UNIVERSITY 



OF 



DEAF-MUTISM. 169 



shoulders, and their limbs are badly formed, while the 

 shape of the head and the cast of the features point 

 strongly to a degenerate type. 



Physical deformities, such as large projecting ears,* 

 slobbering mouths, squint, paralysis, blindness, and 

 total idiocy, are very common among the congenital 

 deaf, and show the close relationship between deaf- 

 mutism and other forms of degeneration. Professor 

 A. Graham Bell of Washington has made careful 

 inquiry into this particular branch of the question, 

 with the result we might expect. He found that the 

 ratio of blindness among deaf-mutes is 14^ times as 

 great as among the whole population; while idiocy, 

 the deepest of all forms of degeneration, is 43 times as 

 great among these unfortunates as among the general 

 population. 



This investigator (Professor Bell) has recently 

 called attention to the fact that between 1870 and 

 1880 the deaf and dumb population of the United 

 States of America had increased from 10,000 to 34,000. 

 This he attributed largely to hereditary transmission, 

 and he animadverted severely upon the mistaken views 

 of would-be philanthropists, who, not content with 

 mitigating the unhappy lot of these sufferers by 

 educating them and enabling them to do something 

 toward earning a living, hold out inducements to them 

 to intermarry. Unfortunately, America is not the 



* Albef tatti found this character in 50 per cent, of deaf-mutes. 

 It is a commonly recurring character among idiots and instinctive 

 criminals. " The Criminal," Havelock Ellis, p. So. 

 12 



