EDITOR'S TABLE, 



269 



*' wild boy of Aveyron." This was an 

 idiot found in the forests of Aveyron, 

 and who was taken up by Itard for the 

 purpose of solving "the metaphysical 

 problem of determining what might be 

 the degree of intelligence and the na- 

 ture of the ideas in a lad who, deprived 

 from birth of all education, should have 

 lived entirely separated from the indi- 

 viduals of his kind." The philosophy 

 of the time -was consonant with its 

 theology; for, while theology tauglit 

 that man is fallen from a primitive 

 state of paradisaical innocence, phi- 

 losophy held that he has fallen away 

 from the perfection of a " state of na- 

 ture." Hence there was great curiosity 

 to find out what would be the state of 

 mind of one who had not been per- 

 verted by association with civilized peo- 

 ple. Nothing, of course, came of Itard's 

 experiment, except thq,t he had got hold 

 of an idiot of low grade, and satisfied 

 himself that it might be possible to im- 

 prove such natures in some small de- 

 gree. 



Dr. Segnin was a pupil of Itard (who 

 lived till 1838), and, receiving from his 

 teacher the facts and results that he 

 had gathered, young Seguin entered 

 systematically upon this line of study. 

 The subject was beset with great diffi- 

 culties, and the young Frenchman en- 

 tered upon it with enthusiasm as a labor 

 of love, and devoted several years to a 

 thorough research into the causes and 

 philosophy of idiocy and the best meth- 

 ods of dealing with it. As the investiga- 

 tion was a practical one, Dr. Seguin or- 

 ganized schools in connection with pub- 

 lic institutions and also under private 

 control ; and it was the successful results 

 in these establishments which became 

 the basis of his numerous publications 

 on his chosen subject. In 1839 he pub- 

 lished, in connection with the celebrated 

 alienist Esquirol, his first pamphlet ; and 

 in 1846 he put forth an elaborate trea- 

 tise expounding his system of the treat- 

 ment of the idiotic and weak-minded. 

 This work became at once the author- 



ized text-book of the subject, and placed 

 its author in the front rank of living 

 physiological psychologists. 



Dr. Seguin came to this country in 

 1848, and resided for ten years in Ohio. 

 He then returned to Paris, but came 

 back in 1862, and has lately resided in 

 New York. He continued his observa- 

 tions and inquiries on the subject of 

 idiocy in this country, and organized 

 several institutions devoted to their care 

 and training. He, moreover, had the 

 satisfaction of seeing the rise of a great 

 number of schools for the feeble-minded 

 and lowly organized, which adopted his 

 methods of cultivation with remarkable 

 success. To him, in fact, more than to 

 any other man, belongs the immortal 

 honor of showing to what a degree the 

 badly-born the congenital failures of 

 nature can still be redeemed and ele- 

 vated to comparative usefulness. IIow 

 much has been thus gained by the com- 

 bination of scientific knowledge and 

 skillful, persevering art is thus stated 

 by Professor Seguin himself: " Not one 

 in a thousand has been entirely refrac- 

 tory to treatment ; not one in a hun- 

 dred who has not been made more hap- 

 py and healthy ; more than thirty per 

 cent, have been taught to conform to 

 social and moral law, and rendered ca- 

 pable of order, of good feeling, and of 

 working like the third of a man ; more 

 than forty per cent, have become capa- 

 ble of the ordinary transactions of life 

 under friendly control, of understanding 

 moral and social abstractions, of working 

 like two-thirds of a man ; and twenty- 

 five to thirty per cent, come nearer and 

 nearer to the standard of manhood, till 

 some of them will defy the scrutiny of 

 good judges when compared with or- 

 dinary young women and men." 



Dr. Seguin was the author of many 

 publications, the last of wliich was the 

 second edition of his "Eeport on Edu- 

 cation " as United States Commissioner 

 at the Vienna Universal Exposition. 

 We noticed this report upon its first ap- 

 pearance, but a revised edition appears 



