663 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the women. There are few things female epileptics are capable 

 of doing. They can wash, clean, and sew, though only under 

 supervision; but 'they dislike gardening, and cooking is entirely 

 beyond their power. They can not be relied upon to lay tables, 

 or to do anything, in fact, which requires memory or attention. 

 Their helplessness, however, is evidently merely the result of 

 previous neglect ; for the young girls who are trained at Bethel 

 exhibit comparatively few of the defects which characterize the 

 women who go there later in life. First and second class female 

 patients are now lodged in large cottages, but the third class still 

 remain in the great building which was originally assigned to 

 them. The first floor of it has been turned into a sort of restau- 

 rant for the whole of the colony, six hundred of the patients 

 dining there every day, and the food for all the houses in the 

 immediate neighborhood being cooked there. The women and 

 girls are entirely under the care of the Deaconesses, some fifty of 

 whom are stationed in the colony. 



The pleasantest part of Bethel — the one, too, in which perhaps 

 the most valuable work is being done — is that set aside for chil- 

 dren. The brightness and gayety which prevail there are simply 

 indescribable. Far from being depressed by their affliction, the 

 little patients seem to look at life through glasses of even brighter 

 rose than healthy children. They are more excitable, more keenly 

 alert, more easily moved by every passing emotion. They literally 

 dance with delight at the merest trifles, and make their play- 

 ground ring with peals of the merriest laughter. Not but that 

 there are specks in the sunshine even there, for on one and all the 

 fell disease casts its shadow. There are wild outbursts of grief 

 just when the games go most gayly, heart-breaking sobs of which 

 no one knows the cause. In the midst of a class, a bright, intelli- 

 gent girl falls to the ground a shrieking maniac ; a boy, beaming 

 with light-hearted fun, lifts his bat, and in a trice he is a thing 

 strong men might shrink from. Wherever these children may 

 be, whether at work or at play, some guardian must always be at 

 hand, for no one knows the moment at which they may be 

 stricken. About one hundred and fifty children are now attend- 

 ing the schools in Bethel. There they are thoroughly well taught 

 according to their capacity. Some of them learn with quite mar- 

 velous quickness ; but, unfortunately, they forget what they learn 

 with equal speed. The greatest care is taken in cultivating any 

 talent they may possess ; and special importance is attached to 

 their acquiring dexterity in the use of their fingers. "When they 

 have passed through the ordinary course of study, they are sent 

 to a sort of technical school, where they are regularly trained for 

 some handicraft which will enable them later to take their place 

 as self-supporting colonists. 



