Royal Albert Asylum for the education and training of idiots & imbeciles belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland : sixteenth annual report.

  • Royal Albert Asylum (Lancaster, England)
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Royal Albert Asylum for the education and training of idiots & imbeciles belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland : sixteenth annual report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    43/66 (page 41)
    EXTRACTS FROM AN ARTICLE, ENTITLED “ A MORNING IN THE ROYAL ALBERT ASYLUM.” [iChristian World Magazine, February, 1880.] As we ascend the stairs sounds of child-laughter reach the ear, but some¬ thing is the matter with the voices. Deeply pathetic were those sounds as contrasted with what one had been so used to hear from the lips of children. Yes, we were among—what it seems so harsh to call them—idiots and imbeciles. Many visitors decline to see the “ raw material,” but in exhibiting processes of manufacture this is always shown first, and this seems to me to be the more appropriate order. I am not going to describe this “ material” very minutely, be sure, but only state that in many instances the patient is totally helpless, unable to use hands or feet, and without the faintest, apparent gleam of intelligence. Looking on these vacant-eyed, open-mouthed creatures, unable to articulate a sentence, a feeling of almost incredulity steals over us as we regard them. Have they come, as Lord Winmarleigh told us, to learn to read and write and draw, and to acquire the ability to earn their own livelihood ? What in the world does the teacher do in the first instance ? How does he begin, exactly, with a child whose senses he cannot fix, whose eye is roaming vacantly, and whose ear has no informing faculty by which sounds are interpreted ? The teacher does not begin with eye or ear in the first instance, except as influenced by the sense of feeling. He seats the unpromising pupil before him and commences by throwing something at him—little bags of beans or other small, weighty things, the object being to constrain the attention. After a course of mild pelting this great object is attained; there is a motion of the hands, and the pupil essays to pick up the thing thrown at him. When he is able to accom¬ plish this the first step is taken. This step is not gained in a day, however, and often not until after weary painstaking. Next, the class is seated round a table — the further and more intelligent use of the fingers being designed. Before each one is placed two bits of wood; the teacher then places one piece of wood edgeways on the other. After a time the pupils attempt to imitate this, and the thing is done over and over again till they become interested, and, at length, quite expert. To teach the science of numbers cubes of wood are used, a soldier being painted on each ; these are placed two or three together, then one is withdrawn— the thought then is conveyed of one soldier, two soldiers, and so on in other matters. The use of the feet is taught by encouraging the patient to step from one flat rung of a step-ladder to another, but the progress is extremely tedious. One wonders at the marvellous patience of the teachers almost as much as at their success, but when once the young idea has begun to shoot, the progress is less painfully slow. In one of the girls’ schools the pupils were sitting on a raised platform similar to those in ordinary infant schools. At a signal from the teacher they all rise and join in singing, and in other respects exhibit considerable intelligence. A frame on which balls of various colours are strung on wires is set up, and the pupils tell with great promptness the colour and number of the beads, not that all are told correctly by any means, for one little miss insisted that white was black, and pouted exceedingly when her error was explained, nor would she condescend to answer any more questions even when pointedly requested to do so. Remarking on fingers, it is only necessary to peep in at the sempstresses in the workroom to observe how these useless fingers may be trained. Here they are busy making garments for themselves and the boys, and some of them can cut