the Principal Teacher in the Central School at Canajoharie, and who obtained his first information of the method of instructing the Deaf and Dumb in the school of this Institution.

Under this head of moral and intellectual improvement, we cannot omit to mention the young man who for several years past has acted as an Assistant Teacher. He was one of the Deaf Mutes who came to this Institution as a State Pupil from Otsego County, and after completing the period of three years under the first state law, he was retained as an Assistant in the school, and has been provided with board and clothing for his services, and at convenient intervals received instruction as a pupil. His improvement has been so creditable that the Directors have now struck his name from the list of pupils and engaged him as a teacher at a salary; thus enabling him to provide for himself in a useful and creditable manner. When first received in this Institution, he gave no indication of capacity, and there was no appearance in his countenance of intelligence or quickness of intellect. He was, upon the whole, rather a coarse and rough boy, and was considered as a dull pupil. It was some time before his abilities began to develop themselves, and then when internal light began to shine, its effect was manifest in his countenance and manner, and he has since continued to improve, and is also cautious and circumspect in his moral deportment. The Directors hope to continue him in the Institution, and that he will be an example for other Deaf Mutes to imitate, and do honour to the Institution, himself, and his friends.

Sources of revenue to the Institution. . . have arisen last year from pay pupils, donations and subscriptions, Corporation annuity, the sale of books and pamphlets, from interest on asylum fund, and the amount received for pupils of the Female Association.

The Directors cannot pass over this opportunity of expressing a sense of their obligations to a Society of Ladies in New York, who have associated under the title of the "New York Female Association to aid in giving support and instruction to the indigent Deaf and Dumb." They have selected seven pupils, placed them in the Institution, and paid for their board and tuition from resources collected in this city, thus adding to the income of the parent Society.

More than half the income of this Institution is derived from means collected in the city of New-York; and of the State Pupils, one only belongs to the city. Thus the Directors have endeavoured to appropriate the income derived from the State, almost wholly to other counties than their own.

5. Principal of the Pennsylvania Institution for Education of the Deaf and Dumb urges federal support, 1828

Lewis Weld, An Address Delivered in the Capitol, in Washington City. . . at an Exhibition of Three of the Pupils of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb (Washington, 1828), pp. 3-9.

In 1819 Congress granted the Connecticut Asylum 23,000 acres – roughly a township – of public lands from the sale of which the institution ultimately realized $300,000. In 1826 the Kentucky Asylum received a grant for a similar amount of public land. During the 1830's and 1840's Congress considered but did not enact several bills which would have endowed all schools for the deaf then in existence with land grants. The subject of federal aid is discussed in Harry Best, Deafness and the Deaf (New York, 1943), pp. 423-424, 595-596.

In this age of enterprise and of effort, when genius is enlarging the boundaries of knowledge, when literature, science and art are immeasurably multiplying their resources, and with them the conveniences and enjoyments of life, benevolence too is expanding her energies, and in harmony with her sister-agents, is actively promoting the happiness of man. But I come not here to portray the beauties of benevolence. I would rather call your attention to a few plain facts, on a subject, which from the necessity of the case, is but imperfectly understood, even by the most enlightened in any country.

In the year 1820 the number of deaf-mutes was ascertained in forty-one counties of the state of Pennsylvania. The result was, that among the whole white population of twenty-five of these counties, the proportion of the Deaf and Dumb, was precisely one to every two thousand, and in regard to the whole population of the state, this proportion holds very nearly.

Similar enumerations have been made in other states, and in foreign countries, and the results tend to establish the same position.

Assuming it then as proved, that this is the true proportion in our country generally, we may easily ascertain not only the whole number of Deaf and Dumb persons, but those who are proper subjects for instruction. To this end I have referred to the census of 1820, as published under the direction of the government, and have ascertained the free white population of the several states and territories of the Union, and also that portion of this population between the ages of ten and twenty-six years; knowing that the proper period for educating the Deaf and Dumb, is between those ages. Indeed the best period is generally between twelve and eighteen years. The result of calculations made on these data is, that among the whole free white population of the United States in 1820, there were three thousand nine hundred and thirty-five deaf-mutes of all ages: among that portion of this population between ten and twenty-six years of age, there were probably one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight. Most of these we may suppose were at that time capable of receiving an education.

The experience of the best institutions goes to show, that one which is well supported, is able to keep constantly under instruction from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pupils. This is important on various accounts, but principally, perhaps, from motives of economy. The expenses of qualifying and supporting teachers, procuring suitable buildings, furniture, &c. are necessarily great. But an institution fairly established, can receive and educate a pretty large number at a rate much less in proportion than a small one, and be quite as likely or more so, to give them the best advantages. Such an institution can readily furnish mechanical and other proper employments for the poor among its pupils; and thus by giving them industrious habits, and a knowledge of some proper occupation, may prepare them for usefulness immediately upon leaving it.

Let us suppose that six institutions were endowed, properly located and provided with instructors; and also, that the whole number of deaf-mutes which probably existed among the whites of the United States in the year 1820, namely, three thousand nine hundred and thirty-five, should in the course of ten successive years be offered to them. There would be about three hundred and ninety-four for them all, or about sixty-six for each, annually. If the course of instruction continued five years, the whole number of pupils in each institution, would be three hundred and thirty; but all the facts we can collect, tend to prove, that this estimate is by far too large, for deductions are to be made for disease, idiocy, accident and death; to each of which evils, this class of people are no less liable than others. Age too, at the present time, would make another deduction, though this will eventually cease to operate, because all may be received at the proper age.

The New England states all unite in patronizing one institution; and it is capable of demonstration, that it is much cheaper for the state of Maine, for example, to send her pupils to Connecticut for education, than to establish a school of her own. Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, have for some years made appropriations for the education of their indigent deaf-mutes at the Asylum in Connecticut . . . If one institution is sufficient for the New England states at this time, when there are, so to speak, two or three generations to be educated, it will surely remain so when the annual increase only is to be taught. The same remark may be made of the other divisions of the country.

We ought in this connexion to recollect, that the population of our country is rapidly increasing, and hence, the proportion of deaf-mutes continuing the same, we may reasonably suppose, that six institutions would be supplied with a respectable number of pupils, notwithstanding the numerous necessary deductions to which we have alluded.

There are many reasons why it seems proper, that aid for the support of this object should be asked of the general government. Public institutions having from necessity, if prosperous, to derive their pupils from a considerable extent of country, including several states, cannot expect to be permanently endowed by any individual state. If they are not prosperous, in other words, if they cannot have a pretty large number of pupils, they obviously will not long exist. Another reason is, that a great majority of these people are in indigent circumstances.

If educated at all, the expense to their friends, must therefore be small.

6. The National Deaf-Mute College, Washington, D.C., 1864

Edward M. Gallaudet, "Inaugural Address," in Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, Seventh Annual Report, 1864 (Washington, 1864), pp. 15-25.

Edward M. Gallaudet (1837-1917), son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, was appointed president of the Columbia Institution in 1864.

The collegiate department of the institution was renamed Gallaudet College in 1894.

Our institution, by the provisions of its organic law, is not limited as to the extent to which it may carry forward the education of those placed under its fostering care by the United States. It is authorized to receive and instruct deaf-mutes from any of the States or Territories of the United States, on such terms as may be agreed upon by their parents, guardians, or trustees, and the proper authorities of the institution. By a recent act of Congress the institution is authorized to confer degrees in the arts and sciences after the manner pursued in colleges. It thus appears that this institution has power to open a collegiate department of study, and to offer to such deaf-mutes as may avail themselves of its privileges, academic honors equal in rank to those conferred on hearing and speaking persons by the highest literary schools in the land.

To fulfill these important trusts is the earnest desire of those to whom the direction of the institution has been committed, and it is their intention to spare no efforts, that here, at the nation's capital, may be successfully established a seat of learning which may extend its benefits to deaf-mutes from every State of our Union.

There are cogent reasons why the college for deaf-mutes – and I say the college, since many years must elapse before the wants of the deaf and dumb in this country will require more than one – should be built up at Washington; one of the most weighty of which is that it has already, by the highest authority in the nation, been ushered into life here with its functions complete, although they may not yet possess that power and endurance that the accretions of maturity alone can give.

Appropriations of public money as well as the benefactions of private munificence will be needed in the development of the National Deaf-Mute College, and while it would not be right to ask the representatives in any State legislature to tax their constituents for the support of an institution for the benefit of citizens of other States, it is eminently proper to solicit the aid of the national legislators, representing as they do the people of every State, in behalf of an institution that shall extend its humane and elevating influences throughout the entire national domain. Undoubtedly the assistance of the Federal Government would be most important in the establishment and perfection of a national institution for the deaf and dumb; and where would that aid be more likely to be afforded than to a school already established and supported by the United States, under the very eaves, as it were, of its Capitol.

While our institution confined its operations to residents of the District of Columbia, Congress accorded a ready support; when its scope was extended to embrace the children of our soldiers and seamen, the Government promptly increased its appropriations; and now that we propose to enlarge our sphere of operations so as to offer to deaf-mute citizens of every State and Territory advantages which they cannot obtain elsewhere, the law-makers of the nation have set their seal of approbation on our undertaking by the appropriation of larger sums than ever before, supplying the needs of the institution incident to the establishment of the college, and giving an earnest of their intention to aid in its extension hereafter.

It is a question that may very naturally arise in the minds of those interested in the various State institutions, whether the proposed development of the Columbia Institution into a college will interfere in any way with the operations of its sister schools. To answer such queries in advance, it may be stated that our collegiate department is not designed to conflict, nor need it do so, with any existing organization for the instruction of the deaf and dumb.

It is no part of our plan to attempt to supersede or interrupt the most excellent and useful "high classes" now in operation. On the contrary, we desire the speedy advent of that day when every institution shall have its high class.

In no institution for the deaf and dumb have degrees in the arts and sciences been conferred upon graduates. In no institution does the course of study come up to the standard which would warrant such graduation. We propose to leave untouched in their operations the high classes, and bidding them God-speed in their good work, and urging their multiplication, to occupy a field of usefulness hitherto wholly uncultivated.

