May 18, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



119 



Five years ago there was opened in Boston 

 a charitable institution which deserves more 

 than passing notice for the comparative 

 novelty, as well as the value, of the work 

 undertaken, and for the promise which it 

 gives of extension. 



The Industrial School for Crippled and 

 Deformed Children, beginning with 11 pu- 

 pils in 1S95, now with quadruple that num- 

 ber and a large waiting list, has served as a 

 suggestion for the establishment of other in- 

 stitutions of the same or similar character 

 in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Baltimore. 



In New York a school of this kind is now 

 projected, and in Philadelphia Mr. Widener 

 has recently given the sum of two million 

 dollars, the income of which is to be ex- 

 pended for the care, education, and indus- 

 ti'ial training of cripples. 



" Strange it is,'" says Dr. E. H. Bradford, 

 the practical founder of the Boston school, 

 in a paper not yet published, but from 

 which I am permitted to quote, " that while 

 in every civilized country the insane, the 

 blind, the dumb, the epileptic and the 

 idiotic receive careful attention, but little 

 heed is paid to the education of the most 

 deserving of all unfortunates, namely the 

 crippled. 



" The cripple is left to the almshouse or 

 allowed to remain in a back room at home 

 idle, useless, petted, often the only vpilful 

 member of the family whose misdirected 

 kindness aids in ruining his character ; 

 hampered by disease and deformed, he is 

 doomed to the injurious influence of idleness. 



" Crippled children can be grouped under 

 two heads : those who are suffering from a 

 chronic disease which, during their child- 

 hood, either prevents their attending school 

 altogether, or else where their attendance 

 is interrupted or prevented because their 

 feeble condition will not stand the fatigue 

 of a school day adapted only for strong 

 children. The majority of these, if they 

 receive good care, good food, good air, under 



proper medical supervision, recover with 

 more or less resultant deformity and, al- 

 though handicapped as breadwinners, are 

 eventually able to do something as workers, 

 that is, if trained during their childhood, 

 may become skilled in sedentary occupa- 

 tions, but if uneducated, are necessarily 

 idle and useless. 



" The second class comprise those per- 

 manently crippled either by congenital de- 

 formity or by paralysis. They can never 

 recover from their ailment and are perma- 

 nently excluded from the use of their legs 

 or arms. Special instruction is needed for 

 these and special avenues must be made for 

 them for certain kinds of work which they 

 can be taught to do with the aid of suitable 

 apparatus designed for them. This class 

 can be of use to the community, in many in- 

 stances, as their afiiiction frequently de- 

 velops a concentrated ability in certain 

 directions, not found in more active or 

 healthier persons. If they are unable to 

 become producers to a large extent, yet in 

 many instances they may be trained into 

 workers contributing to their support. 

 They are saved from the curse of idleness 

 and in rare instances may develop unusual 

 and useful talent." 



To make provision for these two classes 

 in a day school it is necessary, or at least 

 advisable, to furnish means of transporta- 

 tion under conditions favorable to the most 

 helpless, and in the school itself, there must 

 be, in addition to the ordinary recitation 

 and study rooms, rest rooms with reclining 

 chairs or beds, rooms for the training of the 

 pupils in various occupations, and a diet 

 kitchen from which food maybe dispensed. 



To meet these peculiar conditions the 

 staff of teachers must be supplemented by 

 a trained nurse, and there should be regu- 

 lar medical visitors, preferably men on ser- 

 vice in orthopedic hospitals. 



The census of 1890 gives the number of 

 feeble-minded, both children and adults, in 



