Guggenbühl's establishment, there is a pupil
who has never been able to acquire the
correct pronunciation of his own native German
language, but who has learned to speak and
to read French correctly, and who writes it
very well, as we have seen with our own eyes.
Another youth was brought into the same
asylum, to whom for a long time it was
impossible to teach the difference between
various objects, however opposite; it is
doubtful whether he knew any distinction
between a flower and a table. At last, he
identified a cat; and from that moment cats
became the especial business and pleasure of
his life. After continually playing with the
cat belonging to the asylum, and with her
kittens, he improved sufficiently to be taught
to draw. He could draw nothing but cats,
and can draw nothing but cats. He produces
drawings of cats and kittens in every
conceivable variety of attitude and frolic, with
astonishing expression. And although he
cannot get beyond cats, still, as he has
advanced in cats, so he has advanced in his
habits and in his general intelligence.

Changes of a remarkable nature have been
effected in the external appearance of idiots
by training and culture. Dr. Guggenbühl
tells us of a little child brought to his
establishment in a state '' truly dreadful; the
bodily organisation was that of a stunted,
withered skeleton, covered with a livid,
wrinkled, cold skin. Where there were some
traces of muscles, elasticity was wanting; the
extremities were very small, the countenance
deadly pale, the cheeks and forehead wrinkled,
the eyes small and dark, and the whole
expression of the face that of an old woman.
In the spring, when fine weather adds to the
favourable effect of the pure mountain air in
the cure of these miserable children, she was
brought to the Abendberg. The natural
advantages of the situation were aided by the
most careful medical treatment and diet.
Although this poor creature had been gradually
becoming more dwarf-like and deformed
ever since her birth, she now advanced rapidly
towards a perfect development. Three months
worked a visible improvement; the muscles
strengthened with her growth, the skin
became elastic, and attained the usual degree
of warmth, the wrinkles of the face vanished,
the old-woman expression disappeared, and the
pleasing traces of youth became apparent."

We presume the bodily sensitiveness of this
afflicted class to be increased, as their
deprivations are diminished. However this be,
idiots often suffer less from physical pain than
beings of a finer organisation. A boy, now at
Highgate, was once found by his mother with
a species of buckle thrust through his tongue.
He had made this experiment merely to
amuse himself, and testified no inconvenience
whatever—was vain of the ornament, but not
otherwise moved by it. Idiots are found
below the average sensitiveness to the electric
battery; and yet, so remarkable are the
contradictions in their nature, they are
invariably affected by thunder and lightning. The
mere approach of a thunderstorm is observed
to disorder the stomachs of a whole idiot
asylum. They generally like music—bright
colours almost always—and are remarkably
susceptible to the influence of sunlight. Such
things as they do, they do, as an established
rule, best on a bright day, and worst on a
dark one. In respect of mental pain, as of
physical, they have their compensation.
Separation from friends does not affect them
much, grief and sorrow hold but slight
dominion over them, and the contemplation of
death does not distress them. They are very
fond of attending prayers in a body. What
dim religious impressions they connect with
public worship, it is impossible to say, but the
struggling soul would seem to have some
instinctive aspirations towards its Maker.

The Institutions from which these facts are
derived, are, as we have mentioned, of recent
establishment. In eighteen hundred and
twenty-eight M. FERRUS, Chief physician of
the hospital for the Insane at Bicêtre, near
Paris, selected from the eight hundred cases
under his care, such as were idiots, and
organised a school where, each morning, they
were taught habits of order and industry,
reading, writing, cyphering, and gymnastics. In
eighteen hundred and thirty-one M. VALRET
followed the example in the Salpetrière
lunatic asylum for females of which he had
charge. In eighteen hundred and thirty-nine
Dr. Guggenbühl, then a young physician at
Zurich, observed a poor Crétin muttering a
prayer before a crucifix, not comprehending
what he was doing. He was so deeply
affected by this sight, that he entered a
cottage near, for the purpose of ascertaining
some particulars; and learned, from the
mother of the Crétin, that she had taught
him the prayer when he was a little child.
Dr. Guggenbühl became convinced, from that
time, that there was a dormant mind in the
Crétins; and resolved to make them his
peculiar study. He succeeded, by dint of great
perseverance, in establishing the asylum
already several times referred to, on the
Abendberg above Interlaken, and three
thousand feet above the level of the sea, and
above the level at which crétinism, so prevalent
in Switzerland, is known to exist. The
establishment has flourished under Dr.
Guggenbühl's care; and he has travelled
successfully into other countries to urge the
foundation of other asylums. They were set
on foot in various parts of Germany, in
Sardinia, and in the United States, before they
were thought of in England. But in eighteen
hundred and forty-six some ladies in Bath,
having read an account of Dr. Guggenbühl's
efforts, established a school for Idiots in that
city; which was, in eighteen hundred and
fifty-one removed to Belvedere, a more
elevated and airy situation. At the end of the
year eighteen hundred and forty-seven, Dr.