The time is not distant when the United States will contain a population of a hundred million souls. There will then be a deaf and dumb community in the country of fifty thousand. At least ten thousand of these would be undergoing instruction at the same time, requiring the employment of five hundred well-educated instructors.

The existing opportunities for mental culture are only enough to fit deaf-mutes to teach classes of low grades, and, as a consequence, they must receive relatively low rates of compensation, while the higher classes in our institutions demand the service of liberally-educated men at relatively high salaries.

It is admitted that deaf-mutes could be employed to a much greater extent than now, as instructors of their fellows in misfortune, and would make much more valuable teachers could they enjoy the advantages of a classical education. One of the designs of our college is to furnish deaf-mutes the means of obtaining that mel1tal training and those academic honors which may entitle them to consideration in the world of letters, and allow them to gain positions of much greater usefulness and higher emolument than they can now aspire to.

We propose at least to test the question whether what is valued so highly by hearing and speaking persons, as a preparation for entering the more elevated spheres of usefulness in life, may not in like manner result in opening to deaf-mutes positions and pursuits from which they have been hitherto debarred.

If education to a high degree is important to a man possessed of all his faculties, is it not of even more consequence that those who make their way through the world in the face of difficulties which but a few years since seemed almost insurmountable, should, now that their aptitude for learning is proved beyond a question, have every advantage that the ingenuity or liberality of their more favored fellow-mortals can furnish?

The work of deaf-mute instruction in America may not inappropriately be compared to the erection of a stately building. Fifty years ago its foundations were laid broad and deep among the granite hills of New England, and a shaft of rare beauty and strength was reared thereon. Year by year the noble work has proceeded until but the pinnacle-stone is lacking to complete the structure; and, though it must be small in size and may escape notice amid the massive and beautiful pillars and arches on which it must of necessity rest, yet it is needed to perfect the work, and the founders of the Columbia Institution would fain essay to place it in position.

And so to-day, in this solemn and public manner, they inaugurate the "College for the Deaf and Dumb"; looking to Congress for a continuance of its favor, to a benevolent public for its approbation, to sister institutions for their countenance and sympathy, and to Him who "doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men" for His sustaining Providence to bear up the enterprise to a successful consummation.

In the United States education for the blind began in 1832 when Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876) founded the New England Asylum for the Blind, renamed in 1839 the Perkins Institution in honor of its patron, Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1764-1854). Other schools for the blind opened in New York in 1832 and in Philadelphia in 1833. During the next twenty years the number of such institutions increased to twenty.

1. Funds for the New England Asylum for the Blind, 1833

"Resolve in behalf of the trustees of the New England Asylum for the Blind," Resolves of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1833 (Boston, 1833), pp. 338339.

Most schools for the blind received state funds but they also solicited gifts from private donors and raised money by subscriptions, fairs, and exhibitions of students. In 1833 the Massachusetts legislature offered the New England Asylum a grant of $10,000 on condition that double that amount be secured from private sources. The sum was promptly obtained.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives; in General Court assembled, That there be paid out of the Treasury of the Commonwealth to the Trustees of New England Asylum for the Blind the sum of six thousand dollars annually, in quarterly payments, the first payment to be made on the first day of April next, and the subsequent payments upon the first day of each successive quarter; and the whole to continue during the pleasure of the Legislature and no longer. Provided, that in consideration of said sum of six thousand dollars the said New England Asylum shall receive, board, lodge and educate twenty poor persons belonging to the State, to be placed there under the direction of the Governor and Council; and to be dismissed from the Asylum by the same authority; and provided further, that no individual under the age of six years nor over the age of twenty-four years shall be placed in said Asylum by said authority, nor any person who shall be excluded by the standing by-laws of the Asylum.

2. Samuel Gridley Howe describes the cases of Abby and Sophia Carter and Laura Bridgman

Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, Forty-third Annual Report, 1874 (Boston, 1875), pp. 73-89.

Before becoming a teacher of the blind, Howe participated in the Greek War of Independence and administered relief to Greek civilians. Among his many contributions to the education of the blind was the invention of the "Boston Letter," an improved type for printing books for the blind. Laura Bridgman (18291889), Howe's most famous pupil, spent her life at the Perkins Institution where she helped teach sewing in the workroom.

In the year 1832, while inquiring for blind children suitable for instruction in our projected school, I heard of a family in Andover in which there were several such, and immediately drove out thither with my friend and co-worker, Dr. John D. Fisher. As we approached the tollhouse, and halted to pay the toll, I saw by the roadside two pretty little girls, one about six, the other about eight years old, tidily dressed, and standing hand in hand hard by the tollhouse. They had come from their home, near by, doubtless to listen, as was their wont, to gossip between the toll-gatherer and the passersby. On looking more closely, I saw that they were both totally blind. It was a touching and interesting scene – that of two pretty, graceful, attractive little girls, standing hand in hand, and, though evidently blind, with uplifted faces and listening ears, as if brought providentially to meet messengers sent of God, to deliver them out of darkness. If there were depth of soil enough in my mind to nourish superstition, the idea of a providential arrangement of this meeting would have taken deep root. It would, indeed, be hard to find, among a thousand children, two better adapted, irrespective of their blindness, for the purpose of commencing our experiment. They were shy of us at first; but we gained their confidence with some difficulty; after which they led the way to their home in a neighboring farm-house. They were two of a numerous family, the parents of which were substantial, respectable people, and particularly good samples of the farming class of New England. The mother was especially intelligent, and devoted to her children; and much concerned about the barrier which blindness placed in the way of educating the five who were blind. She was much interested in the novel plan for educating the blind, which we explained to her. She had never thought of instructing children through any sense but that of sight; but she soon saw the practicability of the thing, and, being satisfied about our honesty, she consented with joy and hope to our proposition of beginning with her two girls, ABBY and SOPHIA CARTER. In a few days they were brought to Boston, and received into my father's house, as the first pupils of the first American School for the Blind.

The children were naturally so bright, and docile, and apt at learning, that they easily comprehended our purpose in making them feel of strange signs or types, representing the letters of the alphabet, and tried eagerly to learn. These metal types each bore, upon one end, the raised outlines of a letter, or of an arithmetical or geometrical figure. The children- soon learned that, by being placed in certain relative positions, these types represented an apple, .or a chair, or some other substantive thing. They soon comprehended that these signs were twenty-six in number. They learned to set them upright in a metal frame perforated with square holes, so that the sign upon the end protrudes above the surface of the frame, and can be 'felt above it by the finger.

They then learned that there were ten other types, with differently shaped tangible lines upon them, and that they represented the ten arithmetical digits, or figures, one, two, three, etc. Also, four others, representing the stops, and others for marks of interrogation and exclamation; so that, by forty-six different types, placed in horizontal lines upon the plate, and in various juxtapositions, they could spell out the names of things, ask questions, and express their thoughts concerning the qualities and quantities of all things, for they had learned their native language as other children do, by the ear. '

They soon understood that sheets of stiff pasteboard, marked by certain crooked lines, represented the boundaries of countries; rough raised dots represented mountains; pins' heads, sticking out here and there, showed the location of towns; or, on a smaller scale, the boundaries of their own town, the location of the meeting-house, of their own and of the neighboring houses, and the like; and they were delighted and eager to go on with tireless curiosity. And they did go on until they matured in' years, and became' themselves teachers, first in our school, afterwards in a private school opened by themselves in their own town. They have continued, up to this day, maintaining excellent characters, supporting themselves comfortably, and helping support their parents as they declined in strength.

Children totally blind and totally deaf, and for a time deprived of the sense of smell, are very rare: but such exist. . .

The question has been discussed by writers on the philosophy of education, whether beings in human form, but so closely shorn of those senses requisite for communing with the outer world, could be taught any systematic language for such communion. The renowned Abbe Sicard, of France, naturally proud of his success, and of his eminent authority in matters connected with the education of deaf-mutes, formed the opinion, in his learned speculations, that they might be, and he made some rough observations about his mode of procedure, should such a case ever come to his knowledge. But none ever came to his knowledge, or to that of any other regular teacher, in any language with which I am acquainted. It was, therefore, considered as an open question whether such a person, if found, could be taught any system of signs which would serve for a language. . . I often, while reading or thinking of the matter, had asked myself the same question, soon after becoming familiar with the usual methods of teaching the blind and the deaf-mutes, and I resolved to make the attempt to teach the first one I should hear of. When, therefore, I read in a country paper an account . . . of a girl in New Hampshire said to be devoid of sight, hearing and smell, I started forthwith to ascertain the facts of the case.

I found in a little village in the mountains, a pretty and lively girl, about six years old, who was totally blind and deaf, and who had only a very indistinct sense of smell; so indistinct that, unlike other young deaf-mutes, who are continually smelling at things, she did not smell even at her food. This sense afterwards developed itself a little, but was never much used or relied upon by her. She lost her senses by scarlet fever so early that she has no recollection of any exercise of them. Her father was a substantial farmer; and his wife a very intelligent woman. My proposal to try to give regular instruction to the child seemed to be a very wild one. But the mother, a woman of considerable natural ability, animated by warm love for her daughter, eagerly assented to my proposal, and in a few days little Laura was brought to my house in Boston, and placed under regular instruction by lessons improvised for the occasion.

I shall not here anticipate what I intend to write about her, further than to say that I required her by signs, which she soon came to understand, to devote several hours a day to learning to use her hands, and to acquiring command of her muscles and limbs. But my principal aim and hope was to enable her to recognize the twenty-six signs which represent the letters of the alphabet. She submitted to the process patiently, though without understanding its purpose.

