Excerpt from Laura Bridgman Newspaper Notices, Vol. 2: 1876-1905 The building occupied by the Institution was. Originally erected for, ahotel and was exchanged for the mansion house of Colonel Perkins, on Pearlostreet, which was donated to the infant Institution and which fact explains the name it now holds. Within a few years, by the efforts of Dr. Samuel G. Howe, recently deceased, and who was identified with the Insti tution throughout his life, a separation of that sexes in the course of study and the introduction of the cottage system for the female pupils has been accomplished and the beneficial results of the plan now in Operation have been freely acknowl; edged even by those who opposed the change when it was first broached. 'ihe use of the word Asylum in the name of the Institution gives a wrong impression, for the constant effort for years has been to redistribute the pupils among the in habitants of their own birth-places so far as pessi ble after they have become educated and self sup, porting, in order that the laws of propagationmay not be affected by the intermarriage of this class of defectives, which. Would inevitably follow the massing of large numbers of them in any one d-is trict. Of the 25 000 to blind persons in this country probably are Massachusetts born or reared, blt the increase in the number is not sum: cieet to warrant a belief that this infirmity is, in creasing in an unreasonable rate among our pep ulation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.