112 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Is the figure too complicated ? A large number of tlie teach- 

 ers of the deaf either teach, or allow the children to acquire from 

 their schoolmates, a language of conventional signs. This lan- 

 guage has a grammar and construction of its own, and an order 

 differitig from that of the English language ; it is very comprehen- 

 sive and flexible, and by means of it deaf children soon begin to 

 enlarge their mental horizon. They find it tolerably easy to 

 acquire, too, because many of the simpler signs are almost iden- 

 tical with the natural signs which they have learned or invented 

 at home. By means of this sign language these teachers of the 

 deaf impart ideas to their pupils, and these ideas they put into 

 English, written English usually, and then spelled English (Eng- 

 lish spelled by the fingers), teaching the pupils to reproduce the 

 English. To the children who show an aptitude for it they teach 

 spoken English as well, and a comprehension of the spoken Eng- 

 lisli of others, known as lip-reading. The deaf so taught usuaHy 

 converse among themselves by means of signs, and also use the 

 sign language with such hearing persons as understand it. With 

 such as do not understand signs they use the manual alphabet or 

 writing, unless they are able to use speech intelligibly. The less 

 intelligent think in signs ; the more intelligent think in either 

 written or spelled English, and, where they use speech, mentally 

 translate. The method thus roughly outlined is known as the 

 combined method. Nearly all the large institutions in the coun- 

 try use the combined method. The amount of speech, however, 

 which is " combined " with the signs and written and spelled 

 English varies greatly in the different States. 



Two or three institutions, several day schools, some private 

 schools, and many private teachers use another method, which 

 differs radically from the one imperfectly described above. This 

 method is the oral, or pure oral. Every child who enters an oral 

 school is taught by speech, supplemented by writing. The sounds 

 which make up the English language are taught to him some- 

 times separately, sometimes in short v^ords. He is made conscious 

 of his own voice by feeling the vibration which it produces at the 

 throat, under the chin, or at the point of the chin. His attention 

 is called to the mouths of those about him moving in the motions 

 of articulate speech on the first day of his school life, and, from 

 that day until the last, he sees his teachers use only, as a method 

 of communication with each other or the pupils, the English lan- 

 guage, in either its spoken or written form. An atmosphere of 

 English is created about him, and, as his vocabulary grows, he 

 shapes his thoughts by means of words. His range of thought as 

 he grows older is widened by means of the ordinary studies of the 

 ordinary schools stories, geography, history, physiology, biog- 

 raphy, etc. "What he does not understand is explained to him by 



