1. At the school of the Salpêtrière, 20 per cent. of defective girls improved, and 12 per cent. are able to work at a trade.
2. At the Fondation Vallée, also, 20 per cent. of defective girls have improved. No return has been furnished as to their future employment.
3. In the case of Bicêtre, the number of defective boys improved is from 3 to 4 per cent. It is not known how many of these defectives are employed after leaving school.
Some Conclusions.—It seldom happens that one finishes an inquiry without experiencing some disappointment. One starts with great ambitions, intending to make everything plain, but on the way one is forced to lower one's flag. The truth escapes one. Sometimes it is the facts which conceal it from us, sometimes it is man who has an interest in concealing it. But the disappointment which has attended our inquiry would surpass the foresight of the most sceptical. On the other hand, if the school for defectives at the Salpêtrière has enabled us to collect valuable information, we owe this good fortune entirely to the intelligent initiative of a woman. It was the directress of the school who, apart from all intervention, medical or other, had had the idea of instituting these very complete schedules, which enabled us to discover the economic return of her school. The management deserved none of the credit. As to the school of Bicêtre, we have studied it only through its annual publications, and we have managed with great difficulty to obtain only an infinitesimal amount of information of very doubtful value.
What lessons are we to draw from these examples as to the future organisation of our schools for defectives? We had hoped that the study of these institutions would have provided us with ready-made experience as to the measures to be taken for founding schools for defectives under good conditions. The contrary has happened. The example of these institutions has taught us one thing—the faults which we ought not to repeat.
Every impartial mind ought to be with us when we express the view that henceforth the activities of the schools and hospices should be made plain by precise information. For this it would be necessary to take the following measures:
1. That the definition of the grades of mental deficiency should not vary from one doctor to another, but that one should know what is meant by the word idiot, the word imbecile, and the word feeble-minded. A purely conventional but precise definition would be infinitely better than the present want of any; and we refer to the convention which we have suggested above.
2. That upon entrance and leaving, the mental condition and the state of instruction of the pupils should be precisely noted, so that by comparison of such notes, rather than by arbitrary estimates, one should be able to determine in what way the pupils have changed during their stay in school.
3. That on leaving the institution, the children, whether they return to ordinary life or are transferred to asylums for the insane, should be followed up, and that particulars regarding their condition should be transmitted to, and centralised in, the office of the school, so that the masters may be able to judge the ulterior destiny of these children whom they have surrounded with so much solicitude during a period which often amounts to twelve or even fifteen years.