I will here give a rough sketch of the means which I contrived for her mental development. I first selected short monosyllables, so that the sign which she was to learn might be as simple as possible. I placed before her, on the table, a pen and a pin, and then, making her take notice of the fingers of one of my hands, I placed them in the three positions used as signs of the manual alphabet of deaf-mutes, for the letters p e n and made her feel of them, over and over again, many times, so that they might be associated together in her mind. I did the same with the pin, and repeated it scores of times. She at last perceived that the signs were complex, and that the middle sign of the one, that is, the e, differed from the middle sign of the other, that is, i. This was the first step gained. This process was repeated over and over, hundreds 6f times, until; finally; the association was established in her mind between the sign composed of three signs, and expressed by three positions of my fingers, and the article itself, so that when I held up the pen to her she would herself make the complex sign; and when I made the complex sign on my fingers, she would triumphantly pick up the pen, and hold it up before me, as much as to say, "This is what you want."

Then the same process was gone over with the pin, until the association in her mind was intimate and complete between the two articles, and the complex positions of the fingers. She had thus learned two arbitrary signs, or the names of the two different things. She seemed conscious of having understood and done what I wanted, for she smiled, while I exclaimed, inwardly and triumphantly,

"εΰρήχα! εΰρήχα!” I now felt that the first step had been taken successfully, and that this was the only really difficult one, because by continuing the same process by which she had become enabled to distinguish two articles, by two arbitrary signs, she could go on and learn to express in signs two thousand, and, finally, the forty and odd thousand signs, or words in the English language.

Having learned that the sign for these two, articles, pin and pen, was composed of three signs, she would perceive that in order to learn the names for other things, she had got to learn other signs. I went on with monosyllables, as being the simplest, and, she learned gradually one sign of a letter from another, until she knew all the arbitrary, tangible twenty-six letters of the alphabet, and how to arrange them to express various objects: knife, fork, spoon, thread, arid the like. Afterwards she learned the names of the ten numerals or digits; of the punctuation and exclamation and interrogation points, some forty-six in all. With these she could express the name of everything, of every thought, of every feeling, and all the numberless shades thereof. She had thus got the "open sesame" to the whole treasury of the English language. She seemed aware of 'the importance, of the process; and worked at it eagerly and incessantly, taking up various articles, and inquiring by gestures and looks what signs upon her fingers were to be put together in order to express their names. At times she was too radiant with delight to be able to conceal her emotions.

It sometimes occurred to me that she was like a person alone and helpless in a deep, dark, still pit, and that I was letting down a cord and dangling it about, in hopes she might find it; and that finally she would seize it by chance and, clinging to it, be drawn up by it into the light of-day, and into human society. And it did so happen; and thus she, instinctively and unconsciously, aided in her happy deliverance.

3. Daily routine at the Ohio Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Columbus, 1841

Ohio, Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Fifth Annual Report, 1841 (Columbus, 1842), pp. 6-13.

At the date of our last report, the number of pupils was thirty-six. Since which, three have been discharged; eighteen have been admitted, and one has not returned – making the present number in the Institution, fifty.

There has been no death during the year, and no case of dangerous illness.

Of the three who were discharged, one was a young girl, a recent pupil, not of sound mind. Another, a female, could receive no further benefit in the Institution. And, the third, a boy, was subject to frequent convulsions, which rendered his further continuance inconvenient to the Institution, and of no utility to himself.

During the past vacation, another tour was made with several pupils, to Cincinnati, and other towns, in the south and west parts of the state, embracing a circuit of about 400 miles, which was attended with the usual success, of a considerable addition to our number. A portion of these would, otherwise, probably never have reached the Institution; some of them being entirely ignorant, even, of its existence. Further experience confirms the truth, of the great reluctance of most of the blind to leaving home, and of their parents to parting with them – a difficulty of so formidable a kind as to be removed only by a personal application from the Institution. In all parts of the state that were visited by us, this noble work of state beneficence was regarded with universal favor.

The order of studies, and the branches taught, are substantially the same as they were last year – embracing spelling, and definitions, with the latin roots; reading, writing, geography, including maps and statistics; arithmetic, mental, and on slate frames; and algebra. Also, daily lectures on moral and natural philosophy, logic, belleslettres, political economy, general and natural history, &c., which all the pupils attend.

The hour of rising is half past 5. The exercises commence at one quarter past 6, and continue, with a short recess between each lesson, until 1 o'clock, P.M. The lessons are one hour long, each. The singing and band exercises intervene between 101h and 12. The afternoon, from 2 to 5, is spent, by nearly all the pupils, at work. One hour of each evening is occupied in reading history, biography, &c., to all the pupils. The Matron also reads one hour, every afternoon, to the girls, while at their work. Scientific discoveries, important events, and the leading current news of the day, are communicated to the pupils, from time to time.

The religious privileges of the pupils continue to be respected, and secured to them. They are required to attend church on the Sabbath, at places of their own choice, without the least restraint. And, if the weather is unpleasant, appropriate exercises are held in the Institution.

When it is understood how great a source of enjoyment this delightful science (music) ever proves to the Blind, it will not, we hope, be thought that too much attention is bestowed upon it here. It occupies a prominent place in all other institutions for the Blind. No lessons are crowded out by it – no time is taken up that would otherwise be profitably employed. On the contrary, it affords an agreeable and necessary relaxation to the other teachers, as well as the pupils; and, its influence, regarded in that light alone, is entirely salutary.

The mechanical department is entitled to your continued care. In its practical operation, of giving useful trades to the Blind, at a very moderate expense, it is decidedly successful. And we are still encouraged to hope that the time is not far distant when it will defray all its expenses, including the teacher's salary. This, however, cannot be expected until the proportion of advanced pupils, to beginners, shall be greater. This department is still in the infancy of its operations.

The beauty and durability of the work done by the pupils, prove their skill and capacity in the various manufactures. Eighteen are daily engaged, who are distributed as follows, viz: twelve at brushmaking; three at willow baskets; one at carpet weaving; one at shoemaking; and one at manilla door mats. Their teacher is constantly engaged in his faithful labors, of advancing the pupils, and elevating the condition of his department. The new work shop, erected for their better accommodation, has but lately been occupied, and proves to be, in all respects, convenient and comfortable.

The work department of the female pupils is equally interesting. In addition to knitting and plain sewing, they are taught to make worsted baskets and flowers, lamp mats, silk purses, reticules, watch guards, &c., &c. These specimens of delicate skill are justly the admiration of numerous visitors.

It is but doing justice to the Blind to say, that, with all their privations and discouragements, a more industrious class of persons can nowhere be found. This interesting fact is much overlooked by indulgent parents, and by the community, generally. Before the existence of these institutions, the Blind were looked upon as entirely helpless and dependant; and, the thought that they must ever remain so, only increased this dependance to degradation and effeminacy – the only real misfortune of blindness.

With intellectual faculties equal, in every respect, to those of seeing persons, and as capable of acquiring a knowledge of the useful and liberal sciences, and the mechanic arts, they stand forth, with the rest of the human family, rational, intelligent, and responsible beings. Blindness has not darkened their souls. The devices of modern art have discovered means by which another sense has wonderfully supplied the loss of sight. And, now they ask – not the chilling voice of pity – not the pittance of cold charity, which is but a badge of pauperism – but, that their present opportunities may be continued to them, in a spirit of high and rational benevolence; of cultivating the powers which God has given them; of maintaining their independence by their own talents and industry; and thus, by a full and proper developement of all their energies, moral, mental, and physical, of enabling them to take an equal station in life, on the same platform with their fellow beings.

The ease with which most of the Blind learn to read, and the proficiency which some of them make in their general studies, have frequently led to reports concerning them highly exaggerated, and bordering on the marvellous. These give rise to unreasonable expectations, which are unfavorable to them. No pretensions are made to extraordinary proficiency; nor do they invite the apology, so often made for them, that they do well for blind persons. They desire to be judged simply on their merits as scholars – not as the blind – and with no more indulgence than is awarded to seeing pupils.

With a strong desire to keep our expenses within the smallest practical limit, I cannot hesitate respectfully to suggest, for your consideration, the expediency of purchasing an organ for the Institution, at an early day. With funds already received, and in expectation, it is believed an appropriation to an amount of one half the cost would be sufficient. This instrument furnishes an important branch of musical instruction in every other institution, which is in full operation; and this is all that is now needed. to make our own system complete. Such an improvement would not only add much to the gratification of our pupils, but it would give to some of them a respectable means of support hereafter. Other institutions have already sent forth pupils, who are now profitably employed as organists in churches, and teachers on the piano forte. It should be added, that some of our pupils, of promising musical talent, have but a limited time to stay; and it must forever prove a misfortune to them if they should be deprived of this valuable accomplishment.

There are now four institutions for the instruction of the blind in the United States, besides ours – situated in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Staunton, Virginia. The first three have existed from eight to ten years. The last was commenced since our own. In Boston and Philadelphia only, have printing presses for the blind been established. It has been through the enterprize of those institutions, and the generous contributions of societies and individuals, to their printing fund, that we have thus far been supplied, at a moderate cost, with books of a beautifully embossed letter. It can never be the policy of this, or any other institution, to commence printing, so long as these presses are kept in action. One printing press would be sufficient to supply all the blind in the United States with books. But, while we are thus relieved from a burden which would otherwise be necessary, it will be a just and liberal course, to make such free purchases of new publications as may give further encouragement to their being printed.

1. Insane in county poorhouses, New York, 1844.

Dorothea L. Dix, Memorial, to the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York (Albany, 1844); pp. 3-51.

Miss Dix (1802-1887) was a strong-willed gentlewoman who was at once high-minded and practical. Formerly a school mistress and tutor of the children of her friend and pastor, William Ellery Channing, she began her investigation of the care, or rather the neglect, of the pauper and indigent insane in her native state, Massachusetts, in 1841. For more than forty years thereafter – with time out for service as superintendent of nurses for the Union forces in the Civil War – she traveled from state to state visiting jails, poorhouses, and other public institutions, reporting her findings in articles, addresses, and Memorials to state legislatures and Congress, and lobbying for improved and expanded facilities for the insane.

Your attention is solicited to the condition of many indigent and pauper insane persons in the county-houses of this State. . . Your petitioner asks to present their wants and their claims. . . not as being properly the charge of those towns and counties where their lot may have fallen, but as Wards of the State, made so by the most terrible calamity that can assail human nature – a shattered intellect, a total incapacity for self-care and self -government.

