The author is unable to determine to whom belongs the credit of having first attempted the education of idiot children. Saegert, of Berlin, believed that be had demonstrated scientifically the curability of idiocy in 1846. Seguin, of Paris had made known his efforts in the cause about the same period. Guggenbiihl opened his institution upon the Abendberg in 1836; but Voisin in Paris had preceded him, and even Voisin was not the first labourer in the field. The Government of Saxony has been the first to found an idiot institution, at the cost of the State. The Government of Wurtemburg has given its support to the institutions of Mariaburg and Winterbach, The Government of the kingdom of Sardinia has proved its lively interest in this question by issuing in 1848 a Royal Commission to inquire into the nature and the causes of cretinism, and it has thus set an example to other Governments.