318 ON TEACHING THE DEAF AND DUMB TO SPEAK. 
perimental philofophy, including chemilftry, by which they 
will fee the extenfive variety that even artificial mixtures 
and combinations of bodies will produce. The names, 
the procefies, and refults fhould be written, that nothing be 
loft. Space and time fhould be meafured, and ail the 
parts of difcourfe made familiar by examples, as a fenfi- 
-ble man would fee occafion. 
The utility of attempting to teach the dumb to fpeak, 
has indeed been difputed by many, not only on account of 
the difficulties which are judged infurmountable, the im- 
perfect manner in which the pupils articulate, and the 
difagreeablenoife they make in endeavouring to pronounce, 
but alfo on account of the difficulty with which they un- 
derftand what others fay, and more efpecially when they 
can be comprehended fo well by writing, and made ufe- 
ful members of fociety by drawing.—The imperfe& 
manner in which they fpeak depends not upon the pupil, 
ifof common capacity, but upon the teacher; and I am 
confident, from fhort trials I have made, that the art is to 
be perfectly obtained by the foregoing method. The 
difficulty of underftanding what others fay Ihave already 
confidered (page 313 art. 3d) and though writing is a very 
neceflary qualification, yet pen and paper are not always 
at hand. Drawing I approve of, as ufeful to every one, and 
perhaps more particularly fo to a perfon whofe want of 
natural faculties deprives him of many fources of amufe- 
ment. But {peech is fo ufeful upon every occafion, that 
to attain itis to facilitate the very means of exiftence: for 
if a deaf man was even always provided witha book and 
pencil he would often meet with perfons who could not 
read, and one fentence if only imperfectly fpoken would 
convey more meaning than all the geftures and figns 
which would be made. 
A deaf 
