3-008-451 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Idiot Asylum at Earlswood, near Reigate, 1862. 'Dr. Reed...saw no public provision save the workhouse or the lunatic asylum...[His institution] was not designed to afford shelter only to the helpless sufferer; but by the application of the best scientific and medical skill to elevate him to physical enjoyment and rational life. No expense was spared to arrive at this object, and the best ameliorative results have ensued. Desirous to obtain all possible information with respect to the treatment of idiots, Dr. Reed, in 1851, visited France, Germany, Danmark, and Sweden. In those countries he found but little distinction made between the idiot and the insane, and his inquiries there awakened attention to the subject...At present there are 336 pupils on the foundation, some supported by their friends entirely or in part, and some by the public. Beyond the training of the schoolroom and gymnasium, the patients are employed in industrial occupations. A series of workshops are fitted up where the world's outcasts are taught by skilled instructors in carpentry, shoemaking, tailoring, mat-weaving, basket-making, bricklaying, and household work; and a great many are regularly engaged upon the farm which surrounds the building'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.