The education of the imbecile, and the improvement of invalid youth.

Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The education of the imbecile, and the improvement of invalid youth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    same time, advanced similar views. So far as Cretinism is concerned, it does not appear that any one attempted to reduce these views to prac¬ tice until Dr Guggenbiihl began his beneficent labours in 1839* in the Institution on the Abendberg, near Interlacken, Switzerland. The expediency of subjecting all fatuous and imbecile children to medical treatment and educational training was strongly advocated by Dr Poole, (then of Edinburgh, now of Aberdeen) in a treatise on Education, which appeared first in 1819, as an article in the Encyclopaedia Edin- ensis, and was, in 1 825, published as a separate volume. The following extracts from Dr Poole’s book will shew how dis¬ tinctly he perceived the work to be done, and how to do it:—• “ What, but the most culpable indifference, can account for those appal¬ ling and truly heart-rending spectacles, so often witnessed in almost every village, and, still more marvellously, in the streets of our large cities ? Is it as a foil, one might ask, or in compliment to the usually enjoyed propor¬ tion of intellect, that the poor idiot is permitted, if not encouraged, by the carelessness of his nominal keepers, and the dole of sickening humanity, in his objectless and staring perambulations among us? If this be the motive, why is so important a personage, as he must necessarily be esteemed, al¬ lowed to become a recipient of every abuse and cruelty which wantonness or fiend-like perversity thinks proper to heap upon him? Is he not en¬ titled, if his visitations are either profitable or tolerable, to, at least, the humane treatment which our laws award to the brute creation ? May not even his exterior resemblance to our species be somewhat enhanced b}^ his being furnished with a decent garb to cover his nakedness, and protect him from the inclemency of the weather, or the harsher inclemencies of an in¬ sulting and a prostituted superiority ? Finally, is there not a possibility, if he must go at large, of guarding him against brutality and outrage, with as much care, at least, as is manifested in the preservation of property ? “ In whatever manner these questions, or any similar ones, may be dis¬ posed of, it is certain that the evil is a reproach and a nuisance to society; and the proper remedy for it demands yet more profound examination, more ample command of means, and more extensive co-operation than may at first sight be imagined necessary. Nothing could be easier, it is true, than the alleviation, if not the entire removal of its most obnoxious symp¬ toms. The fiat of authority might compel, under severe penalties, to be in¬ flicted on near relatives, or, failing them, the official guardians of our mu¬ nicipal comforts, as in another case of deplorable misfortune, the entire dis¬ appearance and confinement of those helpless creatures, whose history has hitherto belied the splendid dream of human perfectibility. But, ad¬ mitting the efficacy and expediency of legislative interference, is it fitting for an age of improvement and benevolence, to allow the success of such interference to be the ultimatum of what is desirable and practicable on the subject? Would it be, ought it to be, enough for us, that these unfortu¬ nates were removed from our sight ? We answer—no. It is with some anxiety and commendable regard to decency and feeling, that we dispose of the dead bodies of our fellow-men. We protect, too, the last and common receptacle of mortality by an opinion of sacredness and a rigour of law, even against the demands of an important science, which can never be duly cul¬ tivated, so as to yield its full amount of benefits to mankind, without vio¬ lating a sanctuary so respected. Shall we be less concerned about the dis¬ posal of those living beings, whose weakness ought to call forth our com¬ passion in the very proportion that it renders them burdensome to society ? That there prevails a great degree of negligence as to their condition and comfort, will appear very obvious, when we compare the little attention which has as yet been shewn them collectively, with the extensive plans