On the causes of idiocy : being the supplement to a report by Dr. S.G. Howe and the other commissioners appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to inquire into the condition of the idiots of the Commonwealth, dated February 26, 1848 : with an appendix.
- Massachusetts. Commission on Condition of Idiots of the Commonwealth.
- Date:
- 1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the causes of idiocy : being the supplement to a report by Dr. S.G. Howe and the other commissioners appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to inquire into the condition of the idiots of the Commonwealth, dated February 26, 1848 : with an appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![degree of mental improvement which is attainable by idiotic children as a class, there has been none at all with regard to a number of individual cases. As to the capacity for general improvement in bodily condition and appearance, in personal habits, and capacity for usefulness, there has not only been no disappointment, but, on the contrary, more than full grati- fication of all expectations, and even hopes. This is put be- yond all question by the testimony of numerous relatives and friends of the pupils, and by that of careful observers of the school. In one respect the result has been unexpected,—namely, the more positive and marked advantage which the school has been to girls than to boys. The natural gentleness of the sex makes them more submissive, more docile, more ready to re- nounce bad habits, while they are more imitative and more de- sirous of pleasing. Then their greater fitness for sedentary and household life and duties qualifies them for usefulness in a sphere which boys cannot fill. The Experimental School was for boys only; and perhaps this was well, for success with them was a sure guarantee of greater success with girls. Experience shows, moreover, that it will be wise to give greater attention to mechanical opera- tions, and less to mere school exercises, than was originally contemplated. [In his .Report for 1856, Dr Howe says:—] The experience of the past year, in our school, confirms that of former years, and shows the rule to be, that young idiots have great capacity for improvement in their bodily condition, in their habits, manners, minds, and morals, and that the ex- ceptions to it are very few. Even these few, however, if better understood and more skilfully treated, might prove to be no exceptions to the law of improvability of all created beings, during their period of growth and development; or they might reveal a provisional and merciful clause in the law—to wit, that where the original defect or supervened derangement of the organization is so great as utterly to pervert the main functions of life, then a process of decay sets in and forbids the being from long cumbering the ground. We know that other provisions of the kind exist, as where mechanical injury of some great organ prevents the perform- ance of functions essential to the well-being of other organs, when decay at once begins and death soon follows. We know also, that in those cases of idiocy where defective organization or deep-seated disease reveals itself in severe and frequent epilepsy, or other affections indicating such shocks of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22323971_0090.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
