ences are too long for that monotonous and hopeless
life; and, though they are well-fed and cared for, they generally break
down utterly after two or three years. One delusion seems to become
common to three-fourths of them after a certain time of imprisonment.
Under the impression that there is something destructive put into their
food 'pour les guerir de crime' (says M. Verdeil), they refuse to eat!"

It was at the Blind Institution, however, of which Mr. Haldimand was the
president and great benefactor, that Dickens's attention was most deeply
arrested; and there were two cases in especial of which the detail may
be read with as much interest now as when my friend's letters were
written, and as to which his own suggestions open up still rather
startling trains of thought. The first, which in its attraction for him
he found equal even to Laura Bridgman's, was that of a young man of 18:
"born deaf and dumb, and stricken blind by an accident when he was about
five years old. The Director of the institution is a young German, of
great ability, and most uncommonly prepossessing appearance. He
propounded to the scientific bodies of Geneva, a year ago (when this
young man was under education in the asylum), the possibility of
teaching him to speak--in other words, to play with his tongue upon his
teeth and palate as if on an instrument, and connect particular
performances with particular words conveyed to him in the
finger-language. They unanimously agreed that it was quite impossible.
The German set to work, and the young man now speaks very plainly and
distinctly: without the least modulation, of course, but with
comparatively little hesitation; expressing the words aloud as they are
struck, so to speak, upon his hands; and showing the most intense and
wonderful delight in doing it. This is commonly acquired, as you know,
by the deaf and dumb who learn by sight; but it has never before been
achieved in the case of a deaf, dumb, and blind subject. He is an
extremely lively, intelligent, good-humoured fellow; an excellent
carpenter; a first-rate turner; and runs about the building with a
certainty and confidence which none of the merely blind pupils acquire.
He has a great many ideas, and an instinctive dread of death. He knows
of God, as of Thought enthroned somewhere; and once told, on nature's
prompting (the devil's of course), a lie. He was sitting at dinner, and
the Director asked him whether he had had anything to drin