Notwithstanding the liberal appropriations for the relief of this class by the establishment of the State curative asylum at Utica, large numbers are yet unprovided for. Many whose cases offer every hope of recovery, if brought under remedial treatment, are sinking in the prime of life into irrecoverable insanity; others, whose condition exhibits nothing to encourage hope of benefit from being placed in a curative asylum, are permitted to fall into states of the most shocking and brutalizing degradation pitiable objects, at once sources of greatest discomfort to all brought within their vicinity, and exposed, to exciting irritation from the reckless sports of the idle and vicious. But this is not the darkest view of their condition; these most unfriended and wretched beings are often subject to more horrible circumstances. Fidelity to my cause compels me, however revolting the topic, to speak more explicitly. I state, therefore, that both idiots and insane women are exposed to the basest vice, and become mothers without consciousness of maternity, and without capacity in any way to provide for their offspring, or to exercise those cares which are instinctive with the lowest brute animals. Is this a condition of things to be tolerated in a christian land, in the very heart of a community claiming to take rank for elevation of moral principles and high-minded justice? . . .

I will not consume time by narrating individual histories, which, however they might rouse your indignation, or awaken your sensibilities, will, I believe, not be needed to strengthen a cause so evidently claiming your very serious consideration and efficient action. I shall, as briefly as possible, refer to those institutions in the State, where are found both sufficient and defective provision for all classes of the insane, that from such statements you may determine what additional establishments are required. . .

The Asylums at Utica and at Bloomingdale afford insufficient accommodations for the reception of even the curable insane; large numbers of both classes are accumulated in the county alms-houses, and in private dwellings. Of the condition, generally, of such as are retained by their own families, I am unprepared to speak; were it proper to visit these as a stranger, time would not have afforded opportunity. Ten weeks of uninterrupted travelling has barely sufficed to ascertain the general condition of those in county-houses; but inquiry in towns through which I have passed, has been met by information of one or several cases in each neighborhood; sometimes these have been represented as hopelessly insane, returned from hospitals; but oftener such as have received no skilful care or remedial medical treatment; and in not few instances subject to the application of a severe discipline, almost too terrible to be described. The cases are not many where this has appeared to be the result of wilful brutality, so much as a consequent of ignorance and great perplexity under unaccustomed trials. Few persons, however well-disposed and patient of trouble, have tact and discretion in managing a raving madman, or a perverse maniac.

I am spared the pain of describing the jails of New York as containing, like those of Massachusetts, receptacles for the insane, or dungeons occupied not by criminals, but by those whom misfortune, not guilt, has brought low. Against that monstrous abuse, your just laws have effectually guarded; nearly every county-house however, has its "crazy-house," its "crazy-cells," or its "crazy-dungeons" and "crazy-cellar," as that of Albany, for example.

Albany County Alms-House, at Albany, as I saw it in November, 1842, presented scenes of horrible neglect and misery, which even now I shudder to recall, and I rejoice, that a late visit in December, 1843, afforded evidence of many favorable changes, especially in the "dungeons" so called, and the "crazy-cellar"; yet there even now, one finds many friendless creatures whose condition urges a sufficient and early provision, by the State, for their relief.

It was on the afternoon of a severely cold day in November of 1842, that I visited the alms-house at Albany. Inquiring of the master who held charge of the establishment, the number of the insane then in close confinement, I was answered, "There are plenty of, them; somewhere about twenty." "Will you let me see them?" "No, you can't, they're naked, in the crazy-cellar." "Are all in the same apartment then?" "No, not all, but you can't see them." "Excuse me, but I must see the women's apartment. It is to learn the condition of the insane here, that I have come." At length a direction was given, and I was conducted by the mistress of the house into a court-yard, and the person holding charge over the insane women was summoned to attend me. Ascending a flight of stairs, conducting from without, to the second story of a large building, I entered an apartment not clean, not ventilated, and over-heated: here were several females chiefly in a state of dementia; they were decently dressed, but otherwise exhibited personal neglect; the beds were sufficiently comfortable; the hot air, foul with noisome vapors, produced a sense of suffocation and sickness impossible to be long endured by one unaccustomed to such an atmosphere. I delayed here but few moments, and asked to be conducted to the dungeons: "dungeons," repeated the attendant, eyeing me closely. "Yes, the dungeons, I have heard there are dungeons here; I am in haste, oblige me by losing no time." She still hesitated, when speaking more decidedly I said, "I must go, friend, and that immediately": whereupon she led the way over the outer staircase, across the common court-yard, and descending into a spacious cellar kitchen, crowded by a most disorderly and profane set of men, women, and children, emerged on the opposite side upon a yard enclosed by a high board fence, and opening on the left upon still another enclosed space, surrounding a wooden building. We here encountered the man who kept the keys of this place, and who appeared to have charge of the building. I do not hesitate to say that he was unfit for the office. I was told both these persons were "paupers from Canada," and their phraseology did not contradict the information. A noisy altercation ensued, made up of coarse oaths and expletives, unmatched except in Newgate or on Blackwell's island. I again interposed, and at length induced the turnkey to produce his keys. Detaining my first companion, I followed through the opened doors, and ascending a flight of steps found myself in a passage not very narrow, on each side of which were "the dungeons" or cells. These were totally dark and unventilated, and there was then no provision for drying or warming them. To describe the scenes which were revealed as these loathsome dens were successively thrown open is impossible. . . The keeper unlocking the first door on the left, vociferated to the poor wretch there confined, to "come out to the light and be seen." The horrible stench emitted from this dreadful place compelled me repeatedly to retreat to the outer air to recover from over-powering sickness. When I could so far command myself as to observe this dungeon and its occupant, God forgive me (if it was sinful) the vehement indignation that rose towards the inhabitants of a city and county, who could suffer such abominations as these to exist towards all official persons holding direct or indirect responsibility, who could permit these brutalizing conditions of the most helpless of human beings, and towards a country ever vain-glorious of its liberty, and of its civil, social, and religious institutions. I affirm that the dungeons of Spielberg and of Chillon, and the prisons of the Court of the Inquisition before their destruction, afforded no more heart-rending spectacles than the dungeons (not subterranean) of the Albany alms-house, at the time referred to. Language is feeble to represent them, and the mind shudders with disgust and horror in the act of recalling the state of the unfortunate insane there incarcerated.

I revisited this county house a few weeks since; there had been a change of masters. The present overseer evidently has qualifications which enable him to secure a very improved order of things throughout the establishment; he has to contend against the great defects of the present system, and prominent evils must of course exist. Five hundred paupers of every age and various conditions (a large proportion of these able-bodied foreigners, who here are idle for want of work, which the county does not provide, as well as idle in many cases from choice) compose this family or rather community. Considering the very crowded state of the house, and all the difficulties to be encountered, a surprising degree of order and cleanliness are now secured. But inevitably this is a soil where the vices will take root and flourish. I visited "the dungeons," and found but two females in confinement there; by comparison only could they be called comfortable. A stove is now placed in the passage, I cannot say it seemed to afford any great advantage to the insane in the cells; in these apartments were bunks, beds and bed-clothing. The apparel was slight and required attention; but the fact is, the inmates ought to be transferred to a hospital where they can receive appropriate care. In the crowded "crazy-cellar" I found improved accommodations, better beds, &c. One man "poor George," had just deceased, and his coffin was borne past as I stood at the entrance of this dreary place; surely the angel of death here performed a most blessed ministration. Several men were chained to the beds or the floor; a general quiet prevailed. I noticed that the master "our boss" was welcomed as a friend, and no doubt, so far as he had the power, the condition of these friendless insane was made comfortable. The time has past, however, for society to sanction such provision for this class of the poor.

Clinton County House at Plattsburgh, is not a good building, and much out of repair; it is not large enough for the numbers thronging to it in the winter. It is distinguished by a remarkable neatness throughout. I visited this place on a stormy day, at an unexpected and unseasonable hour; it was doubly gratifying to notice a place of so much comfort and quiet, made so by the uncommon care and capability of the master and mistress of the house. Here the sick were in well arranged apartments, and well attended; the household suitably and neatly clothed; garments well made, and in good repair; clean beds, bed-steads, and bed-clothing; clean tables, chairs and floors; clean walls and clean windows, showing that neither the application of white-wash, or water and the scrubbing brush were spared. The kitchen in good order.

Compassion was deeply moved at seeing a little girl, about nine or ten years of age, who suffered the fourfold calamity of being blind, deaf, dumb, and insane. I can conceive no condition so pitiable as that of this unfortunate little creature, the chief movements of whose broken mind, were exhibited in restlessness, and violent efforts to escape, and unnatural screams of terror. No gentleness or kindness seemed to sooth her, or to inspire confidence. Various methods had been tried to promote her comfort, but with little success. She would rend her garments and bed-clothing to pieces, and seemed most content when she could bury herself in a heap of straw; when food was presented, she swallowed it with avidity, and seemed indifferent to its kind or quality. It was necessary to watch her with great care. To promote her comfort at one time, she was removed from the cells and placed with other persons in a large room, fastened by a small chain to the floor, to prevent her from falling upon the heated stove. She resists control, and perpetually struggles to escape. If left at large in mild weather, for a few minutes, she gropes her way, or rather rushes off avoiding by some invisible instinct violent falls, and conceals herself beneath a bush or fence: when brought back she resists violently, and utters the "most vehement outcries. I took her hand gently, but she fell into the wildest paroxysm, which passed by, only when she had concealed herself in the straw in her cell. The utmost care was taken to keep her clean, and to do all for her comfort that her unhappy condition permitted.

There is at this house no provision for the insane who are at any time too violent to be permitted at large, except low, dismal cells, fit for no use, and which should never be employed for any \persons of this class. The true remedy will be found in State asylums, on a cheap, but comfortable plan for the uncurables.

