534 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and aim of the schools being to induce observation and comparison as 

 a basis of thinJcing and doing. 



Calisthenics and military drill induce physical development and 

 muscular co-ordination, quick observation, and prompt subordination. 

 These vital principles of physiological education have practical and 

 intellectual application in the exercises in freehand drawing, model- 

 ing in clay and wood, in sloyd, in basket and straw braiding, and in 

 the phonetic and articulaton drills and musical exercises of the class- 

 room, each being the initial of a lifelong occupation. Believing 

 as we do that " the working hand makes strong the working brain," 

 there is always something for the child to do, some object to be 

 made; not an abstract thing to be put out of sight when finished, 

 but something of use to himself, or to one for whom he cares. Work 

 constantly stimulated through the emotions is his, all along the line 

 from kindergarten, classroom, and sloyd, to shoe shop, printing office, 

 and other useful trades. Should his limit of application be soon 

 reached, and the avenue of happiness and safe living be for him re- 

 duced to one single groove, the more active pursuits of the farm, the 

 garden, laundry, or household service will interest and provide vent 

 for superfluous energy or by constant stimulus keep him from retro- 

 grading or lapsing into apathy. For these varied occupations he is 

 all the better fitted by the previous training of the senses received 

 early in the schools, and if happily he should have there learned to 

 read or draw, to color, to carve, or has acquired any skill in music, 

 he will have many avenues of recreation closed to his less fortunate 

 brother, to whose comfort and pleasure he himself will be the better 

 able to minister. 



All this we can do and are doing in our training schools, both 

 here and abroad, in spite of being handicapped by the burden of 

 the idiot, the care of the moral imbecile, without adequate accom- 

 modation, and by frequent loss, from one cause or another, of 

 trained workers just as they become useful members of the com- 

 munity. 



The possibilities for the trained imbecile have not, therefore, yet 

 been made clear on account of this diffusion of energy, nor his true 

 sphere recognized, mainly because of the false idea of cure which 

 is continually being presented to the mind of the public. 



Worse than foolish is the idea that training can prepare even 

 those of high grade to battle vdth the world or fit them for any life 

 outside of institution walls. 



Animal propensities, weak wills, sluggish or excitable tempera- 

 ments, characters utterly abnormal, will inevitably drift in large 

 numbers to swell the insane or the criminal ranks; and it may not be 

 out of place for me to say that from the standpoint of the alienist, 



