EPILEPTIC COLONIES. The treatment and care of epileptics in special institutions may be said to be one of the developments of applied philanthropy of distinctly recent origin. By the founding of epileptic colonies is meant the setting apart of distinct tracts of ground for buildings and for the exclusive care and training of epileptics. The position of the epileptic in society is altogether anomalous. As Letchworth well says: "As a child he is an ob ject of solicitude to his parents and guardians. The streets to him are full of dangers, and if sent to school he is apt to have seizures on the way or in the class-room. His attacks shock his classmates and create confusion. He can not attend church or public entertainments, nor participate in social gatherings with those of his own age and station. In consequence of his infirmity the epileptic grows up in idleness and ignorance, bereft of companionship outside of the family, and friendless. He silently broods over his isolated and helpless condition?' The recognition of these truths has caused philan thropists to found such colonies. In continental countries more has been done for epileptics than elsewhere, but in the last 20 years the movement for taking care of this unfortunate class of society has grown to large proportions and, as expressed by Peterson in his presidential ad dress to the National Association for the Treat ment and Care of Epileptics 1902, °there is hardly a community in the civilized world that is not now thoroughly aroused to the necessity for the treatment of this class of defectives?' This awakening took place about 1887, and has continued to the present time. The first distinct attempt to provide for epileptics was inaugurated by a Lutheran pastor, Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, who founded at Bielefeld, in Westphalia, Germany, the Bethel Colony, which, from small beginnings, has grown up to a vil lage inhabited solely by epileptics. Here every thing has been provided to meet their special needs, to make up for their deprivations in the outside world. They are supplied with schools
to improve their minds, industrial teachers to make them more or less self-supporting, and physicians to study and treat their cases. Out door occupations are provided, special diet is ar ranged for, recreations, amusements, religious instruction, in fact all of the devices that go to make up a home, have been provided under this man's guidance, so that at least nearly 4,000 people, not less than half of whom are epileptics, are being taken care of in Bethel.
The success of the Bielefeld Colony prompted movements elsewhere. Other colonies were founded in Germany and other European coun tries. Ohio established the first institution for epileptics in the United . States, although this was built on the hospital rather than the colony plan. New York Craig Colony at Sonyea, one of the most elaborate and beautiful institu tions of this class, closely modeled on the Biele feld plan, and accommodating a population of nearly 2,000. Massachusetts has a colony at Palmer ; Pennsylvania a colony farm at Oak burn ; and there is a New Jersey State village for epileptics at Skillman. A colony for epi leptics was established in 1902 at Abilene, Tex., and there are similar establishments in Connec ticut, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota and California. In Eng land the first colony founded was at Chalfont in 1893 and another at Warford in 1900. There is also a colony, the Waghull Home, near Liv erpool; another at Godalming; a large colony at Clielford, and finally a fifth institution was completed 1903-04 for the city of London, not far from Croydon. Other colonies have been founded in Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Rus%ia, Italy, Turkey, India, Japan and Australia.
The Craig Colony, of Sonyea, N. Y., being one of the most modern and ideal, is selected as a type of this institution. Consult Letch worth, 'Care and Treatment of Epileptics> (1900).