, which the foolish
parents supposed would tan the brain and harden it as the tanner does his
ox-hides, and so make it capable of retaining impressions and remembering
lessons. In other cases, finding that the child could not be made to
comprehend anything, the sagacious heads of the household, on the
supposition that its brain was too hard, tortured it with hot poultices
of bread and milk to soften it. Others plastered over their children's
heads with tar. Some administered strong doses of mercury, to "solder up
the openings" in the head and make it tight and strong. Others
encouraged the savage gluttony of their children, stimulating their
unnatural and bestial appetites, on the ground that "the poor creatures
had nothing else to enjoy but their food, and they should have enough of
that!"

In consequence of this report, the legislature, in the spring of 1848,
made an annual appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, for three
years, for the purpose of training and teaching ten idiot children, to be
selected by the Governor and Council. The trustees of the Asylum for the
Blind, under the charge of Dr. Howe, made arrangements for receiving
these pupils. The school was opened in the autumn of 1848; and its first
annual report, addressed to the Governor and printed by order of the
Senate, is now before us.

Of the ten pupils, it appears that not one had the usual command of
muscular motion,--the languid body obeyed not the service of the imbecile
will. Some could walk and use their limbs and hands in simple motions;
others could make only make slight use of their muscles; and two were
without any power of locomotion.

One of these last, a boy six years of age, who had been stupefied on the
day of his birth by the application of hot rum to his head, could
scarcely see or notice objects, and was almost destitute of the sense of
touch. He could neither stand nor sit upright, nor even creep, but would
lie on the floor in whatever position he was placed. He could not feed
himself nor chew solid food, and had no more sense of decency than an
infant. His intellect was a blank; he had no knowledge, no desires, no
affections. A more hopeless object for experiment could scarcely have
been selected.

A year of patient endeavor has nevertheless wrought a wonderful change in
the condition of this miserable being. Cold bathing, rubbing of the
limbs, exercise of the muscles, exposure to the air, and other appliances