Wayne County-House at Lyons, is at the present time under excellent administration, good discipline, kind care, and neatness being secured to a considerable degree. The master of this establishment was a sensible well-informed man, having a clear comprehension of his duties, and understanding in the discharge of them. So complex are the arrangements in alms-houses which are made to serve so many purposes opposite in object and result, that one must be rather singularly endowed to meet every emergency . . . The cells for the insane were to some extent rendered comfortable – that is to say – though not by any means fit for crazy men and women. . . One circumstance especially pained me; it was the situation of an insane girl, who though placed in a comfortable apartment and decently dressed, was attended by a woman whose ill-temper was apologized for from the fact of her probably having been disturbed through the night by the restlessness and cries of the young woman. She was represented as being a good nurse, and no doubt had some excellent qualifications, but she was not a good nurse for a creature like this poor girl, placed so much in her power. "This is no house for such rich folks as her's to send their children to; it is for the poor, and they may take care of her for themselves." "She is more ugly than crazy, and knows well enough what she is about." I pointed to a large bruise on the temple of the weeping girl; the nurse did not deny that she had inflicted a blow, but persisted that the girl was "ugly and wouldn't be still!"

Permit me, briefly, to refer to the prominent defects of the present county-house system throughout the State.

These institutions are compound and complex in their plans and objects. They are at one and the same time, alms-houses, or retreats for the aged, the invalid, and helpless poor: houses of correction for the vicious and abandoned; asylums for orphaned and neglected children; receptacles for the insane and imbecile; extensive farming, and more limited manufacturing establishments. Beside, in addition to being mixed establishments, they are not, one in ten or twenty counties, built in reference to these various objects. They are not planned to secure division and classification of the inmates. They afford insufficient accommodations, both in "the day rooms," and in the lodging apartments; not being constructed with a view to securing convenient arrangement or sound health. They are almost universally deficient in hospitals, or rooms especially appropriated to the sick, and to invalids. They do not guard against the indiscriminate association of the children with the adult poor. The education of these children, with rare exceptions, is conducted on a very defective plan. The alms-house schools, so far as I have learnt from frequent inquiries, are not inspected by official persons, who visit and examine the other schools of the county.

The moral and religious instruction of the poor at large, in these institutions is either attended to at remote and uncertain intervals, or entirely neglected. The scriptural text, that to "the poor the gospel is preached," that "good news of glad tidings," appears to have failed in its application to alms-houses. "We cannot afford it," says one; "our subscriptions and donations are even now burthensome in the support of foreign missions to Asia and the South Sea islands." "We have not time," say others, "we have in our town been wholly engaged, for the last six months, by a revival." "Why do you not visit those degraded beings at your alms-house, and try to reclaim them to goodness and virtue?" "Oh, I have no time for such things. I am an active member and secretary of the Moral Reform Society." "How can you refrain from interposing in behalf of those poor fettered maniacs, wearing out a terrible life in chains, shut out from the light of the beautiful sky, and pining in friendless neglect?" "I assure you I have quite as much as I can do to work for the Anti-Slavery Fair. I detest all abuses and oppressions, and have devoted myself to the cause of emancipation in the slaveholding States." "And I," said another, "must lecture on freedom, and justice, and human rights. We at the north must be zealous to rouse the citizens of the southern States from their apathy to the claims of suffering humanity." These, and such like answers, to often renewed questionings, are given continually; and to me they are evidence of our proneness to overlook the discharge of duties "nigh at hand"; and to forget that "the good example" is better than the "reiterated precept." Here at home, for a long time, have we ample fields of labor: to teach the gospel of the blessed Jesus by word and life; to enlighten ignorance; to stay the tide of vicious pauperism; to succor the friendless, support the feeble; to visit the afflicted; to raise the depressed; to lessen human suffering, and elevate human aims; to redress wrongs; rectify abuses; unloose the chains of the maniac and bring release to those who pine in dark cells and dreary dungeons: having plucked the beam from our own eye, we can with a less pharisaical spirit, direct our efforts to clearing the mental vision of neighbor.

2. Twenty-five years of progress in education of idiots, 1848-1873

Walter E. Fernald, "The History of the Treatment of the Feeble-Minded," in Proceedings of the Twentieth National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1893 (1893),pp.203-209.

Walter E. Fernald (1859-1924) was appointed superintendent of the Massachusetts School for the Feebleminded in 1887. He was a professor of mental diseases at Tufts College, lectured on the mental diseases of children at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and wrote extensively on the education of mentally deficient children.

The first recorded attempt to educate an idiot was made about the year 1800, by Hard, the celebrated physician-in-chief to the National Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Paris, upon a boy found wild in a forest in the centre of France, and known as the "savage of Aveyron." "This boy could not speak any human tongue, and was devoid of all understanding and knowledge." Believing him to be a savage, for five years Hard endeavored with great skill and perseverance to develop at the same time

the intelligence of his pupil and the theories of the materialistic school of philosophy. Itard finally became convinced that this boy was an idiot, and abandoned the attempt to educate him.

In the year 1818 and for a few years afterward, several idiotic children were received and given instruction at the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb at Hartford, and a fair degree of improvement in physical condition, habits, and speech was obtained.

In the year 1828 Dr. Ferret, physician at the Bicetre in Paris, attempted to teach a few of the more intelligent idiots who were confined in this hospital to read and write and to train them to habits of cleanliness and order. In 1831 Dr. Fabret attempted the same work at the Salpetriere; and in 1833 Dr. Voisin opened his private school for idiots in Paris. None of these attempts was successful enough to insure its continuance.

In 1837 Dr. E. Seguin, a pupil of Hard and Esquirol, began the private instruction of idiots at his own expense. In 1842 he was made the instructor of the school at the Bicetre, which had been reopened by Dr. Voisin in 1839. Dr. Seguin remained at the Bicetre only one year, retiring to continue the work in his private school in the Hospice des Incurables. After seven years of patient work and experiments and the publication of two or three pamphlets describing the work, a committee from the Academy of Sciences at Paris in 1844 examined critically and thoroughly his methods of training and educating idiot children, and reported to the Academy, giving it the highest commendation and declaring that, up to the time he commenced his labors in 1837, idiots could not be educated by any means previously known or practised, but that he had solved the problem. His work thus approved by the highest authority, Dr. Seguin continued his private school in Paris until the Revolution in 1848, when he came to America, where he was instrumental in establishing schools for idiots in various States.

In 1846 Dr. Seguin published his classical and comprehensive "Treatise on Idiocy," which was crowned by the Academy and has continued to be the standard text-book for all interested in the education of idiots up to the present time. His elaborate system of teaching and training idiots consisted in the careful "adaptation of the principles of physiology, through physiological means and instruments, to the development of the dynamic, perceptive, reflective, and spontaneous functions of youth." This physiological education of defective brains as a result of systematic training of the special senses, the functions, and the muscular system, was looked upon as a visionary theory, but has been verified and confirmed by modern experiments and researches in physiological psychology.

Dr. Seguin's school was visited by scientists and philanthropists from nearly every part of the civilized world, and, his methods bearing the test of experience, other schools were soon established in other countries, based upon these methods.

In 1842 Dr. Guggenbuhl established a school upon the slope of the Abendenberg in Switzerland, for the care and training of cretins, so many of whom are found in the dark, damp valleys of the Alps. This school was very successful in its results, and attracted much attention throughout Europe. At Berlin, in 1842, a school for the instruction of idiots was opened by Dr. Saegert. In England the publication of the results of the work of Drs. Seguin, Guggenbuhl, and Saegert, and the efforts of Drs. Connolly and Reed, led to the establishment of a private school at Bath in 1846, and later to the finely appointed establishments at Colchester and Earlswood.

The published description of the methods and results of these European schools attracted much interest and attention in America. In this country the necessity and humanity of caring for and scientifically treating the insane, the deaf and dumb, and the blind had become the policy of many of our most progressive States. The class of helpless and neglected idiots who

had no homes, as a rule were car for in jails and poorhouses. A few idiots who had been received at the special schools for the deaf and dumb and the blind showed considerable improvement after a period of training. Other cases who were especially troublesome had been sent to the insane hospitals, where it was shown that the habits and behavior of this class could be changed very much for the better. In their reports for 1845 Drs. Woodward and Brigham, superintendents of the State Insane Hospitals in Massachusetts and New York respectively, urged the necessity of making public provision for the education of idiots in those States. On the 13th of January, 1846, Dr. F. P. Backus, a member of the New York Senate, made the first step toward any legislative action in this country in behalf of idiots, by moving that the portion of the last State census relating to idiots be referred to the committee on medical societies of which he was chairman. On the following day he made an able report, giving the number of idiots in the State, a brief history of the European schools, with a description of their methods and results, and showed conclusively that schools for idiots were a want of the age. On the 25th of March following he introduced a bill providing for the establishment of an asylum for idiots. The bill passed the Senate, but was defeated in the Assembly.

In Massachusetts, on the 23d of January in the same year, 1846, Judge Byington, a member of the House of Representatives, moved an order providing for the appointment of a committee to "consider the expediency of appointing commissioners to inquire into the condition of idiots in the Commonwealth, to ascertain their number, and whether anything can be done for their relief." This order was passed, and, as a result, a board of three commissioners was appointed, of which Dr. S. G. Howe was chairman. This commission made a report in part in 1847, which included a letter from Hon. G. S. [sic] Sumner, in which he described in glowing terms the methods and results of the school of Dr. Seguin in Paris. In March, 1848, the commission made a complete and exhaustive report, with statistical tables and minute details, and recommended the opening of an experimental school. This report was widely circulated and read throughout America and Europe, and furnishes to-day the basis of cyclopedic literature on this topic.

By a resolve passed on the 8th of May, 1848, the legislature appropriated $2,500 annually for the purpose of establishing an experimental school, with the proviso that ten indigent idiots from different parts of the State should be selected for instruction. This act founded the first State institution in America. The first pupil was received on the 1st of October, 1848. The direction of the school was undertaken by Dr. Howe, and for several years was carried on in connection with the Perkins Institution for the Blind, of which he was the director. Mr. J. B. Richards, an able instructor, was engaged as teacher, and went to Europe to study the methods of the foreign schools. The school was considered so successful that, at the end of three years, the legislature doubled the annual appropriation, and by incorporation converted the experimental school into a permanent one under the name of "The Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth."

