Ninth annual report of the New-York Asylum for Idiots : To the legislature of the State of New-York for 1860 / New York State Asylum for Idiots.

  • New York State Asylum for Idiots
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ninth annual report of the New-York Asylum for Idiots : To the legislature of the State of New-York for 1860 / New York State Asylum for Idiots. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/28 page 10
    “Children between the ages of seven and fourteen who are idiotic, or so deficient in intelligence as to be incapable of being educated at any ordinary school, and who are not epileptic, insane or greatly deformed, may be admitted by the superintendent, with the advise and counsel of the executive committee. Applications in behalf of others shall be referred to the action of the board of trustees.” Some limitations, in the reception of idiots are manifestly nec¬ essary on the part of the trustees, who are only the agents of the State in carrying out the design and object of the institution, with the pecuniary means appropriated by the Legislature annu¬ ally. Other limitations were implied in the original plan of the founders of the Asylum. The N. Y. Asylum for Idiots was established to meet a public want. There were within the borders of the State, judging from the statistics of other countries and states, under similar circum¬ stances, and of analogous population, more than 3000 idiots, em¬ bracing every shade of mental endowment below the common standard of intelligence, and subjected to every variety of social influences. They were thrown by the very nature of their infirmity, beyond the pale of that common school education which the State pro¬ vides for every child of average intellect within its limits. Any rational and practicable project for the amelioration of their condition . or the furnishing of any permanent relief to those who were burdened with their care, would look beyond the mere ministering to their physical wants, or the simple substitution of the State’s care and maintenance for that of parents, friends or local authorities. It would afford them opportunities for development. It would give them all the education that they were susceptible of. It would attempt to qualify them, by a proper instruction in practical matters, to be returned to their friends capable of sus¬ taining and providing for themselves with the least possible care and anxiety of others. And it would do this in accordance with the policy, long established in reference to those other children of misfortune, the deaf-mute and the blind. It would seem to lie outside the province of the State’s charity in this direction, to provide a public institution for such of the number as could be as well cared for under family or other influ¬ ences at home. Nor is it the policy of the State, at present, to adopt any of these unfortunates. It only assumes their guardian-
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3