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Some of the many monasteries which had not been utilized since the time of the Reformation were thrown open and converted into orphan asylums, mad-houses, or penitentiaries. In the establishment of the various institutions the cripple was frequently considered. For instance, those handicapped by deformity were provided for at a hospital for wretched and pauper invalids established at Pforgheim in 1722 by Count Luitgard of Baden. This was later transformed by Count Charles Frederic of Baden into an orphan asylum, making especial provision, however, for young and old cripples. According to the official ordinance creating this institution, the third class of inmates was to be composed of "those who have such physical defects that they are an especial abomination and disgust to other men whenever they come into their sight." The cripple department was, however, abolished in 1808, probably because the quarters were needed for the insane.

Such provision for cripples, however, gave them asylum only and did nothing to better their condition. The rise of the science of orthopedics was responsible for the ensuing improvement. The theories of the various orthopedists were best put into practice in an institution, and a large number of these were founded in the first decades of the nineteenth century; as, for example, those located at Paris, London, Leipzig, Lubeck, Berlin, Vienna, and Stockholm.

The first institution in the world with an all-around program for ameliorating the lot of the cripple was established in Munich in 1832, but this was devoted particularly to the care of crippled children. A long period followed before the creation of the second establishment of the same sort which came into being in Copenhagen in 1872. From this time on, the number of schools for crippled children rapidly increased.

But for the care of the disabled adult there was no provision at all.

In the foregoing sketch of the history of the social attitude toward the crippled and disabled individual, no mention has been made of the care of the war cripple, the disabled soldier. The subject deserves a section to itself, despite the fact that in its broad outlines it parallels the tragic history of the care of the cripple in general.

Historians have done very little to lift the veil that covers the fate of the disabled soldier of ancient times. In view of the limitations of primitive medical and surgical science, and of the custom of dispatching the enemy wounded after the field had been won, there is every reason to believe that it is a bloody veil. It is recorded, however, that ancient Athens fed its disabled soldiers at the state's expense, and that Rome under Augustus paid for the keep of its disabled legionaries out of public funds. Veteran legionaries were often provided for by grants of settlements on the frontiers of the empire.

During the Middle Ages, when warfare was on a feudal basis, only those sufficiently well-off to equip themselves took part in military enterprises; they were relatively few in number and usually able to care for themselves in the event of permanent disability. At the time of the Crusades, Philip Augustus of France entertained the project of a hospice for disabled soldiers. The Pope congratulated him on his plan, and endowed the institution in advance with certain privileges. St. Louis of France, returned from the Crusades with his shattered hosts, did actually establish an asylum for some 300 soldiers blinded by "the Asiatic sun." In most cases, however, the disabled soldier was thrown upon private charity for support. This duty devolved upon the lord who had brought his vassals to the king, and upon the monasteries.

With the crumbling of the feudal system, and the development of standing armies during the fifteenth century, the professional soldier came into being. And from that time on, the disabled soldier was a recognized type.

How was he provided for? For a time shift was made with the dispensation of private charity, monastic and otherwise. Supplied with the proper credentials, the disabled soldier would present himself at a monastery, and, after promising to obey the rules and to wear the garb of the Institution, he would be admitted as a lay-monk. Few, however, found the life endurable. A French writer of the sixteenth century described the conditions in these terms: "Once the poor soldier is received (into the abbey), he may not abide a fortnight before most of the monks, deriding his hardships, his perils, his wounds ... do put so many obstacles in his path that he is fain to compound for a pension of fifty or sixty livres and betake himself elsewhere." Departing, the soldier would sell his annuity for a trifle, which he would spend on drink, speedily lapsing into the ranks of beggars and cutthroats with which the countryside was infested.

In England, with the expropriation of the monasteries, the disabled soldiers were thrown wholly upon the charity of their leaders. In Queen Elizabeth's time, the captains of forces in Flanders complained that they were expected to make provision for the sick and wounded "whose charge lay heavily on them." The Queen was "troubled whenever she took the air by these miserable creatures." Toward the end of her reign, steps were taken to provide for "maimed, hurt, or grievously sick soldiers," but little good was accomplished.