when he had settled his affairs, and provided amply for his wife, he took no further concern in anything that had once interested him. The voracious appetite for knowledge palled; the restless brain at length reposed; 'memory' at last had its 'full fraught,' and was swiftly yielding to 'mere forgetfulness.' The last question he asked was, 'Is my son really dead or not?' The attendant hesitated, and then answered, ' He is ' dead.' I thought so,' said Warburton, and soon after expired. He was buried in his cathedral, but his death attracted little notice; and he who had drawn on himself the attention of the learned world, at home and abroad, during forty years, passed away as silently as his ancestors who had borne but never made conspicuous the name of Warburton.

The silence attending Warburton's departure from a world he had so often disquieted, was prefigurative of the fate of his works. He was almost forgotten when he died; they have been neglected since his death. Bentley, when drawing near to the term of his equally troubled days, had yet the consolation of knowing that his edifice, both in philology and theology, could be materially impaired neither by posthumous assailants, nor popular neglect, nor caprice of fashion. He said, and he said justly, when his pen rested from its labours and his eye was waxing dim—

'Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi,

Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago.'

But Warburton could lay no such flattering unction to his 'soul.' His magnum opus' was unfinished; he despaired of it himself; it had been punched full of deadly holes' by his opponents; the apologies it demanded had absorbed his time, and he realised in their full bitterness the lines of the satirist :

'Amphora cœpit

Institui; currente rota cur urceus exit?'

ART. II.—1. Traitement Moral, Hygiène et Education des Idiots et des autres Enfants Arriérés, &c. Par ÉDOUARD

SEGUIN. Paris: 1846.

2. Remarks, Theoretical and Practical, on the Education of Idiots and Children of Weak Intellect. By W. R. SCOTT, Ph. D. London: 1847.

3. Die Heilung und Verhütung des Cretinismus und Ihre Neuesten Fortschritte. Dr. Med. J. GUGGENBÜHL.

und St. Gallen: 1853.

Bern

4. Teaching the Idiot. A Lecture at St. Martin's Hall, London, August 4, 1854, in connexion with the Educational Exhibition of the Society of Arts and Manufactures. By the Rev. EDWIN SIDNEY, A.M. London: 1854.

5. Die gegenwärtige Lage der Cretinen, Blödfinnigen und Idioten in den Christlichen Ländern. JULIUS DESSELHOFF. Bonn: 1857.

6. The Mind Unveiled. Philadelphia: 1858.

7. The Causes of Idiocy. Being the Supplement to a Report by Dr. S. G. Howe and the other Commissioners appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to inquire into the condition of the Idiots of the Commonwealth. Edinburgh: 1858. 8. Two Visits to Earlswood Asylum for Idiots, 1859 and 1861. By the Rev. EDWIN SIDNEY, A.M. London: 1859 and 1861.

9. Eighth Annual Report of the Pennsylvanian Training School for Feeble-minded Children. Philadelphia: 1861. 10. The Method of Drill, the Gymnastic Exercises, and the Manner of Teaching Speaking used at Essex Hall, Colchester, for Idiots, Simpletons, and Feeble-minded Children. By E. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.B. (Londini). London: 1861. 11. The Idiot and his Helpers. By W. MILLARD, Essex Hall, Colchester. 1864.

12. Lunacy and Law, together with Hints on the Treatment of Idiots. By F. E. D. BYRNE, L.R.C.P. and M.R.C.S.

London: 1864.

13. A Fête Day at Earlswood Asylum for Idiots, June 16, 1864. By the Rev. EDWIN SIDNEY, A.M. London: 1864. 14. The Training of Idiotic and Feeble-minded Children. By CHEYNE BRADY, Esq., M.R.I.H. Dublin: 1864.

IDIO DIOTCY is unquestionably one of the most fearful of the host of maladies, which pass like gloomy shadows over the

brightest spots of human civilisation. Its intensity has also been much increased by the impression which so long prevailed, that it was almost incapable of any palliative, and certainly of anything in the shape of a remedy. Modern science and an enlarged philanthropy are, however, gradually removing this unhappy idea, and are showing that there is no class of unfortunates of our species to whom enlightened treatment may be applied with a more cheering hope of success. In this country, on the continent of Europe, and in America, reports of the results of the efforts we are about to describe, are all equally replete with assurances that the increasing physiological and psychological knowledge, which is due to the researches of the strong-minded, is gradually becoming a great and unexpected boon to the feeble. These feeble ones are also shown to be far more numerous, both in the Old and New Worlds, than was generally imagined, and may in truth be numbered by many thousands, making an appalling array in the ranks of miserables. Mr. Byrne in his Treatise on Lunacy and Law, which is in our list of books, speaking of idiots, says: That there are thousands of such is fully borne out by the Report of the Poor Law Board (1862-3), where it appears that on the 1st of January 1862, there were in 649 'unions and parishes 34,271 insane paupers, of whom 18,311 were idiots' (p. 12). Now, though the idiot requires a special treatment, and one totally distinct from the lunatic, being in fact absolutely injured by his contact with the insane, yet the only place provided for him is the county asylum, which of course subjects him to a treatment the opposite of being suitable. From page 20 of the same report, it appears that a new statute has been enacted, called An Act to provide for the Education and Maintenance of Pauper Children in certain Schools and Institutions, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 43. This Act enables the guardians of a union to contract with the managers of any institution supported wholly or in part by voluntary contributions, for the education of idiotic persons, and to pay for their maintenance and education a sum not exceeding the cost of their relief in the workhouse. At present, however, such institutions are by no means in sufficient number to meet the want of them; but happily many intelligent and influential minds are now becoming acquainted with the subject, and alive to the serious duties it entails.