Two months after the legislature had authorized the establishment of the Massachusetts School, a private school was opened at Barre, Mass., by Dr. H. B. Wilbur, the first pupil being received in July, 1848. In the modest announcement of the project Dr. Wilbur says, "This institution is designed for the education and management of all children who by reason of mental infirmity are not fit subjects for ordinary school instruction." The school was organized on the family plan. The pupils all sat at the same table with the principal, and were constantly under the supervision of some member of the family in the hours of recreation and rest as well as of training. This private school has been continued on the same plan, and has been very successful and prosperous under the administration of Dr. Wilbur and that of his able successor, the late Dr. George Brown.

In the State of New York the legislative attempt defeated in 1846 was renewed in 1847, and this bill also passed the Senate, to be again defeated in the Assembly. The necessity for action was urged in the governor's annual messages in the years 1848, 1850, and 1851. Finally, in July, 1851, an act was passed appropriating $6,000 annually for two years, for the purpose of maintaining an experimental school for idiots. A suitable building, near Albany, was rented and the school opened in October, 1851. The trustees selected for superintendent Dr. H. B. Wilbur, who had so successfully organized and conducted the private school at Barre, Mass., for more than three years previously. In the first annual report of the trustees, published in 1851, the aims and purposes of the proposed school were summed up as follows:

We do not propose to create or supply faculties absolutely wanting; nor to bring all grades of idiocy to the same standard of development or discipline; nor to make them all capable of sustaining creditably all the relations of a social and moral life; but rather to give to dormant faculties the greatest possible development, and to apply these awakened faculties to a useful purpose under the control of an aroused and disciplined will. At the base of all our efforts lies the principle that, as a rule, none of the faculties are absolutely wanting, but dormant, undeveloped, and imperfect.

This school attracted much attention from educators and others, and was frequently and critically inspected by the members of the legislature and other State officials. On the 11th of April, 1853, the legislature authorized the erection of new buildings. The citizens of Syracuse donated the land, and the corner-stone of the first structure in this country built expressly for the purpose of caring for and training idiots was laid Sept. 8, 1854. The school at Syracuse continued under Dr. Wilbur's direction until his death in 1883. In this school the physiological method of education has been most thoroughly and scientifically carried out, and a high degree of success attained.

Pennsylvania was the third State to take up the work. In the winter of 1852 a private school for idiots was opened in Germantown, by Mr. J. R Richards, the first teacher in the school at South Boston. This school was incorporated April 7, 1853, as the Pennsylvania Training School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Children. The first money received for its support was raised by private subscription, and the State contributed an equal sum. In 1855 the present site at Elwyn was secured, and the foundations laid for the present magnificent institution village with nearly a thousand inmates.

The Ohio Institution at Columbus was established April 17, 1857, and pupils were received the same year. The State of Ohio has from the beginning provided for her feeble-minded children on a more liberal and generous scale than any other State. The Columbus Institution, with its substantial buildings and splendid equipment, its admirably conducted school and industrial departments, has been made one of the best institutions in the world devoted to the care and training of this special class.

In Connecticut, in 1855, a State commission was appointed to investigate the conditions of the idiotic population, and to consider the advisability of making suitable provision for the education of this class. The report of this commission resulted in the establishment of the Connecticut School for Imbeciles at Lakeville, in 1858, under the superintendency of Dr. H. M. Knight. This school, although aided by the State, has been largely supported by private benevolence and payments from private pupils.

The Kentucky Institution at Frankfort was opened in 1860. For many years previously the State had granted an allowance of $50 per annum to each needy family afflicted with the burden of a feeble-minded child. In Illinois an experimental school for idiots and feebleminded children was opened in 1865 as an off: shoot of the school for deaf-mutes at Jacksonville. In the course of a few years this school obtained a separate organization, and new institution buildings were constructed at Lincoln and occupied in 1873. The Hillside Home, a private school, was opened at Fayville, Mass., in 1870.

The early history of these pioneer State institutions in many respects was very similar. They were practically all begun as tentative experiments in the face of great public distrust and doubt as to the value of the results to be obtained. In Connecticut the commissioners found a "settled conviction of a large majority of the citizens of the Commonwealth that idiots were a class so utterly helpless that it was a waste of time even to collect any statistics regarding them." Very little was known of the causes, frequency, nature, or varieties of idiocy, or of the principles and methods to be employed in successfully training and caring for this class of persons. The annual reports of the early superintendents, Drs. Howe, Wilbur, Brown, Parrish, and Knight, exhaustively considered the subject in all relations, and graphically presented to legislators and the public convincing and unanswerable reasons as to the feasibility and necessity of granting to feeble-minded children according to their ability the same opportunities for education that were given to their more fortunate brothers and sisters in the public schools.

All of these schools were organized as strictly educational institutions. In one of his earlier reports Dr. Howe says, "It is a link in the chain of common schools, – the last indeed, but still a necessary link in order to embrace all the children in the State." Again he says, "This institution, being intended for a school, should not be converted into an asylum for incurables." Dr. Wilbur, in his seventh annual report, says, "A new institution in a new field of education has the double mission of securing the best possible results, and at the same time of making that impression upon the public mind as will give faith in its object." With the limited capacity of these schools as established, it seemed best to advocate the policy of admitting only the higher-grade cases, where the resulting improvement and development could be compared with that of normal children.

It was hoped and believed that a large proportion of this higher-grade or "improvable" class of idiots could be so developed and educated that they would be capable of supporting themselves and of creditably maintaining an independent position in the community. It was maintained that the State should not assume the permanent care of these defectives, but that they should be returned to their homes after they had been trained and educated. It was the belief of the managers that only a relatively small number of inmates could be successfully cared for in one institution. It was deemed unwise to congregate a large number of persons suffering under any common infirmity.

Nearly everyone of these early institutions was opened at or near the capitals of their various States, in order that the members of the legislature might closely watch their operations and personally see their need and the results of the instruction and training of these idiots. No institution was ever abandoned or given up after having been established. In all of the institutions the applications for admission were far in excess of their capacity.

3. Helping idiots an "imperative duty," 1848

Samuel G. Howe, Report Made to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Upon Idiocy (Boston, 1848), pp. 8-17, 51-53.

In 1846 Howe was appointed to a commission charged with investigating the number and condition of idiots in Massachusetts and ascertaining whether anything could be done for their relief. After considering Howe's report the Massachusetts legislature appropriated $2,500 per annum for an experiment in teaching ten idiots. In 1850 the legislature issued to Howe and his associates a charter of incorporation for the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth.

Our commission is to examine into the condition of idiots. What is an idiot? – A being in the human form, but utterly devoid of sense and understanding? If so, then our report would be brief. Very few such have been found. Creatures are sometimes born of women, who are utterly wanting in the corporeal instruments by which understanding is most immediately manifested, – monsters without heads; but Nature lets none such cumber the earth; they come into life only to die; they take one short step from birth to death. A few seem to possess a brain and nervous system, but in such an abnormal condition as will not suffice even for command of muscular motion. Such creatures have only organic life. All other beings in human shape, manifest some sense and understanding.

Take the case No. 349 . . . an instance of the lowest kind of idiocy.

William ----- has the form and name of a human being, but not much else. He is at the age of early manhood, when some have gained victories in fields of war or science; but William has not yet learned enough to go alone, to feed himself, or know his own name. An intelligent dog knows more than he; and a child of two years old would be a prodigy of talent and knowledge compared with him. He lies most of the day upon a mat on the floor, rolling his lack-lustre eyes, and tossing his limbs. Sometimes they put him into a chair, and fasten him, as they do an infant, to prevent him from pitching forward. This change and approach to the human posture pleases him, but he soon slips down, and then moans and cries until they put him up again.

His natural desire for action manifests itself by his continual motions and by his cries, for he is seldom quiet when awake. He cannot feed himself, and observes not the decencies of life as well as a trained dog or cat.

Surely, it will be said, this man is an idiot; and yet he is not devoid of sense and understanding.

He knows no arbitrary language; words are to him of less import than to a horse; and yet he has a natural language that tells you he has consciousness, memory, hope, fear, and even judgment and discrimination, feeble though it be. This language, too, tells imperfectly the story of his experience; it tells what kind of treatment he has received; it tells of kindness and cruelty, of gentle and harsh tones, of curses and blows.

When he is first approached abruptly, he shows signs of fear, which you cannot mistake; he shrinks from your raised hand, and manifests signs of resistance and defence; but if you draw near to him gently, he does not shrink away; if you speak kindly to him, he smiles; if you caress him he is pleased; and if you continue your gentle attentions, you may make him yield obedience to your wishes, as far as he can understand them. He has a yet higher faculty, the sense of music; the poor creature loves sweet sounds, and, in his most uneasy moments, all his contortions of body and all his wild cries are soothed into calm, and hushed into silence, by any music.

It may be supposed, from the tenor of our remarks, that we are not much disposed to draw any sharp line of distinction between idiots and other human beings, and still less disposed to deny them the attributes of humanity and sink them to a level with the brutes. Indeed, if they have not even the germs of the peculiarly human faculties, then are they, though made in God's image, far lower than the brutes; for many brutes have more intelligence, and indeed more reasoning power, than the idiots of the lowest grade. We agree with Esquirol, [3a] that idiocy is not a disease. We go farther, and maintain that it is impossible to fix the point at which idiocy ends and reason begins. The truth is, that extreme cases only are considered in general classifications, and lead to the popular belief, that distinctions do exist between them, which really differ only as more and less. When a man's skin begins to feel a little dry, and he is rather thirsty, and his pulse is a very little quickened, and he feels rather ill at ease, we say he is somewhat unwell, but has no disease; – but when all these symptoms have increased in severity, until his skin is as dry as a drum-head, and his tongue rattles like a bit of baked leather in his parched mouth, and his hot blood is jerked rapidly through his tense and turgid arteries, then we say he has a fever; but no one can fix the point at which the indisposition ends, and the fever begins.

