DEAF-MUTISM. 173 



such unfinished creatures as the deaf-mute, "the poor 

 creatures . . . are specimens of Nature's workmanship 

 in its most untidy mood; features have rarely been 

 duly chiselled ; the sense of beauty has long been 

 dead, while gawhe figures and manners often render 

 the victims little short of repulsive to all but those 

 who, born under like conditions, have their faculties 

 of perception so maimed and blunted that they know 

 no better, and are also debarred from making any 

 higher choice." * Thus, the deaf-mute is thrown back 

 from the society of the more normal to that of his own 

 grade of development, and reversion in his children 

 is denied an opportunity. 



As to marriage with the near relatives of the deaf- 

 mute, the wise man or woman will think twice, or 

 even thrice, before entering into such an alliance. Just 

 as the idiot or epileptic child in a family points to 

 a family tendency to degeneration which may take 

 on some other form in the next generation, so the 

 family in which the deaf-mute has appeared is to be 

 looked upon with grave suspicion, or, better still, 

 avoided altogether. The man or woman who espouses 

 the brother or sister of the deaf-mute must not be 

 surprised if blindness, idiocy, or some other terrible 

 imperfection, appear in some of the children. 



Fortunately, it is not necessary to put a premium upon 

 the procreation of children in this country. Accord- 

 ing to some economists, our population increases almost 



* J. Kussell Keynolds, M.D., F.R.S., address before Congress of 

 the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, 1887. 



