CAN MAN BE MODIFIED BY SELECTION? 23 



as compared with the hearing children, is greater than it is in the 

 community as a whole, and this fact is proved beyond question by the 

 statistics. 



The census returns show that there are 33,878 deaf-mutes in the 

 country, or that one person out of every 1,500 is deaf ; or that, out of 

 each 1,500 children who are born, 1,499 retain their hearing through- 

 out life, while only one is deaf. 



If deaf children are no more numerous in the families of deaf 

 parents than they are elsewhere in the community, only 23 out of the 

 33,878 deaf-mutes should have deaf parents ; but we have a record of 

 nearly ten times this number, for Professor Bell states that, although 



Tullertcn. 



O 5 



Wjrte. 



iNb inform aiiorv concerning the\ 

 I descendant s. J 



m 6 6 jS 6 o 



{X~a\n{ormation> concerning 

 the descendants.) 



THE FULLERTON FAMILY OP HEBRON, NEW YORL. 



only thirty-five of the fifty-eight institutions of the country have sent 

 replies to his queries, the returns from these thirty-five show that no 

 less than 207 deaf children of deaf parents have been admitted as 

 pupils. Deaf children are, therefore, at least ten times as numerous in 

 families where the parents are deaf as they are in the community at 

 large, and it is impossible, after reading Professor Bell's paper, to 

 doubt 1. That deafness is hereditary ; 2. That, of the deaf persons 

 who marry, nearly all select deaf partners ; 3. That their children 

 are especially liable to deafness ; and, 4. That the number of deaf- 

 mutes who marry deaf-mutes is increasing, and that our educational 

 system fosters this tendency, and is to a great extent responsible 

 for it. 



So far Professor Bell's conclusions seem to be unanswerable, and 

 there is no room to doubt that the means that we have adopted for 

 the amelioration of the conditions of the deaf have actually tended to^ 

 increase the evil they were intended to diminish. 



