cy. They had gone to work at hap-hazard, striking at
random, hoping somehow, they knew not exactly how, to get some ideas
into the mind of the patient, and, by exciting the faculty of imitation,
perhaps improve his condition. They succeeded in making him more
cleanly, and in inducing him to perform certain acts and exercises, as a
well-trained dog, monkey, or parrot might perform them.

Seguin adopted an entirely different course. By a long and careful
investigation he satisfied himself as to what idiocy consisted in,
and then adopted such measures as he deemed most judicious, for the
development of the intellect, and the elevation of the social, mental,
moral, and physical character of the idiot.

In his view idiocy is only a prolonged infancy, in which the infantile
grace and intelligence having passed away, there remains only the feeble
muscular development and mental weakness of that earliest stage of
growth. He proposes to follow Nature in his processes of treatment; to
invigorate the muscles by bathing and exercise, using some compulsion,
if necessary, to effect this; to fix the attention by bright colors,
strong contrasts, military manoeuvres, etc.; to strengthen and develope
the will, the imagination, the senses, and the imitative powers, by a
great variety of exercises; and at each step, to impress the mind with
moral principles. The mere acquisition of a few facts, more or less, and
the capacity to repeat these, parrot-like, he regards as an attainment
of very little consequence; the great object should be to make the child
do his own thinking, and this once attained, he will acquire facts as he
needs them.

Dr. Seguin met with a high degree of success in the instruction of
idiotic and imbecile children, and in 1846 published a treatise on the
treatment of idiocy, which will, for years to come, be the manual of
every teacher of this unfortunate class.

While Seguin was demonstrating the truth of his theory of instruction
at Paris, Herr Saegert, a teacher of deaf mutes at Berlin, having
attempted, unsuccessfully, the instruction of a deaf and dumb idiot, was
led to inquire into the reasons of his failure. Without any knowledge of
Seguin's labors, he arrived substantially at the same conclusions,
and devoted his leisure to medical study, in order to grapple more
successfully with the problem of the instruction of idiots. In 1840 he
commenced receiving idiotic pupils, and has maintained a school for them
in B