So it is with the imperfect development of intelligence of idiots. They all manifest some degree of sense and understanding; and the difference between their intelligence and that of other men, is a difference in degree, and not in kind. The light of a candle strikes the eye of the most stupid idiot, and causes sensation, perhaps thought, as of his supper; the light of a star strikes the eye of a scholar, and produces sensation, perhaps thought, as of a parallax. From the most stupid idiot up to the most brilliant genius, the distance is immense; but every step of that distance is occupied. We have names to mark the idiot, the fool, the simpleton, the weak-minded, the man of common sense, the strong-minded man, the man of talent, and the man of genius; but for the thousand intermediate grades we have no name, though we admit their existence.

Now, we claim for idiots a place in the human family. We maintain that they have the germs of the human faculties and sentiments, which in most cases may be developed. Indeed, the number of persons left by any society in a state of idiocy, is one test of the degree of advancement of that society in true and Christian civilization.

No systematic efforts have yet been made in this country to teach a class of these sorely bereaved creatures, but individual efforts have not been wanting in Massachusetts. The success here obtained, for the first time, in the education of persons who, by the English law, are considered to be necessarily idiots, as "wanting all those senses which furnish the human mind with ideas," has encouraged attempts to educate idiots. The results thus far are most satisfactory. In view of all these circumstances, therefore, we most earnestly recommend, that measures be at once taken to rescue this most unfortunate class from the dreadful degradation in which they now grovel.

The reasons for this are manifold, and strong, and hardly need to be repeated. In the first place, it would be an economical measure. This class of persons is always a burden upon the public. It is true, that the load is equally divided; it falls partly upon the treasury of the different towns; partly upon the state treasury, and partly upon individuals; so that the weight is not sensibly felt; but still it is not a whit the less heavy for that. There are at least a thousand persons of this class who not only contribute nothing to the commons stock, but who are ravenous consumers; who are idle and often mischievous, and who are dead weights upon the material prosperity of the State. But this is not all; they are even worse than useless; they generally require a good deal of watching to prevent their doing mischief, and they occupy considerable part of the time of more industrious and valuable persons. Now it is made certain, by what has been done in other countries, that almost everyone of these men and women, if not beyond middle age, may be made to observe all the decencies of life; to be tidy in their dress, cleanly in their habits, industrious at work, and even familiar with the simple elements of knowledge. If they were all made to earn something instead of spending, wasting, and destroying, the difference would be considerable. It would be an economy to some towns to send a young idiot across the ocean if he could be trained to such habits of industry as to support himself, instead of dragging out a life of two or three score years in the almshouse, and becoming every year more stupid, degraded, and disgusting. Many a town is now paying an extra price for the support of a drivelling idiot, who, if he had been properly trained, would be earning his own livelihood, under the care of discreet persons who would gladly board and clothe him for the sake of the work he could do.

The moral evils resulting from the existence of a thousand and more of such persons in the community are still greater than the physical ones. The spectacle of human beings reduced to a state of brutishness, and given up to the indulgence of animal appetites and passions, is not only painful, but demoralizing in the last degree. Not only young children, but "children of an older growth" are most injuriously affected by it. What virtuous parent could endure the thought of a beloved child living within the influence of an idiotic man or woman who knows none of the laws of conscience and morality, and none even of the requirements of decency? And yet, most of the idiots in our Commonwealth, unless absolutely caged up (as a few are) have, within their narrow range, some children who may mock them indeed, and tease them, but upon whom they in return inflict a more serious and lasting evil. Every such person is like an Upas tree, that poisons the whole moral atmosphere about him.

But the immediate adoption of proper means for training and teaching idiots, may be urged upon higher grounds than that of expediency, or even of charity; it may be urged upon the ground of imperative duty. It has been shown, that the number of this wretched class is fearfully great; that a large part of them are directly at the public charge; that the whole of them are at the charge of the community in one way or another, because they cannot help themselves. It has been shown, that they are not only neglected, but that, through ignorance, they are often badly treated, and cruelly wronged; that, for want of proper means of training, some of them sink from mere weakness of mind, into entire idiocy; so that, though born with a spark of intellect which might be nurtured into a flame, it is gradually extinguished, and they go down darkling to the grave, like the beasts that perish. Other countries are beginning to save such persons from their dreadful fate; and it must not longer be, that here, in the home of the Pilgrims, human beings, born with some sense, are allowed to sink into hopeless idiocy, for want of a helping hand.

Massachusetts admits the right of all her citizens to a share in the blessings of education, and she provides it liberally for all her more favored children. If some be blind or deaf, she still continues to furnish them with special instruction at great cost; and will she longer neglect the poor idiot, – the most wretched of all who are born to her, – those who are usually abandoned by their fellows, – who can never, of themselves, step up upon the platform of humanity, – will she leave them to their dreadful fate, to a life of brutishness, without an effort in their behalf?

3a.. Jean Etienne Dominique Esquirol (1772-1840) was chief physician of the asylum at Charenton, France.

4. Methods and results of instruction at New York Asylum for Idiots, 1852

New York Asylum for Idiots, Second Annual Report, 1852 (Albany, 1853), pp. 21-30.

Dr. Hervey Backus Wilbur (1820-1883) was superintendent of the New York Asylum from its founding in 1851 until his death. His career was marked by controversy over asylum management and the care of inmates, but his own institution became a model for similar institutions in the United States, Canada, and many European countries.

The apparatus we employ is of the simplest character; a series of ladders in various positions; wooden and iron dumb-bells; a treadmill; simple blocks; boards with depressions of various shapes and sizes, with blocks to fit the depressions, to teach distinctions of form and size; cups and balls of various colors; pictures; the simpler forms of common school apparatus; black boards everywhere; special contrivances for individual cases; and last though not least, the extensive apparatus of ordinary childish sports.

With this imperfect statement of some matters that have occurred to me as aiding anyone to comprehend our general plan of instruction, I will proceed to some particulars.

A certain portion of the younger and more backward pupils are placed in what may be termed the nursery department, coming into the school room only for a few moments at a time, at the opening and close of school sessions, when there is singing or other general exercises. These children are watched carefully with reference to their habits of body and mind, to the best mode of commencing our course of instruction with them – the most appropriate first steps in their pupilage. Every means that can be thought of are attempted to attract their attention to exercise their senses, to awaken perceptions, to excite the curiosity and encourage their imitative faculty.

. . . Properly belonging to these preliminary measures is the imparting an idea of language; they learn their names; they learn to obey a few simple commands, at first aided by appropriate gestures; they learn the names of different objects, names of form, of color and other properties of matter, and finally of pictures.

Arrived at this point, we may commence with exercises more resembling those of ordinary schools. We have cards with the names of familiar objects printed upon them which are learned by the pupil. Before learning the names of the letters of the alphabet they are taught to distinguish their differences of shape and even to form them into the words previously learned. With such preparation, the step is not a difficult one to learning to read by the ordinary word method. They can receive instruction in drawing on the black board, gradually passing into exercises in writing; they can receive oral lessons in geography with exercises upon the outline maps; they can be taught the simple relations of numbers.

The children rise early, the older ones taking a walk in the open air or active exercises within doors in addition to their preparation for breakfast. Considerable time is spent with the younger and lower grades of pupils in teaching them step by step, and little by little in the matter of dressing themselves, from barely holding out an arm for the reception of a sleeve up to all the mysteries of buttons, hooks and eyes and shoe-ties.

After breakfast, the older ones make their beds and assist in other simple household duties. All take as much exercise as possible, till nine, the hour of school. At eleven there is a recess of half an hour with a slight lunch. School ends at 1/2 past 12 for the forenoon session. Dinner is at one, consuming some time, as we regard it of great importance to inculcate habits of decorum, of moderation, and general propriety. Each is required to wait till all are helped, and then to eat slowly.

After dinner they are occupied in plays of various sorts, till 3, when school begins again. At 1/2 past four school closes for the day. Then follow, with a short interval for supper, under the supervision of intelligent persons, a great variety of exercises and amusements. We have military exercises for the boys; gymnastic exercises for the girls; dancing, singing, games of various sorts. These all deserve as high a place in any system of education for idiots as the more customary matters of instruction, and they are carried on here under as much supervision as the school exercises. It is in these out of school employments that the pupils acquire that little every day knowledge and judgment, that they are so entirely destitute of when they come to us.

On the Sabbath, they are divided into smaller companies and scattered through the house, to encourage a more quiet deportment than on other days. We are compelled, however, to have systematic exercises on that day. In the afternoon, the older children have a Sunday-school, in which they are taught simple moral duties, scripture history in its simplest form, and children's songs.

In the evening they spend an hour listening to the reading of such stories as are adapted to their comprehension, manifesting much interest and pleasure.

Were we at a more convenient access from any house of religious worship, we have quite a class that would conduct themselves with propriety in attending it, and would certainly receive one benefit from it, that of increased reverence.

From a residence of a longer or shorter period under the circumstance and influences I have mentioned, the results have been as described in the following cases.

CASE No.1.

A lad of 10 years old, well formed, healthy and cleanly in his habits, though of rather irritable temper, and quite mischievous; he came October 29th, 1851; he did not speak at all till five years old; could not tell his age; did not know a single letter; could not count or distinguish colors; was excessively timid.

Cause – had severe convulsions when a year old, lasting for ten days.

He is now much less mischievous; less irritable and nervous; he knows two-thirds of the letters of the alphabet; can spell quite a number of words; can count 15; has quite an idea of forms and colors; can form some letters on the black-board, and is in a class in drawing, and also in Webb's First Reader.

CASE No.2.

A boy of 10 years old, idiotic from birth; well formed, healthy, good tempered, though somewhat passionate; he feeds himself with his fingers, not stopping to masticate his food; he is inattentive to the calls of nature; came October 29th, 1852; could not speak a word; had no idea of language, not even knowing his own name when called; would not hold anything in his hands except food; was excessively timid; he now feeds himself very well with a fork; knows his own name; will obey some simple commands; holds anything in his hands; will sit or stand still when required; can assist himself more in dressing or undressing; will pick up blocks and place them in a wheelbarrow, when commanded; will go up and down ladders when told, and takes pleasure in marching.

