ritten on
tables of stone.

"The statistics of the seventeen families, the heads of which, being
blood relatives, intermarried, tells a fearful tale. Most of the parents
were intemperate or scrofulous; some were both the one and the other; of
course, there were other causes to increase chances of infirm offspring
besides that of the intermarriage. There were born unto them ninety-five
children, of whom forty-four were idiotic, twelve others were scrofulous
and puny, one was deaf, and one was a dwarf! In some cases, all the
children were either idiotic, or very scrofulous and puny. In one family
of eight children, five were idiotic."

CONDITION OF IDIOTS.--From what has been said of the character of
parents to whom are born the greatest proportion of this most wretched
and helpless class of persons, their condition and treatment might be
inferred. To rear healthy children properly, a knowledge of the
principles of physiology and mental science is essentially necessary.
This knowledge is still more important in the treatment of idiots. Dr.
Howe is of the opinion that it requires a rarer and higher kind of
talent to teach an idiot than a youth of superior talent. When the time
comes that schools for idiots are established all over the country, he
thinks "it will be found more difficult to get good teachers for them
than to get good professors for our colleges."

After excepting five or six alms-houses in which the idiots are treated
both kindly and wisely, the commissioners say, "the general condition of
those at the public charge is most deplorable. They are filthy,
gluttonous, lazy, and given up to abominations of various kinds. They
not only do not improve, but they sink deeper and deeper into bodily
depravity and mental degradation. Bad, however, as is the condition of
the idiots who are at public charge, and gross as is the ignorance of
those who take the charge of them about their real wants and
capabilities, we are constrained to say that the condition of those in
private houses is, generally speaking, still worse, and the ignorance of
the relatives and friends who support them is still more profound."

This is not to be wondered at when we consider that idiots are generally
born of a very poor stock--of persons who are subject to some disorders
of the brain, or who are themselves scrofulous and puny to the last
degree. Such persons are, generally, very feeble in intellect, poor in
purse, and intemperate in habi