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Enough, we conceive, has been said to show how unpromising was the hope that any efforts could be effectual in essentially bettering the condition of idiots to any social, moral, or useful extent. All endeavours, too, had long been retarded by want of physiological knowledge, by parental and common prejudices, by the hopeless exterior of the majority of cases, and even by an idea that amelioration, if possible, would be of no advantage by reason of the non-responsible being thus made responsible.

The way is, however, now clear of such obstacles to progress, and there is ample, indeed universal proof, that the idiot can be greatly improved and often beneficially educated. From what has been before stated, it may be readily supposed that the basis of all attempts to effect this object would be to commence first with endeavouring to ameliorate the condition of the body. The true principle is, that there is mind in all these wretched members of the human family, and that its manifestations are only hindered by a defective organism. The first care, then, must be to put the instrument as far as may be in tune. Upon this has depended the success of all the recent experiments, and like consequences have been found in all places, because everywhere it has been regarded as certain that the vigour and force of manifestations of mind depend, though in what way may be a matter needing fuller inquiry, on the state of health in certain parts of the bodily organization. To attain this requisite condition, the only mode is to endeavour to put the whole system into a healthful power of action, as far as can be done by suitable appliances to raise the depressed physical powers. Hence gymnastic exercises are adopted, varied according to the different stages of advancement, to bring the muscles into due action in the upper extremities, in the trunk, and in the lower limbs; and upon these a great amount of ingenuity has been expended. In every asylum there should be both an open and a covered gymnasium, with soft ground and ample space, and attendants extremely careful that no falls occur. The things to be aimed at are development of instinctive muscular action in the inert, to promote the health of the bodily organs, and a better oxygenation of the blood in the lungs. Torpor must be awakened, and over-excitement allayed; and it must be borne in mind that nearly every sense is wrong, so that one cannot be made compensatory to another, as in the cases of blind pupils and deaf mutes. The vacant eye must gradually be trained to see, the ear to hear, while the voice must be instructed how to utter aright. Thought must be elicited and power to learn. Obedience must be gained by kindness and firmness without severity, and right habits encouraged for daily life. All sorts of inducements must be held out to secure some proper employment, and as the mind improves it must be a great object to raise it to God, to religion, to duty, conscience, hope, and moral sense. The choice of masters and teachers is by no means easy. They must be born teachers, devoted to their work, men in whom no weakness is visible, endued with extreme patience, and able to command with calmness, force, and decision. Great medical tact and skill are also needed, and that gentle treatment of invalids which caused a youth at Earlswood to say, 'I love the doctor better than my mother.' It is only such a person who will observe with practical advantage the needful psychological indications, such as are briefly enumerated by Mr. Sidney in his lecture to the Society of Arts. He says: --

'Idiots are perceived to have certain wants, tastes, appetites, inclinations, desires, repugnances, fears, and preferences, shown in some way or other peculiar, to each individual, and indicating that, though fettered, obscured, and disordered by a defective bodily organism, there still exist certain limited sensations, sentiments and perceptions, which, if rectified, will tend also to rectify their manifestations and emancipate them from their circumscribed condition. If an idiot can distinguish his food, he has some perception; if he shows a longing for things which please him, he has some internal and external sensations; if he can choose between two objects offered him, he has some comparison and judgment; if he yields to gentle persuasion and severity of manner, he has some understanding; if he has any tastes, however limited, there is something occupying his mind. In all these the trainer sees capacities for improvement. His principle is, that, these unfortunates not only are endowed with the animal instincts and propensities, but with the feeble germs of those better qualities which are superadded to our physical nature, and which never could occur in the best-trained lower animal, even if its perceptive faculties were more acute than theirs.'

It is from such observations that the true method of treating idiots has been derived. Every idiot case is a problem, and such problems have only been well solved in recent institutions, because there all efforts are concentrated on this one object, and all imaginable appliances are provided. As may be concluded from what has been said before, the great point is a good dynamic condition of the body, only to be gained by wholesome air, proper medical attention, exercise, and diet. If the digestion and the secretions are wrong, the nervous system soon becomes disordered, and there is no due response from one organ to the stimulant applied to the other, because the nerves, which are the wires of the vital telegraph, have lost the power of conducting. We often see an idiot with a feeble body, a moral sense obscured or perverted, and an understanding clouded by dark and doleful shadows, yet with a nature that will not be quiet, without balance of any of the functions bodily or mental, and seeming as if it were impossible for him to manifest obedience to any influence or law. An appetite depraved beyond control makes him ready to prey on the filthiest and most disgusting garbage, and to seize with a brutal propensity anything that comes near him. Every desire is unreasonable, and what he demands, if he can speak, and what he babbles and cries for if he cannot, is always unreasonable and mostly hurtful. But the skilled physician has furnished the required medicament for due stimulus of his digestive organs, directs his nutriment aright, controls the ravenous craving for food, and after a time effects a change in the brain and nervous forces, an exercise of self-control becomes possible, and in consequence a reconstruction, as it were, of the whole physical and moral being. Certainly the most hopeless generally are idiots afflicted with epilepsy, which are a numerous class, and beyond the reach of any certain cure, yet their malady may be much subdued as regards the frequency of attacks and their violence, by invigorating inducements to cheerfulness, by employments to which the sufferers have shown an inclination, and by such modes of living as experience suggests.