His father wrote, after seeing him at the end of his first three months with us: "I can truly say there was more of a change in him than I expected to see in so short a time."

CASE No.3.

A boy of 8 years old; well formed, though walking badly; healthy, and excessively irritable; feeds himself with his fingers, and has no idea of cleanliness; has a constant habit of biting his hands: and is always covered with saliva to the waist; he came October 30th, 1852; he did not speak a word, and knew the meaning of but few words, if any.

Cause – the idiocy is ascribed by the parents to the sudden appearance of a cutaneous disease of the scalp, when one year old.

This boy was so entirely unmanageable, when first received, that we were compelled, for awhile, to forego any attempts to govern. He had not been accustomed to wearing shoes and stockings, and he resisted all our efforts to keep them on him. He would pull them off as often as they were put on, and when his hands were confined, he would stoop down and tear them off with his teeth; he screamed regularly every day, till nearly noon; in an attempt to conquer him by holding him, I was compelled to retire from the conquest vanquished, carrying the marks of his teeth in my hands for some time; I then thought I would trust to time, and the influence of the discipline of the school, to acquire control over him, taking care never to require anything of him but what I could compel him by main force to do. This course of proceeding is beginning to have the desired effect; he now obeys many little commands; is very much under the control of my will; though one of our lowest pupils, he still manifests a very decided improvement in all respects; such was the gratifying testimony of his father who lately visited him.

CASE No.4.

A boy of 11 years old; well formed, healthy, good tempered, and cleanly in his habits; came Nov. 7th, 1851. He speaks with occasional stammering; he was slightly mischievous in his propensities; could not be taught to read or write, or count, or distinguish colors by ordinary methods of instruction; he is now reading in a class in Webb's Reader; is in our first class in arithmetic, adding simple numbers; he is in a class in geography, and quite familiar with all the leading features of several of our series of outline maps; he is in a class in drawing on the black-board, and can also make any of the letters of the alphabet; he has much more confidence in himself; takes the lead in all the sports of childhood, and will unquestionably finish his education in a common school.

CASE NO.5.

A girl of 11 years old; peculiar from birth; now healthy. There is a peculiar form of the head in her case, and a slight deformity of the limbs; she came November 27th, 1851; she was quite mischievous, with a propensity to hide herself; could not be left alone with children, from a propensity to hurt them; very frank to confess her offences, and very penitent after committing them; she was excessively nervous and talked very indistinctly; she knew many of her letters, but could not read or write.

She has now been with us thirteen months; she is steadily improving in mental condition, as in all her habits; she is much less nervous; articulates much better; she has gone through nearly all of Webb's First Reader, and reads well what she does read; she is learning to form the letters in writing; is studying geography and arithmetic, and I think no one who should now see her, would doubt her ability eventually to master all the common school studies of children.

Her wayward propensities have almost entirely disappeared under the influence of the constant occupation of her time; she now sews very well; assists in many little domestic matters, and will in time be capable of performing all customary household duties.

CASE No.6.

A boy of 12 years old; very small of his age, but with an old looking face; peculiar from birth; has always been healthy.

Came May 5th, 1852; he did not speak but a few words; could not distinguish colors; had no idea of numbers, and did not know a letter. He was, in general, good tempered, though very obstinate at times.

We began with teaching him to notice distinctions of forms; then of colors. He very soon began to improve in all respects, and has been jumping from one class to another, so that he will soon be in our first class in all branches.

5. President Pierce's veto of the "Twelve Million Acre Bill," 1854

James O. Richardson, comp., Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, V (Washington, 1897),247-256.

In 1848 Dorothea Dix sent a Memorial to Congress noting that existing hospitals and asylums could accommodate only one-twelfth of the insane population of the country and proposing federal land grants to the states to assist in caring for the insane. In 1854, after eight years of lobbying by Miss Dix, Congress passed an act apportioning 12,225,000 acres of public land among the states for the support of institutions for the insane and the deaf. President Pierce vetoed the bill on constitutional grounds and because he feared federal aid would dry up state and local "fountains of charity."

Washington, May 3, 1854.

To the Senate of the United States:

The bill entitled "An act making a grant of public lands to the several States for the benefit of indigent insane persons," which was presented to me on the 27th ultimo, has been maturely considered, and is returned to the Senate, the House in which it originated, with a statement of the objections which have required me to withhold from it my approval.

This bill . . . proposes that the Federal Government shall make provision to the amount of the value of 10,000,000 acres of land for an eleemosynary object within the several States, to be administered by the political authority of the same; and it presents at the threshold the question whether any such act on the part of the Federal Government is warranted and sanctioned by the Constitution, the provisions and principles of which are to be protected and sustained as a first and paramount duty.

It can not be questioned that if Congress has power to make provision for the indigent insane without the limits of this District it has the same power to provide for the indigent who are not insane, and thus to transfer to the Federal Government the charge of all the poor in all the States. It has the same power to provide hospitals and other local establishments for the care and cure of every species of human infirmity, and thus to assume all that duty of either public philanthropy or public necessity to the dependent, the orphan, the sick, or the needy which is now discharged by the States themselves or by corporate institutions or private endowments existing under the legislation of the States. The whole field of public beneficence is thrown open to the care and culture of the Federal Government. Generous impulses no longer encounter the limitations and control of our imperious fundamental law; for however worthy may be the present object in itself, it is only one of a class. It is not exclusively worthy of benevolent regard. Whatever considerations dictate sympathy for this particular object apply in like manner, if not in the same degree, to idiocy, to physical disease, to extreme destitution. If Congress may and ought to provide for anyone of these objects, it may and ought to provide for them all. And if it be done in this case, what answer shall be given when Congress shall be called upon, as it doubtless will be, to pursue a similar course of legislation in the others? It will obviously be vain to reply that the object is worthy, but that the application has taken a wrong direction. The power will have been deliberately assumed, the general obligation will by this act have been acknowledged, and the question of means and expediency will alone be left for consideration. The decision upon the principle in anyone case determines it for the whole class. The question presented, therefore, clearly is upon the constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those among the people of the United States who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy.

I readily and, I trust, feelingly acknowledge the duty incumbent on us all as men and citizens, and as among the highest and holiest of our duties, to provide for those who, in the mysterious order of Providence, are subject to want and to disease of body or mind; but I can not find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded. And if it were admissible to contemplate the exercise of this power for any object whatever, I can not avoid the belief that it would in the end be prejudicial rather than beneficial in the noble offices of charity to have the charge of them transferred from the States to the Federal Government . . . Can it be controverted that the great mass of the business of Government that involved in the social relations, the internal arrangements of the body politic, the mental and moral culture of men, the development of local resources of wealth, the punishment of crimes in general, the preservation of order, the relief of the needy or otherwise unfortunate members of society – did in practice remain with the States; that none of these objects of local concern are by the Constitution expressly or impliedly prohibited to the States, and that none of them are by any express language of the Constitution transferred to the United States? Can it be claimed that any of these functions of local administration and legislation are vested in the Federal Government by any implication? I have never found anything in the Constitution which is susceptible of such a construction. No one of the enumerated powers touches the subject or has even a remote analogy to it. The powers conferred upon the United States have reference to federal relations, or to the means of accomplishing or executing things of federal relation. So also of the same character are the powers taken away from the States by enumeration. In either case the powers granted and the powers restricted were so granted or so restricted only where it was requisite for the maintenance of peace and harmony between the States or for the purpose of protecting their common interests and defending their common sovereignty against aggression from abroad or insurrection at home.

I can not but repeat what I have before expressed, that if the several States, many of which have already laid the foundation of munificent establishments of local beneficence, and nearly all of which are proceeding to establish them, shall be led to suppose, as, should this bill become a law, they will be, that Congress is to make provision for such objects, the fountains of charity will be dried up at home, and the several States, instead of bestowing their own means on the social wants of their own people, may themselves, through the strong temptation which appeals to states as to individuals, become humble suppliants for the bounty of the Federal Government, reversing their true relations to this Union.

After the most careful examination I find but two examples in the acts of Congress which furnish any precedent for the present bill, and those examples will, in my opinion, serve rather as a warning than as an inducement to tread in the same path.

The first is the act of March 3, 1819, granting a township of land to the Connecticut asylum for the education of the deaf and dumb; the second, that of April 5, 1826, making a similar grant of land to the Kentucky asylum for teaching the deaf and dumb – the first more than thirty years after the adoption of the Constitution and the second more than a quarter of a century ago. These acts were unimportant as to the amount appropriated, and so far as I can ascertain were passed on two grounds: First, that the object was a charitable one, and, secondly, that it was national. To say that it was a charitable object is only to say that it was an object of expenditure proper for the competent authority; but it no more tended to show that it was a proper object of expenditure by the United States than is any other purely local object appealing to the best sympathies of the human heart in any of the States. And the suggestion that a school for the mental culture of the deaf and dumb in Connecticut or Kentucky is a national object only shows how loosely this expression has been used when the purpose was to procure appropriations by Congress. It is not perceived how a school of this character is otherwise national than is any establishment of religious or moral instruction. All the pursuits of industry, everything which promotes the material or intellectual well-being of the race, every ear of corn or boll of cotton which grows, is national in the same sense, for each one of these things goes to swell the aggregate of national prosperity and happiness of the United States; but it confounds all meaning of language to say that these things are "national," as equivalent to "Federal," so as to come within any of the classes of appropriation for which Congress is authorized by the Constitution to legislate.[4a]

The general result at which I have arrived is the necessary consequence of those views of the relative rights, powers, and duties of the States and of the Federal Government which I have long entertained and often expressed and in reference to which my convictions do but increase in force with time and experience.

I have thus discharged the unwelcome duty of respectfully stating my objections to this bill with which I cheerfully submit the whole subject to the wisdom of Congress.

Franklin Pierce.

4a. Thirty-five to fifty years after Pierce's veto, Congress, in admitting new states from the Great Plains and far West, regularly made grants to the states for charitable, educational, penal, and reformatory institutions. On this point see Best, Deafness and the Deaf, pp. 595-596.