THE FOKMATION OF A DEAF VAUll'7rY OF Till'] HUMAN KAOE. 



Tablio I II. — Shoicing recurrence of snrnamcn and jierccntages of the whole. 

 (American Asylum, 1877 llejiort.) 



183 



The American Asylum, at Hartford, Oouu., was established iu 1817, under the patronage of 

 Congress, as a school to be open to all the deaf-mutes of the United States. As new centers of 

 instruction sprang up the supply of pupils from the more distant States was practically cut off, 

 and the institution is more representative of the New England States than of the whole country. 



This will be obvious from the following table (Table IV), which gives a synopsis of 2,109 cases 

 admitted to the asylum before May, 1877, classified according to residence. 



Table IV. — Classification of pupils in respect to residence. 



(American Asylum, 1877 Report.) 



In order lo show that the numerous recurrence of surnames is not confined to the deaf-mutes 

 of the New England States nor to the i>upils of our oldest institutions, I give a list of recurring 

 surnames taken from the 1882 report of the Illinois Institution. 



This institution, although only opened in 1846, is now the largest of its kind in the world, and 

 it may fairly be taken as representative of a large section of countrj- in the West.* 



Table V. — Recurrence of surnames among 1,620 pupils admitted between the years 1816 and 1882. 



(Illinois Institution lor the Deaf and Dumb, Jaeksouville, 111.) 

 Names occurring 18 times: Smith. 

 Names occurring 16 times : Brown. 

 Names occurring 10 times: Anderson, Miller. 

 Names occurring 9 times: Edwards, Wilson. 

 Names occurring 8 times: Johnson. 



* As the American Asylum ami Illinois Institution may be taken ;i.s representative institutions, I present in an 

 appendix a critical analysis of all the cas'is recorded in the reports referred to. (See Tables A to N, in the appendix. ) 



For this analysis I am indebted to Mr. Franck Z. Maguire, of Washington, D. C, and I have personally verified 

 his results. 



