710 



DEAF AND DUMB 



ment is ever reached at all on the sign system ; 

 though oral teachers maintain that on their system 

 it is attained readily, in a manner similar to that 

 of hearing children. 



Yet it has been set forth by otherwise respectable 

 authority, that the deaf and dumb are a 'gifted 

 race ;' that they are remarkable for ' their prompti- 

 tude in defining abstract terms;' and those who 

 ought to have known bet*er have strengthened 

 this delusion by putting forth, as the bond-fide 

 answers of deaf-mutes, those brilliant aphorisms 

 and definitions of Massieu and Clerc, which are 

 so often quoted at public meetings by eloquent 

 speakers who know nothing of the subject. It is 

 very well known to those who are acquainted with 

 the subject, that the so-called definitions of Hope, 

 Gratitude, Time, Eternity, &c., were not Massieu's 

 at all, but those of his master, the Abbe Sicard. 

 The influence of these fallacies has been most mis- 

 chievous ; they raise expectation to a height which 

 is unreasonable, for it is thought that what was 

 done by ' the celebrated pupil of the Abbe Sicard ' 

 may be done every day ; and disappointment is the 

 inevitable consequence. The honest, laborious 

 teacher who cannot produce these marvellous 

 results, and will not stoop to deception, has often 

 to labour on without that appreciation and encour- 

 agement which are so eminently his due ; the cause 

 of deaf-mute instruction suffers ; and a young in- 

 stitution is sometimes crippled by the failure of 

 support, which was first given from ones Impulse, 

 and is now withdrawn from another not a whit 

 more unreasonable than the first, but very unfor- 

 tunate in its consequences. 



In 1886 the education of the deaf and dumb was 

 referred to the investigation of a Royal Commission 

 which has instituted far-reaching inquiries, from 

 which valuable results are anxiously expected. But 

 the most striking feature of all has been the rapid 

 diffusion of the pure oral system. Originally con- 

 fined to Germany and Holland, it has since 1867 

 spread over Avestern Europe and America, some- 

 times forming by itself the sole principle of instruc- 

 tion, and sometimes, though against the views 

 and protests of its principal advocates, in com- 

 bination under the same roof with the sign or 

 manual system. It was introduced into London in 

 1867, at the instance of the late Baroness Meyer de 

 Rothschild, and applied by Mr Van Praagh, at the 

 Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home. In 1871 it was 

 extended by the establishment of the ' Oral Asso- 

 ciation/ whose school and training college, placed 

 under the direction of Mr Van Praagh, are in 

 Fitzroy Square. In 1877, by the efforts and influ- 

 ence of Mr B. St John Ackers, the training college 

 and school was founded which has its headquarters 

 at Baling, and of which one of the chief objects was 

 the diffusion of the ' German' system in the United 

 Kingdom. The college of teachers was established 

 later, in 1885. It has had a successful career. 

 Nearly every head-master in the kingdom is a 

 member, and it has attracted a large number of the 

 younger teachers to its examinations, all of whom 

 are required to pass in subjects set by the heads of 

 the profession, including the ability to teach on the 

 oral system. -This method, advocated by the means 

 already named, had been prosecuted with great zeal 

 and much success, but was wonderfully accelerated 

 by the international congress held at Milan in 

 September 1880. Here the pure oral system was 

 stamped with almost unanimous approval, and its 

 acceptance, either wholly or partially, speedily 

 followed in every country in Europe and some more 

 distant regions. It was at once adopted in the 

 three national institutions of France the birth- 

 place and cradle of the sign or French system ; and 

 by 1884 more than 60 per cent, of all the known 

 schools in the world had proclaimed their full 



adoption of it. In Germany, Austria, Hungary, 

 Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland 

 its adoption was universal ; in Italy it prevailed in 

 34 out of 35 schools ; and in Norway in 6 out 

 of 7. In other words, it was the system in actual 

 practice in all the schools of some countries, in 

 nearly all of other countries, and in a continually 

 increasing number in every country where the 

 deaf are taught at all. 



The oral system, discarding signs and the manual 

 alphabet as instruments of teaching and as means 

 of communication, employs speech and lip-reading 

 for these purposes. The child is taught ( a ) to speak 

 by seeing how his teacher speaks ; ( 6 ) to lip-read 

 that is, to read the speech of his teacher and others 

 as expressed upon their lips ; and to understand so 

 much of this as is co-extensive with his own know- 

 ledge of language, to which he is of course adding 

 daily and hourly by means of speech. Instruction 

 conies to him by the spoken and written lan- 

 guage of the hearing, not by the signs and 

 gestures of the deaf. Thus, he speaks, he lip- 

 reads, and he has books opened to him. The first 

 attainment, striking as it is, is as nothing to the 

 second, and the second is inferior to the third. It 

 cannot be too clearly understood that the greatest 

 and most certain of all these advantages is the 

 last-named. The acquirement of speech may be 

 more or less perfect, therefore more or less 

 uncertain as a means of communication ; but the 

 ability to read the lips of other persons does not 

 depend on this, and it is much the more valuable 

 of the two, because by this means the mind which 

 is full is laid open for the information of the inind 

 comparatively empty. But the ultimate attain- 

 ment the command of books and literature 

 afforded by the mastery of language is, in regard 

 to intellectual cultivation and moral guidance, 

 incomparably the most valuable acquirement of all, 

 however gained. Nothing is to be compared with 

 this as a means of breaking down the barrier and 

 bridging over the gulf which separates the deaf 

 from the hearing the most formidable and at first 

 sight the most impassable which can separate man 

 from man. By way of illustration, it has been said 

 that the mental condition of the born-deaf, without 

 education, is blank imprisonment in the most 

 awful solitude ; that the sign system removes this 

 to the extent of enabling the captives to associate 

 with each other; while the pure oral system throws 

 open the doors of their captivity, and sends them 

 out to take their part in the life and action of the 

 world around them. 



The modes of teaching on the oral system are 

 not everywhere uniform, though the principles are 

 the same. These methods vary to some extent in 

 different countries, being influenced by the charac- 

 ter of the language, and are essentially traditional. 

 Some eminent authorities teach the vowels first, 

 others the consonants ; the simple combinations 

 follow, afterwards those which are less simple, and 

 then short phonetic words, leading on to simple 

 sentences. The vocal organs are trained to pro- 

 nounce and the eye to observe (i.e. to lip-read) 

 simultaneously. It is gravely erroneous to sup- 

 pose that teaching speech is all that is meant by 

 teaching on the oral system. Its advocates say 

 that, with pupils properly taught, lip-reading, 

 articulation, and writing are simultaneous. One 

 branch is not allowed to get ahead of the other. 

 To acquire a new word, the pupil first reads it from 

 his teacher's lips ; he is next taught to pronounce 

 it himself, and then to write it down. On this 

 principle the whole course of instruction is carried 

 out. The system, to be successful, demands its 

 own conditions, of which a longer school term ( eight 

 years at least), an earlier commencement (at the 

 age of seven or younger), smaller classes (of not 



