43. SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

Causes of Dumbness.-Persons who are usually called 'Deaf and Dumb' are those who have been born deaf, or who have lost their hearing early in life. Dumbness is not usually a physical defect caused by the loss or imperfect development of any organ, but it is almost invariably the consequence of deafness, the child not being able to learn to imitate sounds of the existence of which he is unconscious. By repeatedly hearing and imitating sounds children gradually learn to talk; the accuracy of their articulation being developed by degrees, as they improve in their power of imitating what they hear others utter. The speech of those who lose their hearing when advanced in life usually becomes considerably changed in character; and the power of modulating their voices is always materially impaired. When children as young as six, and up to eight or ten years of age, capable of speaking fluently, lose their hearing, defective speech almost amounting to dumbness invariably follows, unless the most careful attention is given to prevent it. The trouble of instructing them, when this has been the case, according to the method which will be presently described, is almost as great as that which is involved in teaching a child who has been born deaf, and has consequently never spoken.

Instruction thought Hopeless.-Until comparatively quite a recent date the systematic teaching of the Deaf and Dumb to read and write and to develope their faculties seems to have been regarded as scarcely practicable. Persons thus afflicted were commonly looked upon as of feeble intellect; and no doubt this is one and probably the chief reason why any serious attempt at instructing them was thought to be almost hopeless. Some cases are on record of remarkable results having been obtained in very early times. As far back as the fifteenth

century St. John of Beverley is said to have taught a dumb youth to repeat letters and syllables, and even words and sentences. So much was thought of the fact that it is recorded as one of the miracles performed by that Bishop. It appeared impossible that such a result could be accomplished by human agency without the special interposition of Divine power.

Origination of System-Early History.-Jerome Cardan, an Italian, and a native of Pavia, who was born in 1501, seems to have been the first to have discovered that the Deaf and Dumb might be taught according to regular principle, and that their infirmity was not necessarily a bar to their receiving instruction. He argued that 'writing is associated with speech, and speech with thought, but written characters and ideas may be connected together without the intervention of sounds, and consequently that the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb is difficult, but it is possible. According to the authority of Chambers, in the last edition of his Encyclopædia, Pedro Ponce, a Benedictine monk in Spain, was the first to practise in accordance with these principles. He died in 1584, and in the register of his death it is recorded that he was distinguished by his eminent virtues, and that he obtained a just celebrity throughout the world for instructing deaf mutes. Nothing more seems to have been done until 1620, when Juan Paulo Bonet, also a monk of the same order, published a book on the subject of teaching the Deaf and Dumb. In this work the one-handed alphabet was fully described and shown to be practicable and available for the purpose of intercommunication. The one at present in use on the Continent and in America is based upon it, and has departed very little from the original model as described in this volume.

First English School. The education of the Deaf and Dumb has occupied a considerable amount of attention at various times, since the publication of Bonet's work. Several treatises have been written on the various modes proposed; and in France especially the subject has been fully ventilated. As in many other questions, England and France seem to have moved together in this matter, for the first two regular schools which were established, the one in England, the other in France, commenced their operations at about the same time, viz. the year 1760. The former was situated in Edinburgh, and was carried on under the direction of Thomas Braidwood; the latter in Paris, under the Abbé de l'Epée.

Commencement of London Asylum.-Braidwood removed his school from Edinburgh to London, and shortly afterwards, that is in 1792, the London Asylum for the indigent Deaf and Dumb was established. The two persons who are looked upon as the founders were the Rev. H. Cox Mason, Rector of Bermondsey, and the Rev. J. Townsend, a Dissenting minister in the same neighbourhood. This Institution has always remained one of the most important schools of this description in the world. The Principal who first undertook its management was Dr. Watson, a nephew of Mr. Braidwood. He was succeeded in 1820, by his son, on whose death in 1857, his grandson, the Rev. James H. Watson, who was brought up among the Deaf and Dumb, was appointed. This gentleman, whose portrait is given in the engraving at page 398, is still carrying on the work, which his family has been so largely instrumental in bringing to its present state of efficiency and success.

