DR. GUGGENHUHL.

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ture so high, that ordinary esculent vegetables, and even grain and maize, grow and ripenwell. Poultry and goats also are reared ; so that the little colony is almost self-support-ing. The winter’s cold is not so great, nor the fall of snow so deep on the summit of theAbendberg, as in most other parts of the Alps at the same elevation.”

Dr. Guggenbiihl divides the cretins into four classes :—■

1. The Atrophied Cretins. —Those whose bodies are much emaciated, and theirextremities paralyzed. In these he believes that the spinal marrow is chiefly affected.

“ 2. The Rickety Cretins. —Those whose bones are soft, and have their limbs bont inconsequence.

“ 3. The Hydrocephalic Cretins. —Those who are affected with chronic water-in-the-head.

“ 4. The Cretins Diseased from Birth. —In these some of the worst symptomsappear ; and they prove the most intractable. Nevertheless, it is remarked, that wherethe goitre exists at birth, the brain is less affected than in other cases. Individuals areto be found in whose persons all these conditions exist together; and others there arewho present various combinations of the symptoms ; but in all the classes goitres arefrequently seen. The manifestations of the mental powers and moral feelings varymuch in all the classes, and correspond pretty exactly with the greater or less activityof the organs of the senses.”

The following is an outline of the treatment pursuod :—Removed to the Abendberg assoon as possible after being Weaned, the children are committed to the immediate care ofnurses, by whom they arc bathed, fed with goat’s milk, carried out and laid in the sunon the grass, and amused, when they arc capable of being so. After some time, whenthe bodily vigour is obviously increased (‘when vegotativc life begins to recover’) andthe children have attained a suitable ago, attempts arc made to rouse their intellectualpowers through the organs of sense. These efforts are first directed to the ear. Tubesand speaking-trumpets of different sizes are used; the sound addressed to the dull auditorynerve of the cretin must be loud, else it makos no impression. The child is then taughtor coaxed to imitate the motions of the lips and tongue required to give utterance to thesound roared into the ear, and by repetition it learns to connect the sound it hears withthe attempt to make it; then it tries to articulate, and so, by slow degrees, it getsthrough the vowels. The eye and the sense of touch arc then exercised in connexionwith the results of the first series of lessons. The letters arc presented in a largo form,carved in wood : the child handles them and learns to associate the sound with the letter.Words are formed and learned in the same manner. Then the pupil advances to theapplication of words to objects. Figures of household utensils are laid before the childand named; by-and-by he places the articles themselves upon their pictures. Whenmuch difficulty is experienced in getting the attention fixed in this way, the child istaken into a dark room, and is shown the forms of letters and objects portrayed on thewall by means of phosphorus. The illuminated figures sometimes arrest the attentionmore effectually than anything else ; and a beginning having onco been made, theprogress is steady. The senses of smell and taste are also in constant need of cultivation.Some cretin children swallow whatever substance is placed in the mouth, howevernauseous ; and they seem to be wholly unconscious of differences of odour.

Gymnastic exercisos, which require the daily use of every muscle, are very important,and excite the children to emulation in their feats ; whilst the exercise of the facultiesof the mind is equally carried on in mental gymnastics, according to the powers of eachlittle scholar. Music has been found to be a powerful aid—soothing, interesting, andrefining; and many can bear witness to the thrilling effect of the voices of thehappy little groups, who sang in their presence in their infantine manner the praisesof their God . Few persons, we think, could restrain their tears while listening to