Deaf

a. To deprive of the power of hearing. "Hearing hath deaf'd our sailors." - Donne. Deaf and Dumb. Persons who can neither hear nor speak. A person who is born deaf, or who loses his hearing at a very early age, is dumb also; but the primary defect is deafne ; dumbne is only the consequence of it. Children ordinarily hear sounds, and then learn to imitate them; that is, they learn to repeat what they hear other persons say. It is thus that every one of us has learned to speak. But the deaf child hears nothing; cannot therefore imitate, and remains dumb. There can be no doubt, however, that there exists some connection between the physical conditions of a country and deafne . In mountainous districts it is generally found to be more prevalent than in plain and flat districts, and in rural parts than in cities or towns. A marshy district, or an impure atmosphere, undoubtedly tends to render it more common. The greater number of these unfortunate persons are to be found among the poorer cla es; and hence there is reason to believe that the defect is frequently caused by the want of nece ary supplies and attention during infancy and childhood. Among the other causes that doubtle tend to produce deafne , are intermarriages among near relations, hereditary predisposition, and certain conditions of life. In some of the cantons of Switzerland the proportion is as high as one to every 500 of the population; while it is only 1 in 1,600 in Great Britain; 1 in 1,200 in France; 1 in 2,100 in Saxony; and 1 in 2,996 in the United States. It is remarkable that the defect is seldom transmitted direct from deaf and dumb parents to children. "We can show," says the principal of the New York Institution, "that it is much the most common for the children of deaf mute parents to po e the faculties of which their parents were deprived." This fact is clearly established, and there is thus no sufficient reason why the deaf and dumb should not marry. The education of the deaf and dumb has only recently been beginning to receive a due amount of attention. We are told by Bede that a deaf man was taught to repeat words and sentences by John, bishop of Hagulstad (Hexham), who flourished in the latter half of the 7th century; but eight centuries elapse before we read again of any attempt to instruct this unfortunate cla of persons, when Rodolphus Agricola, a native of Gröningen, mentions a deaf mute that he had known having been taught to note down his thoughts. Half a century later, the learned and versatile profe or of Pavia University, Jerome Cardan gave to the world the theoretical principles upon which the instruction of the deaf and dumb is founded. He says: "Writing is a ociated with speech, and speech with thought; but written characters and ideas may be connected together without the intervention of sounds, as in hieroglyphic characters," and a erts that on this principle the instruction of the deaf and dumb is po ible though difficult. Soon after this time, Father Ponce (1520-84), a Benedictine monk, acquired a great reputation for teaching the deaf and dumb to speak and write. In 1620 Juan Paulo Bonet, a Spaniard like Ponce, and a monk of the same order, wrote a book on the instruction of deaf mutes, and invented a one-handed alphabet. From that time the subject came to receive more attention, a number of works were published, and various systems proposed. Among the persons who more particularly distinguished themselves by their labors in this field, were Heenicke in Germany; John Conrad Hamman, in Holland; Rodrique Pereire, in France; John Bulwer and John Wallis, in England. The first schools established for the education of deaf mutes were those of the Abbé de l'Epée in Paris, 1755, and Mr. Braid wood in Edinburgh, 1760. The sys tem of De l'Epée was much improved by Sicard, his pupil and succe or in the Paris institution, and who is entitled to rank with him as one of the greatest benefactors of the deaf and dumb. In 1817 the first asylum, called the American Asylum, was founded in this country, at Hartford, under the superintendence of Mr. Gallandet, q. v., who is the promoter of a system justly styled the American system, and which widely differs from the system of the Abbé de l'Epée, as improved by Sicard. In 1818, the New York Asylum, the largest in the country, and equal in size to any in Europe, was organized. Since that time, numbers of similar institutions have been founded, among the earliest of which are those of Philadelphia (1820); Danville, Ky. (1823); Columbus, O. (1829); Staunton, Va. (1839), . It is very difficult for one who has not given some attention to the subject to form anything like a true conception of the helple condition of one that is born deaf and dumb. He is not only destitute of all ideas connected with sound, but he is deprived of the means by which instruction and information are usually conveyed to the mind. The voice of speech is to him a nonentity, and. he is entirely ignorant of the power of words. He can hold no communication with his fellow-men, except by means of a few imperfect natural signs. His ideas are very much limited to the objects and events he witne es and the exterior relations of things, and he is shut out. from all the knowledge derived from history and tradition. Conceptions of past ages, distant countries, a future world, or a deity, are all beyond his reach. In regard to the combination and application of the ideas which he acquires, he is still in the state of nations in the very infancy of society, and cannot be aided or directed by others in his efforts or reason. The objects to be accomplished in the education of a deaf mute are to teach him an entire language, and to give him all that ma of moral, religious, and ordinary knowledge that is nece ary for him as a social and immortal being. This has to be done by signs, and the meaning contained in the signs has also to be conveyed to him. The first and most important operation in instructing the child. is, that written words have a meaning, and suggest to all persons of education the same idea. It is nece ary to begin by instructing him in the names of external objects, beginning with those which are best known to him, and most frequently presented to his view. Thus, the name of any object, such as a knife, may be written in large letters upon a board, and the attention of the child directed alternately to the name and to the object which is presented to him at the same time, until he be gradually brought to understand that a certain relation exists between them. After he has been taught the relation between the names of objects and the objects themselves, he has next to be taught the analysis of words into the letters of the alphabet and the particular gesture which he is to attach to each word as its distinctive sign, together with the meaning of collective words, as distinguished from those denoting individual objects or parts of objects. General terms, as applicable in common to a number of individuals, and to generic names comprehending a number of species, are next to be explained; and lastly, the most general and ab-stract terms, such as being , object , . The qualities expre ive of the accidents, variations, and modifications of objects, and which are expre ed by adjectives, are next taught. The master must endeavor to make his pupil conceive these qualities, in the first place, as inherent in the objects themselves, and next as capable of being detached by a mental operation from such objects, though in fact they have no existence but as united. with them. The means employed in the instruction of the deaf and dumb are: 1. The visible language of pictures, signs, and gestures; 2. The finger alphabet or dactylology, and writing; and 3. Articulation and reading on the lips. The first is the earliest and most simple mode of communicating instruction. Dactylology, or the manual alphabet, is a mode of denoting the different letters of the alphabet by means of the fingers. There are two kinds in use: in the one only one hand being employed, in the other both; the latter is general in this country. Writing is another important means in the education of deaf mutes, and is useful not only as enabling them to fix their le ons in the mind, but as being also the chief medium by which they can hold intercourse with strangers. Articulation is the teaching of the pupil to expre his ideas in speech. In order to this, the sense of touch, as well as the eye is employed. The pupil is made to notice the movements of the external organs of speech of the teacher, to feel with his own hand the vibrations which sound creates. in the trachea, and also to feel those emi ions of breath which are caused by the production of certain sounds. He is made to imitate such utterances, and by means of patience and ingenuity on the part of the teacher, he will at length succeed in imitating what he observes, and in expre ing himself by speech. Reading on the lips, as it is called, is intended to enable the deaf mute to understand what is said to him by others, from observing 'the motion of their lips. This system, known as the labial method, was invented in 1848 by A. Melville Bell, and perfected by him in 1864, reveals to the eye the position of the visible vocal organs in the formation of any sound which man can utter. It was applied in 1869 in England in the Institution of Deaf Mutes, and in 1872 was introduced by A. Graham Bell, son of its inventor, into the Clarke Institute at North amp ton, Ma . It has proved very succe ful and is coming into more extended use.