THE DEAF AND DUMB 305 



been the establishment of classes for " hard-of-hearing " children at Glasgow, Bristol, 

 Tottenham and London. The children admitted to these schools are too deaf to be 

 dealt with even if placed in the front row of an ordinary class, yet they possess too much 

 hearing and speech to warrant their inclusion in a class with the ordinary deaf child. 

 They are therefore placed in these special classes or schools, and taught on " Oral " 

 lines, utilising what residual hearing power they possess, and at the same time supple- 

 menting it by " lip-reading." As statistics in connection with all phases of deafness 

 become more complete there will be a great extension in the provision for the education 

 of this class of child, and this may lead to a more complete system of classification of 

 children who are " educationally ." deaf, i.e. too deaf to be taught with hearing 

 children. 



This question of classification received a great impetus from the discussion of the. 

 Danish system at the International Conference in 1907, and it is to some such modifica- 

 tion of English methods that those interested in the education of the deaf look for a 

 cessation of the war of systems. Steps in this direction have been made by the segrega- 

 tion of all backward and physically and mentally deaf children, from the L.C.C. Schools 

 for the Deaf to the residential school at Homerton (London) , and also by the establish- 

 ment of " Clyne House School " for the backward deaf of the Manchester Institution. 

 At Homerton the combination of other defects, such as total or partial blindness, with 

 deafness, presents unique conditions for the study of psychological problems in conjunc- 

 tion with physiological abnormalities. 



In February 1911 Mr. Macleod Yearsley, aurist to the London ; County Council, 

 wrote a series of articles in the Lancet dealing with the conditions of the education 

 of the deaf in London, and in making suggestions for classification for education on a 

 physiological basis he strongly supported the feeling among teachers of the deaf in favour 

 of " Earlier education," and recommended that Kindergarten Schools should be estab- 

 lished to which deaf children from the age of three years upwards could be sent, and that 

 by means of play, prattle about games, toys, and similar matters of infantile interest, 

 the hereditary tendency to speech should be retained, and the habit of speech should be 

 developed and utilised from these early years onwards. A reference to these articles in 

 the " Educational Supplement " of the London Times (April-October 1911) led to a 

 long correspondence, in the course of which the whole question of " systems " was again 

 discussed by the Rev. Arnold Payne, Dr. Kerr Love and others. 



In Great Britain the Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act, 1893, makes 

 the education of the deaf compulsory at seven, though grants are paid on their education 

 from the age of five, when it is optional for local authorities to send such children to school, 

 and provision for dealing with them has already been made at Manchester (where an Infant 

 School and Home has been opened in connection with the Institution) at Fitzroy Square, 

 at Moseley Road Deaf School, Birmingham, and under the L.C.C.; and other developments 

 of the same kind are in contemplation at Doncaster and other places, following on the lines 

 of the experimental schools at Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. 



The establishment in London in 1911 of "The National Bureau for Promoting the 

 General Welfare of the Deaf" was a step of the greatest importance. The famous "Volta 

 Bureau," established in Washington, D.C., by Dr. Graham Bell, with the money he received 

 from the "Volta" prize for the invention of the telephone, is well known, and it is con- 

 fidently expected that this National Bureau, founded through the generosity of Mr. Leo 

 Bonn, will do for Great Britain even more than its American predecessor. Full particulars 

 of the 60 schools and institutions for the deaf, the 60 or 70 missions to the adult deaf, and 

 the 15 or 1 6 large organisations, all interested in the advancement of the deaf in various 

 ways, have been filed at the Bureau, and the Council consists of representatives of every 

 organisation working on behalf of this afflicted class, both in child and adult life. The main 

 objects of the Bureau are (i) (Centralisation) to get into touch with and promote co-opera- 

 tion between all existing agencies; (2) (Information) to collect, classify, and disseminate 

 information; (3) (Investigation) to promote investigation. Already statistics and partic- 

 ulars are being prepared relating to all branches of work among the deaf for publication, in 

 a form easily accessible, and when public bodies and private individuals realise that com- 

 plete and accurate information on all matters connected with the deaf may be obtained 

 through the Bureau, it will become a "clearing house" for this branch of effort. 



In a letter sent out to institutions and schools for the deaf in Great Britain, Dr. J. Kerr 

 Love, Aural Surgeon to the Glasgow Infirmary, states; "By a curious coincidence the writer 



