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This large Asylum is appropriated to male patients, or rather, as in the case of the Salpetriere, a portion of the immense hospital is set apart for them, the rest being occupied by elderly or decayed trades-people and others. About 2,000 of these occupy the parts of the building first approached, and the buildings behind these contain 800 or 900 male lunatics. M. Voisin and M. Leuret are physicians to this part of the establishment; with both of whom, as well as with M. Mitivie, one of the physicians to the Salpetriere, I had subsequent opportunities of becoming acquainted.

I was accompanied around this asylum by M. Hattelle, and by M. Mallon, the director, and had afterward an opportunity of hearing from himself the exposition of the views of one of its able physicians, M. Voisin, whose singular zeal in the cause of the idiotic class of patients has caused difficulties to be overcome, which appeared at first to be insurmountable. The first part of the Bicetre to which I was conducted was a school exclusively established for the improvement of these cases and of the epileptic, and nothing more extraordinary can well be imagined. No fewer than forty of these patients were assembled in a moderate sized school-room, receiving various lessons and performing various evolutions under the direction of a very able school-master, M. Seguin, himself a pupil of the celebrated Itard, and endowed with that enthusiasm respecting his occupation before which difficulties vanish. His pupils had been all taught to sing to music; and the little band of violins and other instruments, by which they were accompanied, was formed of the old almsmen of the hospital.

But all the idiotic part of this remarkable class also sung without any musical accompaniment, and kept excellent tune and tune. They sung several compositions, and among others a very pretty song, written for them by M. Battelle, and sung by them on entering the class-room. Both the epileptic and idiotic were taught to write, and their copy-books would have done credit to any writing-school for young persons. Numerous exercises were gone through, of a kind of military character, with perfect correctness and precision. The youngest of the class was a little idiot boy of five years old, and it was interesting to see him following the rest and imitating their actions, holding out his right arm, left arm, both arms, marching to the right and left, at the word of command, and to the sound of a drum, beaten with all the lively skill of a French drummer by another idiot, who was gratified by wearing a demi-military uniform. All these exercises were gone through by a collection of beings offering the smallest degree of intellectual promise, and usually left in all asylums, in total indolence and apathy. Among them was one youth whose intellectual deficiency was marked in every look, gesture, and feature.

I think a more particular account of this poor boy's progress deserving of record, as an inducement to the philanthropist, to enter on a new field of instruction, presenting many difficulties, but yet not unproductive of results. But I must premise that to M. Voisin, one of the physicians of the Bicetre, the honor seems chiefly if not wholly due of having attracted attention to the various characters of idiots and their various capacities, with a view to cultivating, with precise views, even the fragmentary faculties existing in them. His work, entitled 'De l'Idiotie chez les Enfants,' abounds with remarks calculated to rescue the most infirm minds from neglect, and to encourage culture in cases before given up to despair. Fourteen years experience has confirmed the soundness of his opinions; and they have had the sanction of MM. Ferrus, Falret, and Leuret, physicians of the highest distinction in the department of mental disorders. M. Ferrus, who is the President of the Academy of Medicine, and Inspector-General of the Lunatic Asylums. of France, was, indeed, the first to occupy himself, so long ago as in 1828. with the condition of idiots at the Bicetre, of which hospital he was the chief physician. He organized a school for them, caused them to be taught habits of order and industry, and to be instructed in reading. writing, arithmetic, and gymnastic exercises. M. Voisin's first publication on the subject appeared in 1830. The efforts of M. Falret at the Salpetriere, for the instruction of the insane, already spoken of, began in 1831 by the establishment of a school in that institution for idiotic females. Nine years later, MM. Vosin and Leuret, as physicians to the Bicetre, organized a system of instruction and education on a greater scale. These benevolent and successful efforts deserve to be remembered, as they no doubt prepared the way for the systematic attempt since made at the Bicetre, where M. Seguin is enabled to apply to practice, principles of tuition long recognized as regards the deaf and dumb, but only beginning to be acknowledged as respects those unfortunate beings whose mental faculties are congenitally imperfect in all the various degrees classed under the term idiocy. In this application, the master has to educate the muscular system and the sensorial apparatus, as well as the intellectual faculties, or rather the intellectual faculties through them, as a preliminary; doing in fact, for them by art, by instruction, by rousing imitation, what nature does for healthier infant organization. The healthy infant is placed in a world calculated to exercise its senses and to evoke and perfect all its muscular powers, and, to a certain extent, its intellectual faculties. The imperfect or idiotic infants is in the same world, but its senses are, to a certain extent, closed to these natural influences, and its powers of muscular motion are incomplete; its intellectual faculties are not evoked by these means, and are even incapable of being fully evoked by any means whatever. The attention is vague, the memory feeble, the imagination futile, comparison is most limited, judgment most imperfect, and all the affections, sentiments, and moral qualities are disordered or perverted. The interesting question is, to what extent can careful and skilful instruction make up for these natural deficiences; and, as already done for the deal, the dumb, and the blind, reclaim for these unfinished creatures the powers and privileges of life. The exertions of future philanthropists will answer this question. Improvement must not be looked for beyond what is strictly relative to the imperfect individual in each case; but it would seem to be true of idiots, as of the insane in general, that there is no case incapable of some amendment; that every case may be improved or cured, up to a certain point, -- a principle of great general importance in reference to treatment.