304 On the late efforts in France and other parts of Europe 



On the whole, there can be little doubt, that the causes of that 

 degree of deafness which is followed by dumbness, may be the same 

 which weaken or destroy the sense of hearing in adults. In two 

 respects, however, a difference exists, which for practical purposes, 

 nearly destroys the comparison. In the first place, organic defects 

 as material causes of deafness, are of much more unfrequent occur- 

 rence among the deaf and dumb, than among adults ; and, second- 

 ly, in the case of the former, deafness is nearly always connected 

 with paralysis, either natural or acquired, of the organ of hearing.* 

 To restore an organ, for years unused and paralyzed to its full and 

 perfect exercise, must be, under the most favorable circumstances, 

 extremely difficult ; but the difficulty is. greatly increased in the case 

 of the deaf and dumb, from the carelessness and frequently the re- 

 sistance of the patient ; from bis want, in many cases, of intelli- 

 gence and the fear with which prolonged operations inspire him, 

 and from the absence of a perfect understanding between him and 

 the physician. It thus not unfrequently happens, that notwithstand- 

 ing the most rigid examination of the membrane of the tympanum 

 by the rays of the sun, and-after the most careful means have been 

 taken to ascertain the permeability of the Eustachian tube, by blow- 

 ing the nose, and by expiring strongly with the mouth and nostrils 

 closed, the physician is obliged to act in the dark : to choose at ran- 

 dom a mode of operation which is frequently painful, sometimes 

 fatal, and rarely if ever successful. 



It w r ould, however, be equally incorrect and discouraging to infer 

 that the sense of hearing has never, under any circumstances, been 

 restored to the deaf and dumb. Itardf has given an account of all 

 the cases in w 7 hich congenital deafness had been cured, previous to 

 the efforts of himself and his contemporaries. The number is so 

 small, that we propose to present them to our readers, before enter- 

 ing on the examination of the recent and what may be termed, the 

 more scientific efforts to accomplish the same result. 



Case 1. To Amatus of Portugal we owe the first account of the 

 cure of deafness when connected with dumbness. His observation 

 however is by no means a full description. He only informs us that 

 a child who was dumb till twelve years of age, at the end of that 

 period, began to talk easily and plainly ; and that her cure was ow- 



* Itard. 



t TraiU des maladies de V Oreille et de V Audition. Tom. II. Paris, 1821. 