Nearly up to the present time the miserable idiot has been regarded as one of a Pariah caste, rather to be ignored as much as possible than sought out and succoured. Till the beginning of this century, idiots were regarded either with superstitious

awe or abhorrence, and it is even said that Luther would fain have had one put to death as a monster filled with Satanic possession. In 1803 Abercromby, after Foderé and Wenzel†, who wrote upon Cretins, turned his thoughts to the improvement of their condition; and in 1819 Dr. Poole communicated an important treatise on the subject to the Encyclopædia Edinensis. Light, however, broke in slowly and feebly. We are told by Mr. Scott, that in the year 1839, Dr. Vosin, a French physician, gave in London some Orthophrenic lectures, which were apparently for the purpose of drawing attention to an institution he was connected with in France, called the Etablissement Orthophrenic, which was specially directed to sufferers from mental weakness. No interest, however, was awakened by these lectures. Mr. Scott goes on to inform us, by a quotation from a German paper, that the instruction of "idiots has succeeded. The problem theoretically and prac'tically has been solved by M. Sargent in conjunction with Mr. 'Sachs, first teacher of the establishment (the Deaf and Dumb 'Institution, Berlin), and this solution has been successfully proved and acknowledged by our eminent physicians Dr. Barry and Dr. Joseph Müller. So fully assured are the 'Prussian Government of the complete efficacy of the system, 'that a portion of the Deaf and Dumb Institution at Berlin is to be permanently set aside as a hospital for idiots, where 'the most effective methods of education can be tested and 'carried out. In September 1844, M. Sargent had twelve pupils, and employed a master to assist in their instruction, and two females to take care of them, the whole being most anxiously attended to according to his own plans. All were imbeciles and some idiots of a very low grade; but in time they became improved. Two of them were deaf mutes, and others were unable to walk or help themselves in any way; but those who could hear had more or less learned to speak, and some to sew, to draw and to write, while several played about cheerfully like other youths, appearing ameliorated both in body and mind. A deaf boy who was one of the worst cases, 'washed and dressed himself daily without assistance, walked, and even ran about the house and yard, and was learning to 'draw,' though his actions were not all exempt from the appearance of his malady. Such is the account of the fruits of M. Sargent's treatment.

The large work of M. Édouard Séguin was published at

* Traité du Goître et du Cretinisme: 1800.

† Ueber der Kretinismus: 1802.

Paris in the spring of 1846. It had been preceded by several pamphlets by the same author, and an extended notice of them appeared in the pages of Mr. Scott, who dedicated his book, from which we have already quoted, to Lord Ashley, now the Earl of Shaftesbury, the friend and promoter of so many philanthropic projects. M. Séguin's first efforts were directed to ten idiots in the Hospital of Incurables at Paris. Their success received the approbation of the Council General of Hospitals, and the Academy of Sciences commended his writings on the results which subsequently followed his method at the Bicêtre on the idiots there. Under the title of Traitement Moral, Hygiène, et Éducation des Idiots,' he has comprised the following topics:-The reflections which idiotcy had suggested to him the most remarkable observations on idiotcy and imbecility furnished by his practice-the methods of treatment which have been proved to be most efficacious-and the confirmed opinions which have arisen from ten years' active experience.

6

Previously to the time of the publication of the volume lastnoticed, but not before its author had commenced his work amongst idiots, the late Dr. Guggenbühl had been engaged in endeavours to ameliorate the dreadful condition of cretins. He had observed that young children affected with cretinism were chiefly found in the valleys, and he conceived that their removal to more elevated places, together with proper treatment, might work a great change in them. Cretinism neglected degenerates into the lowest idiotcy, and exhibits the human form in its most repulsive state. Čretins were divided by Dr. Guggenbühl into four classes: the atrophied, with emaciated bodies and paralysed extremities-rickety, with soft bones and bent limbs-hydrocephalic, with chronic water in the head, and cretins diseased from birth, the worst and most intractable. It is said, however, that where there is a goître from birth, the brain is not so much deteriorated as in other cases. The cretins under the care of Dr. Guggenbühl were removed from the low places to a retreat on the Abendberg, a hill 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, and situated in one of the most splendid scenes of Switzerland, surrounded by snowy peaks of the Mönch, the Eiger, and the Jungfrau, and looking down on the fine Vale of Interlachen and the lovely Lake of Brienz. From this unique institution, true cretins are said to have returned to their families more or less restored to health in body and mind. That the plan of the Abendberg is the right method for cretins is beyond doubt, and there is recorded a remarkable instance of the complete cure of cre