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The following case is from the report of the English Asylum for Idiots, at Highgate, for 1854:

"B. T., a boy aged 15 years. Admitted, Oct., 1852. Was the sport of all the boys of the village; was afraid of strangers; would not speak to any one, even to his friends; he appeared quite hopeless. April, 1854. He did not speak for four months after admission; was constantly moping; he has now found that he is with friends, and is gaining courage; can speak well; will repeat the creed, com-mandments, and church prayers accurately; is very attentive to the religious services at home, and is anxious to go to church every Sunday; can read and write well; and is a basket maker."

The following is from Dr. Guggenbuhl's report, for 1852:

"Marie was received into the Institution of the Abendberg, at the age of seven and a half years. She was in a state of atrophy; her skin was cold, hung loose like a sack, and was covered with an eruption; she could not walk; her joints were soft and unable to support her weight; she could not speak a word, but would make a howling noise for hours together; ate any thing that came in her way; destroyed all that could be broken, and gave no attention to any thing that passed before her; at times she would beat and even bite herself; during several months she never slept at night. After six months she was able to stand alone, and at the end of a year could walk very well; her voracious appetite is overcome, and she now eats properly; the nervous excitement is subdued; she is obedient and friendly; con-verses very well; plays with flowers and animals, calls them by name, and enjoys the blessing of sleep of which she had long been deprived."

Dr. Brown, the Superintendent of the Institution at Barre, Mass., gives the following case in his report for 1853:

"A young man of 18 years of age, who, from infancy, had been always peculiar and deficient in his mental manifestations, and was entirely dumb. From want of proper culture and direction of the vocal organs, he could make only the guttural sound of the Trachea; did not move the lips when attempting to utter sounds; was extremely filthy and brutish in his habits, disobedient and sluggish in the extreme.

His physical health was perfect, his muscles were largely and well developed. His perception was good, and he understood what was said to him but could not apply his knowledge; his hearing was perfect. Having been left unrestrained from childhood, and having attained to an age when the evil habits he had acquired had become fixed, and his animal appetites being his only source of enjoyment, I received him with great reluctance, expecting that be would make very little improvement.

He has now been with me a little more than a year. It was nearly three months before I succeeded in inducing him to utter a correct vocal sound. I moulded his lips with my fingers; put blocks and rings of various sizes and shapes into his mouth; taught him gen-eral and special imitation; and finally succeeded in concentrating sufficient nervous energy on the muscles of the lips and vocal organs to en-able him to master all the vowels, and by dint of perseverance, patience, and drilling, he finally acquired the ability to pronounce the conso-nants and many of their combinations. By a rigid course of disci-pline his filthy habits were overcome.

He now reads in Webb's First Reader, and is rapidly learning to speak the names of surrounding objects. His ideas of form, of color, and of numbers, are now very good, and he is acquiring a general knowledge of Geography, Arithmetic, and Natural Philosophy. He can write well from a copy, can draw very creditably and is apt at almost any kind of labor. No one would imagine that this well behaved young man, could have led such a mere animal life one year since. He will be capable, under proper superintendence, of being highly useful in any department of labor, and had he been under suitable training when young, he would have been, I think, entirely cured of all his deficiencies.

Dr. Howe, in his report for 1851, describes the following case:

"S. J. W., six years old when admitted in Oct., 1848. He was a pitiful sight to behold. He could not stand or even sit erect. He had no command of his limbs, not even so much as an infant of three months, for it can work its arms and kick its legs vigorously; this poor boy, however, could do neither, but lay almost like a jelly-fish, as though his body were a mass of flesh without any bones in it. He could not even chew solid food, but subsisted on milk, of which he drank large quantities. The utmost he could do, in the way of motion, was to prop up his head with one hand, and move the other feebly about. He seemed to hear, but his eyes were dull and his other senses quite inactive. He drivelled at the mouth, and his habits were, in all respects, like those of an infant. He was speechless, neither using nor understanding language, though he made several sounds which seemed to be a feeble imitation of words.