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The Massachusetts commission made two successive reports the same year, the first report containing a very able letter from Mr. Geo. Sumner, written in answer to one from Dr. S. G. Howe, chairman of the commission, asking for information respecting the school in Paris. The commission recommended the establishment of an experimental school, and the legislature made an appropriation to carry it on for three years. This experimental school was organized October 1, 1848, under the supervision of Dr. Howe, in one wing of the blind asylum at South Boston. It was considered so successful that at the end of two years the legislature doubled the appropriation and made provision for converting the experimental school into a permanent one October 1, 1851.

July 10, 1851, the legislature of New York passed an act to establish an asylum for Idiots, and making an appropriation therefor. In 1852 a private school was founded in Germantown, Pennsylvania, by Mr. J. B. Richards, formerly an able and successful teacher in the experimental school at South Boston, under the supervision of Dr. S. G. Howe. This school eventually became the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble Minded children at Media. The states of Connecticut and Ohio opened their institutions, respectively, in 1855 and 1857, Kentucky in 1860, and Illinois in 1865.

Observing the dates given above, it will be noted that the pamphlet mentioned on our opening page awards the priority, as to commencement in America, in favor of the private school opened in Barre, Massachusetts, by Dr. Hervey B. Wilbur in June, 1848.

Soon as the state of New York passed the act establishing an asylum for Idiots, a committee was appointed to select a superintendent. Said special committee, consisting of William L. Marcy and John C. Spencer, started to visit the Massachusetts Institution, under charge of Dr. Howe, and obtain his advice. On their route they stopped at Barre, in that state, to inspect the private school for Idiots, belonging to Dr. Wilbur. With him they spent parts of two days, and had a full opportunity of examining his pupils, investigating his system, and estimating his ability. So impressed were they both with the admirable condition of his school, they had such evidence of the great capacity of Dr. Wilbur, his devotedness to a wearisome and trying labor, and the value of his three years' experience, they returned to Albany and recommended his appointment as Superintendent. The full Board of Trustees immediately tendered the position to Dr. Wilbur, who accepted, after brief deliberation. The New York asylum was opened for the admission of pupils in the month of October, 1851, and at the time of the annual report in January, 1852, eighteen children had been received.

As successor for Superintendent of the private school in Massachusetts, Dr. George Brown, for two years a practising physician in Barre, was considered. Dr. and Mrs. Brown, both successful teachers previous to their marriage, had already become greatly interested in this unique educational experiment, which they were finally persuaded to carry on by taking charge of the boys remaining in the school after Dr. Wilbur's resignation, September 1, 1851. To illustrate their early surroundings a page may be quoted from the Journal of Psycho-Asthenics June, 1897.

Referring to pictures of the houses occupied by Dr. Wilbur, it is stated: Number One was too small for a school, and Dr. Wilbur moved to Number Two before receiving his second pupil. Both houses stood on the same sites then as now, and are exteriorly unaltered, save the loss of a quaint railing then over the porch of the frontdoor of Number Two, and removal of the school department. To the rear of mansion Number Two, which lodged these pupils, was then attached an unfinished portion of another edifice. This addition provided a large high room, open to the ridge pole, serving all educational and gymnastic purposes. Three ladders were erected at one end, and a rope swing dangled from the apex near by. A machine resembling a small horse power in one corner was very useful as a sedative treadmill for nervous boys, or an educator for imperfectly trained muscles of locomotion. Parallel bars stood by one window; a blackboard and letter board were on moveable frames; outline maps, charts, and pictures hung from the walls. Plain settees, chairs, and a high old-fashioned desk completed the inventory of furniture. On the table were school readers side by side with color cups and balls, a globe, blocks, counters, and boxes of beads, accompanied by primitive form and peg boards, designed by Dr. Wilbur and manufactured by the village carpenter. Balls, dumbbells and balancers were piled together on the floor. There were many advantages in this mingling of the literary and manual, considering the limited number of officials. Here, then, was the workshop where we endeavored to continue the ways and methods of our predecessor, remaining eighteen months before moving to more spacious and better arranged quarters. We were for a brief period teachers, supervisors, and attendants by turn, with a single domestic in the kitchen. the children sat with us at table that we might seek to cultivate good habits of eating, or in the sitting-room that we might direct their ways and continually prune their uncouth habits of body. Our boys were marked types of the defective class, each one an object lesson for our instruction. Such intimate association gave us practical insight of the characteristics, needs, and ways of reaching such darkened minds. When our helpless ones were safe in bed, we sat down to read M. Seguin's Traitment Moral, Hygiene et Education Des Idiots. When Dr. Wilbur sent his first carte-blanche to Europe for all books on the subject of Idiocy, this Treatise comprised all the information received.