CnAPTER III. 



DEAF-MUTE OFFSPRlNa OP DEAF-MUTE MARRIAGES. 



In a paper upon '' Hereditary Deafness"* (published in 18G8), Eev. W. W. Turner, tben prin- 

 cipal of the American Asylum, said that " statistics, carefully collated from records kept of deaf- 

 mutes as they have met in conventions at Hartford, show that in 86 families with one parent a 

 congenital deaf-mute, one-tenth of the children ivere deaf; and in 24: families tvith both parents congenital 

 deaf-mutes, about one-third were born deaf. 



In support of this conclusion be presented the following table : 



Table XXIV. 



Dr. Turner cited in connection with his subject the case of one woman who lived to see great 

 grandchildren, and of these no less than sixteen were deaf-mutes. 



Regarding intermarriage, he said : " It is a well-known fact that among domestic animals cer- 

 tain unusual variations of form or color which sometimes occur among their offspring, may, by a 

 careful selection of others similar and by a continued breeding of like with like, be rendered per- 

 manent, so as to constitute a distinct \ariety. The same course adopted and pursued in the human 

 race would undoubtedly lead to the same result." He concluded with the remark, " that every 

 consideration of philanthropy as well as the interests of congenitally deaf persons themselves should 

 induce their teachers and friends to urge upon them the improjiriety of intermarriage." 



It is reasonable to suppose that, whatever influence Dr. Turner's statements may have exerted 

 upon the marriages of the deaf throughout the country, his conclusions and beliefs must have had 

 considerable weight with the pupils of his own institution, and this may perhaps have been the 

 cause of the decrease in the proportion of intermarriages noted among the pupils of his institution 

 since the date of his paper. (See Table XXIII.) 



In the report of the New York Institution, published in the American Annals of the Deaf and 

 Dumb, July, 1854 (vol. vi, pp. 193 to 241), Dr. Harvey L. Peet gave the following table, showing 

 the number of pupils of the New York Institution married, as compared with the married pupils 

 of other American institutions, and compared with the marriages of the deaf in Europe, no distinc- 

 tion being made between those who were congenitally deaf and those who became deaf from acci- 

 dental causes. 



* See Proceedings National Conference of Principals of Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb, Washington, D. C, 

 ISnS ; sre, also, Aincripnii Annals for the Deaf and Dnnili, 18t;8, Vol. XIII, pp. 244-24G : .also article " Deaf and Dumb " 

 Eneyclopiedia 15ritaiinic;i. 



iim 



