Now, I am happy to tell you, that in the broad daylight of the nineteenth century, science gives an emphatic denial to this statement. Yes, the results obtained at our own Asylum and elsewhere, show that much, very much, may be done for the unhappy idiot, who in a private house is an intolerable incubus, but who, under proper training in a suitable asylum, becomes sociable, affectionate, and happy. It has been shown that in the majority of cases, the idiot may not only cease to be a source of annoyance and danger to those around him, but by care and training he may be made able to contribute to his own sustenance; the knowledge of simple trades of a mechanical kind, such as that of a carpenter, shoemaker, or tailor, has been reached by some, and household industrial pursuits have fitted others for domestic usefulness. A celebrated German authority, Herr Saeger, of Berlin, has stated that in his establishment he had indubitable cases of idiocy, in which the head was small and malformed, yet in which the results of education were so triumphant, that they were ultimately able to mix with the world without being recognised as idiots. Further, he tells us that in one instance a young man underwent confirmation without the priest suspecting that he had been delivered from idiocy. Dr. Shuttleworth records the case of an inmate of the Royal Albert Asylum, who became, under instruction, an expert joiner, and from being a very imp of mischief, grew up into a well-conducted, self-reliant youth, and ultimately emigrated to one of our colonies, and when he was last heard of, he was practising his trade in a leading city.[41]