Statistics of Deaf and Dumb.-The number of the Deaf and Dumb in this country is ascertained with tolerable accuracy every ten years, when the census is taken. According to the census of 1861, there were 12,236 deaf and dumb persons in England and Wales, that is 6,841 males, and 5,393 females. Compared with the population, this gives 1 in 1,640. In Scotland, the proportion is higher, viz., 1 in 1,311; and in Ireland, higher still, or 1 in 1,026. On the Continent, the proportion is about the same as in England. The country in which the fewest number of deaf mutes is to be found is Holland, where only one in every 2,714 of the population is thus afflicted, whilst in Savoy the proportion is 1 in 443. Some assign as a cause the damp condition of the valleys, for whenever goître is prevalent, there the Deaf and Dumb seem to be more numerous.

Causes of the Misfortune.-Amongst the causes which tend to propagate this affliction are the consanguinity of the parents, and the transmission of the defect from one generation to another. A remarkable result attended an investigation made by Mr. Buxton, the Principal of the Liverpool Deaf and Dumb School in 1857. It appeared that, of a large number of cases which came under his notice, one out of every ten who were deaf and dumb was the offspring of the marriage of cousins. He also found that the children of 310 deaf and dumb persons, who had married those who were not deaf and dumb, gave as a result, that I out of every 135 of their children, suffered from

the calamity; but what was still more remarkable, that of the children of 303 deaf and dumb men who had married deaf and dumb women, one in every twenty was afflicted with the parents' misfortune. Many ailments to which children are particularly liable frequently produce deafness, and consequently lead to mutism during the early years of life; of these, scarlatina, smallpox, measles, and whooping cough, are perhaps the most serious. A large number of children also become deaf from fits when teething.

Existing Institutions.-The Institutions which are at present existing for the Deaf and Dumb in this country are located as follows:

Ages of Admission.-The ages at which children are admitted to these Institutions vary from three to sixteen years, the greater number being between seven and eight years old.

Mode of Instruction. The mode of instruction adopted is very similar in nearly all the Institutions in this country. The plan pursued at the London Asylum is as follows:—As soon as a child is received, he is taught to write the letters on a slate, and at the same time the corresponding sign which represents the letter in the two-handed alphabet. The next step, when he is pretty familiar with his letters, is to form simple words, as cat, gun, arm, bird, leg, &c.; all of which are shown to him by pictures, or in reality. The progress to this point is generally rapid, as many of the children are fairly quick of apprehension. Considerable difficulty is, however, experienced in making the pupils thoroughly understand abstract ideas.

Uses of Signs. During the instruction, the use of signs is most

valuable. These signs, as used at each Institution, form a language, having one common basis, but differing with each Instructor, and indeed with almost every pupil. They have been classified by the Teachers, the greater number being based on the modes of expression used naturally by the deaf persons themselves. Verbs have even been conjugated by means of signs. In describing a thin man or a fat man, a tall boy or a short boy, for example, an idea can be given with a sign, which it would be impossible to convey to the mind of the dumb person even by puzzling for several minutes over the spelling alphabet. When the pupils have learned to spell, and to talk fairly with their fingers, many of the Instructors wish to abolish these signs. They endeavour to do this as far as they possibly can, in order that the pupils may have a greater amount of exercise in their new language. They try to induce them to write down what they wish to remark, or to spell it out; but this is very tedious, and deaf and dumb persons, when communicating with one another, nearly always continue to use the signs. It is for this reason that deaf and dumb persons should be associated together as little as possible. Their general progress is much more rapid when they mix with persons who are not afflicted. In Donaldson's Hospital for the education of poor children, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, a considerable number of deaf and dumb children are brought up with the others, being of course taught in a different manner.

Teaching to Speak.-Simultaneously with this instruction the pupils are taught to speak. Here greater difficulty is experienced in all Institutions in arriving at any high proficiency. This is caused, not by the trouble of making them articulate most sounds correctly, but from the fact that the language of signs is so much easier. Deaf and dumb persons cannot be brought to practise talking sufficiently to make very rapid progress. The mode of instruction is as follows: Each child has to be taught separately, and the Teacher has to devote his whole time to the one pupil. The letter a, as sounded in father, is first taught. He is made to place his hand upon the throat of the Instructor, and to watch his lips while he says the letter. The pupil then tries to repeat the movements of the muscles which he feels quiver in the Master's throat. Before very long, sometimes a few weeks, he is fairly expert. The letter e follows, and the mode of accomplishing it may perhaps be best judged