IDIOCY 173 who give hope of improvement. Two oth- ers are about to be opened, at Strengnas and Gefle. There is a training school in St. Petersburg, and also one at Newcastle, New South Wales, which in 1872 had 132 pupils. The first schools in England were small, and were sustained by some benevolent ladies, in the towns of Lancaster, Bath, Ipswich, and Brighton. In 1847 an effort was made to es- tablish an institution in some degree commen- surate with the wants of the class for whom it was intended. In this movement Dr. John Conolly, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Eeed, the Rev. Edwin Sidney, and Sir S. Morton Peto distin- guished themselves by their zeal and liberality. They first rented a nobleman's residence, called Park house, at Highgate, near London, in 1848, and two years subsequently Essex hall at Col- chester. In 1853 the foundation stone of the present capacious and admirably appointed in- stitution at Earlswood, near Redhill, Surrey, was laid, and it was opened in 1855. It now has about 700 inmates, and is under the super- intendence of Dr. G. W. Grabham. "With it is connected a farm of about 100 acres, and many of the pupils are instructed in farming and gardening, while others are taught mat making, basket making, tailoring, carpentering, and sim- ilar employments. Upon its opening the in- mates of Park house were removed to it, and ultimately those of Essex hall, which was closed in 1858. The latter was reopened in 1859 as the eastern counties asylum for idiots and imbeciles, and now has about 70 inmates. The western counties asylum was established in 1864 at Stareross, near Exeter; and the Dorridge Grove idiot asylum at Knowle, now known as the midland counties asylum, was opened in 1866. More recently the Royal Al- bert asylum (northern counties) has been es- tablished near Lancaster, occupying a fine build- ing surrounded with ample grounds, and capa- ble of accommodating 500 inmates; it is un- der the superintendence of Dr. Shuttleworth. These institutions are supported chiefly by sub- scriptions and donations ; pupils are admitted upon payment, and may enjoy the benefits of instruction gratuitously by the nomination of the boards of directors or the election of the subscribers. The private institution of Dr. Langdon Down, formerly superintendent of Earlswood, at Normansfield, near London, has about 50 inmates, and is designed only for the wealthy. Besides these training schools, there are two large asylums near London maintained by the poor-law boards for keeping and feed- ing idiots and dements. In Scotland, besides the institution established in 1853 on the estate of Sir John and Lady Ogilvie at Baldovan, near Dundee, there is the " Scottish national insti- tution for the education of imbecile children," founded by a society organized for that pur- pose, and opened in 1862 at Larbert, Stirling- shire, under the superintendence of Dr. David Brodie, who for several years previously had .been in charge of a school for idiots in Edin- burgh. The present superintendent is Dr. W. W. Ireland, and the number of pupils is about 90. In Ireland an establishment has recently been endowed by Dr. Stewart, to which it was intended to remove the inmates of the asylum for lunatics and idiots at Lucan, near Dublin. The only idiot asylum in Canada was opened in July, 1872, at London, Ontario. It occupies a separate building, accommodating 40 patients, in the grounds of the asylum for the insane, and is under the charge of Dr. Henry Landon, the superintendent of that institution. It is as yet merely a house of refuge, but the present building is to be enlarged, and another provi- ded elsewhere for a training school. In the United States, where there are now 10 insti- tutions, the movement for the instruction of idiots commenced almost simultaneously in New York and Massachusetts. Efforts had been made, in isolated cases (apart from the attempts at the American asylum already re- ferred to), to instruct idiot children in the Per- kins institution for the blind in Boston, and in the New York deaf and dumb institution, as early as 1838 or 1839 ; but the feasibility of or- ganizing an institution for their treatment and training does not seem to have been thought of till the attention of philanthropists was drawn to it by the eloquent letters of Mr. George Sumner, describing his visits to the schools in Paris. These letters were published in 1845, and Dr. S. B. Woodward, long known as the superintendent of the hospital for the insane at Worcester, Mass., and Dr. Frederick F. Backus of Rochester, N. Y., soon after corresponded upon the subject. Dr. Backus was elected a member of the New York state senate in the au- tumn of 1845, and in January, 1846, read a re- port which he had drawn up on the subject of idiot instruction, and the necessity of an insti- tution for the purpose. A few weeks later he reported a bill for such an institution. During the same month a bill passed the Massachusetts legislature, appointing a commission to inves- tigate the condition of the idiots of Massachu- setts, and report on the necessity of measures for their instruction. The result was the es- tablishment of an experimental school in Octo- ber, 1848, in a wing of the institution for the blind at South Boston. Dr. Hervey B. Wil- bur, a young physician of Barre, Mass., open- ed a school for idiot children there in July, 1848. The school at South Boston was incor- porated in 1850 as the "Massachusetts school for idiotic and feeble-minded youth," and has remained under the supervision of Dr. S. G. Howe. The state makes an annual appropria- tion of $16,500, and poor children are admitted without charge upon the recommendation of the governor, besides which there are some pay- ing pupils and a few supported by the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island. Facilities are afforded here for employ- ing the inmates in the simpler branches of man- ufacture. The number under instruction in 1873 was 122 ; number remaining at the close of the
