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But our asylum is not to be regarded in such a light. It is an establishment for the management and education of young idiots. It is an extension of the blessings of education of an appropriate character, to a class of persons of a teachable age -- not deaf mutes or blind -- whose faculties are not susceptible of development under the customary conditions, and facilities of a common education.

I beg leave, therefore, to call your particular attention to the condition of our pupils when they were received. They were selected by yourselves from every portion of the State, with only written descriptions to guide you, with no restrictions as to the degree of idiocy, and subject only to a few necessary conditions. I was furnished in every case with a certificate, filled out by an intelligent physician acquainted with the pupil, in answer to a series of questions designed to elicit a brief history and description that should throw light upon the general subject of idiocy, as well as furnish hints to guide us in our efforts for their education. From the descriptions given by these certificates, and from additional information furnished by the parents or parties sending, and which, I may say, are confirmed by your own observation, I give the following summary statements.

Of the 25 pupils that we have received at our asylum, 12 could not speak a single word. Of these 12 which were speechless, 6 had no idea of language, could not comprehend a single word or command addressed to them. Of those who are not dumb, 3 say but a few words and those indistinctly; and still 2 others who did not speak till nine years of age, and now but indistinctly, and with a very limited number of words.

Seven walked imperfectly, 3 were subject to partial paralysis, 11 had been subject to convulsions, 8 were subject to excessive flow of saliva, 7 were utterly inattentive to the calls of nature, and several others required constant watching to preserve cleanliness, and 5 were described as very irritable. A greater portion were unable to dress or undress themselves, and but four of the whole number could feed themselves with propriety. None of them could read or write, or count, or distinguish colors by name.

The range of development is from one who is but little below the lower grades of ordinary human intelligence, and who could not be taught to read, or write, or count, by the ordinary educational efforts for that purpose, down to one who cannot walk, nor stand, nor even sit alone; who cannot feed herself, has no idea of language, no fear of falling, faint perceptions of the objects of sight, and who would have starved to death with food within her reach and before her eyes.

Taken as a whole, they are unquestionably below the mass of idiots in the State in point of intelligence, and for the obvious reason that those parents whose children were among the most marked cases of idiocy, would be the first to avail themselves of the State charity.

One fact with reference to them should be borne in mind, however. These are young idiots and, therefore, of the most teachable age, the proper school-attending age of ordinary childhood. As such, they are free from the confirmed habits which constitute, in the main the disagreeable or repugnant features of the common appreciation of idiocy. Their whole organization is more flexible, more susceptible of development. The physical defects or infirmities with which the idiocy is connected, or upon which it is dependent, are more amenable to proper rules of diet, regimen or medicine. And to prevent tiny misapprehension of my meaning in this report, when speaking of idiocy, I will venture to define the term even at peril of adding one more to the number of definitions that have been successively declared imperfect or erroneous.

Idiocy is the want of a natural or harmonious development of the mental, active and moral powers of a human being, and usually dependent upon some defect or infirmity of his nervous organization.

I use the word idiot, too, in a generic sense and with similar latitude, sanctioned as such usage is by the derivation of the word, by the custom of the most approved writers upon the subject, and still again by the popular idea of the word, as evinced by the variety of subjects for whom applications for admission have been received at our institution.

Now in visiting our asylum and observing the pupils gathered there, or in reading the summary statement I have already given of their present peculiarities, you may notice the usual phenomena of idiocy. Here you will see manifested in almost every case the evidences of imperfect physical organization, though you will not see, except in two or three cases, any very noticeable deviations from a regular form of head or face; and in these few eyes the comparative deviation is no criterion of the extent of the idiocy. Here are exhibited a variety of physiological symptoms. These constitute the prominent features in the popular observation and idea of idiocy. Absolute muteness or imperfect speech, the wandering gaze or fixed and vacant stare, imperfect hearing, defective or excessive sensation generally, excessive restlessness or inertia, certain mechanical motions always done in any assemblage of idiots. Nor will a variety of disorders of function of the various organs be unnoticed.