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The desirableness of this new acquisition to the asylum will be better understood by a brief statement of the general scope and purpose of institutions for idiots. There seems to be some misapprehension in the public mind upon this subject.

As beneficiaries of the State, idiots may be divided into two classes. The one, constituting, perhaps, twenty-five per cent of the total number are simply objects of a State's charity. They are incapable of any useful occupation. They are not only helpless, but they require a great deal of care, and this increasing as they grow older. Their infirmity is the result of an undeveloped brain, or of an organic disease of the brain. As such they need special care and management to obviate positive discomfort or suffering. They are not responsible for their condition and so are the more entitled to sympathy and help. They are not a very numerous class, and, therefore, the cost of their public maintenance is quite moderate. Little more can be done for these than to improve their habits, thus adding to their comfort while diminishing the burden of their care.

When present in indigent families they cripple the industrial energies of any family so afflicted. To such, a public refuge for their unfortunate ones affords an immense relief.

When found in county poor-houses they are equally troublesome, and because of the trouble their care involves, they are often the victims of neglect or ill-treatment. Quite a large proportion of the inmates of our own institutions have been committed by the county superintendents of the poor. Doubtless the ratio of idiots is greater among the poor than among the rich or those in comfortable circumstances. At all events on account of their infirmity almost all the cases of idiocy occurring in indigent families become, sooner or later, a public charge. This is especially true of city populations.

If the class of cases above described were properly cared for in the county institutions, the cost of their maintenance and care would be but little less than in a well-managed State institution. Their separation from others of the dependent classes does not increase the cost of their maintenance. This is seen in the fact that in the large aggregations of the dependent classes, in a great city like New York, such separation is made as a matter of convenience and economy. Under such circumstances, the needs of this class in fact of any class can be better understood and be more easily and economically met.

For this lower grade of the general class of idiots, systematized efforts for the improvement of their habits is all important. This fact is now recognized by social scientists both in this country and in Europe.

It should be added, perhaps, that the class in question is not a long lived one; and furthermore, that society is rarely called upon to assume the burden of their support till they are seven or eight years old.

But, by far the larger portion of the general number of idiots are of a different character. While on the one hand they approach in point of default of intelligence such as have already been described they are bounded on the other by persons of average human intelligence. Of these, taken together it may be said of them, that they are capable of some useful employment and of acquiring habits of industry after having had an appropriate industrial training. This capacity for occupation not only diminishes, to a certain extent, the future cost of their maintenance but it adds to their happiness. With them idleness is often irksomeness, if not resulting in disagreeable or destructive habits.

The failure in the matter of capacity for any useful occupation is the result of their want of intelligence, of their want of control of their natural organs and upon their want of will or disposition to exercise their natural faculties and powers. Special training is therefore needed to obviate these infirmities of theirs.

Hence in all institutions for the amelioration of the condition of idiots schools have been organized. And this not because the inmates are expected to become qualified to get a living by their wits, but to give them command of the faculties they have; to teach them to observe what is going on about them, to heed and understand what is said to them, and to do what they are told to do.

The casual visitor to an asylum may go away with the impression that the mental exercises are predominant. The term "school" sometimes applied to such institutions may have fostered the idea. however if an inquiry is made by such visitor, he will be told, at once, that such exercises are only means to an ultimate end; and that, to make the pupils capable of some employment, he will be told that all the mental training is subordinated and contributory to that main purpose. Even the amusements are made to subserve the same end.

The various methods used to accomplish this result in our own establishment have been set forth, from time to time, in our annual reports. No one can visit the asylum thoroughly without seeing that these elementary methods of training and instruction have resulted in the development of a good deal of industrial capacity on the part of the pupils; and that they have acquired habits of industry. The older girls are rendering efficient service in the various departments of household work. In fact, as soon as she attains the proper age and strength, every girl is engaged under an attendant. teacher in all kinds of house-work for a part of the day.