DUMB AND DEAF. 



195 



Dumb ar.il Written Characters and Things. They appear not to 

 Deaf. have been trained to any original exertion of intellect ; 

 v V' the composition of a sentence even of moderate length in 

 French, was a task of which they were incapable ; 

 in all those public trials before kings, and princes, and 

 philosophers, of which Europe has heard so much, the 

 pupils had question and answer alike dictated to them 

 by their teacher, without their knowing in general the 

 real meaning either of the one or the other; and those 

 parents who fondly flattered themselves, that when 

 their children returned from the instructions of De 

 1'Epee, they would be enabled to enjoy the interchange 

 of ideas with them through the medium of writing, 

 were mortified to find that they knew not how to ask a 

 single question themselves, and that to all those that 

 were addressed to them, they could only answer by a 

 yes or a no. 



These imperfections in the Abbe's system do not seem 

 to have entirely escaped the notice of those who visited 

 his public lessons, or the lessons of persons who had 

 been taught under him. His method was impugned 

 by Pt-reire and Nicolai ; and although an attack made 

 on it by Heinich, a teacher of the Deaf and Dumb at 

 Leipsic, called forth a decision of the Academy of Zu- 

 rick in favour of the Abbr, yet we do not think that 

 that learned body acquired much reputation by their 

 defence. 



Letters Two documents have been preserved by Sicard (who, 



from him certainly, has not been over regardful of the reputa- 

 111 " *' on ^ * 1 ' s mastt>r > m presenting them to the public), 

 which shew, in a very unequivocal manner, how very 

 limited De 1'Epee's notions were as to the extent to 

 which the education of Deaf and Dumb persons might 

 be carried ; and clearly develope the real object (we 

 had almost said the whole trick ) of that system, accord- 

 ing to which so many were taught, and by which so 

 few profited. 



Sirard, in conducting the education of a Deaf and 

 Dumb pupil at Bordeaux, had communicated to the 

 Abbe an account of his progress, and of some devia- 

 tions which he had ventured upon from the Abbe's me- 

 thod. De 1'Epfe replied in a letter, from which we 

 translate the following extract. 



" I applaud sincerely your success, my dear colleague, 

 (I set you the example, I wish no more to be called 

 master'), but I fear much that you arc becoming the 

 dupe of an ambition to make your pupils metaphysi- 

 cians. Don't imagine that they will ever be able to 

 express their ideas in writing. Our language is not 

 theirs ; theirs is the language of signs. Content your- 

 self that they know how to turn ours into theirs, just 

 as we ourselves translate foreign languages, without 

 knowing or caring how to express ourselves in them. 

 Is it not enough for your glory, to be destined to par- 

 take of mine ? And what more is necessary to secure 

 this, than that your pupils, like mine, should merely 

 know how to write, to the dictation of t-igns ?" 



Another letter, written a few weeks afterwards, is 

 .-itill more explicit. The following is a translation of 

 it 



" What, my dear colleague, your pupils not yet 

 know how to write short sentences, te the dictation of 

 signs! What are you doing? What are you trifling 

 about ? You wish absolutely to make writers, when 

 our method is in fact capable only of making copyists. 

 You have assisted at all my public lessons ; have you 

 ever seen that the spectators required of my pupils 

 what you expect of yours ? If questions have been 

 occasionally proposed to them to answer, these have 



been short familiar interrogations, which are always Dumb and 

 the same ; and yet you have seen that the greatest per- v - 

 sonages of the court and the city, and even foreign 

 princes, have asked no more. Take my advice, my 

 dear colleague; renounce your pretensions, which smack 

 a little of the Garonne ; and satisfy yourself content- 

 edly with the portion of glory which you see me en- 

 joy. Teach your pupils, without delay, declension and 

 conjugation ; teach them the signs of my dictionary of 

 verbs ; teach them to construct parts of sentences, ac- 

 cording to the table of which you have a copy, without 

 flattering yourself that your scholars will ever express 

 themselves in French, more than I can express myself 

 in Italian, although I can translate that language very 

 well." (p. 484 of Work quoled at p. 183.) 



We liave done with the Abbe de 1' Epee. That he 

 was industrious, and ingenious, and singularly benevo- 

 lent, is beyond all question ; but it seems to us equally 

 clear, that, as a teacher of the Deaf and Dumb, he was 

 greatly interior to most of his predecessors, in the sound- 

 ness of hisprinciples and the utility of his practice. We 

 think too, that we are fully justified in adding, that, in 

 order to secure that glory which he loved, he seems oc- 

 c.-jsionally to have indulged in an empiricism which it 

 became him to despise. 



There is an essay on the " Method of teaching the Dr Thorn; 

 Deaf and Dumb to Speak," by Dr William Thornton, ton> 

 in the third volume of the Transactions of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society (Mo, Philad. 17{)3, p. 310); 

 but it contains nothing that may not be found in the 

 works of preceding authors. The treatise to which it 

 is appended, on the Elements of Written Language, 

 contains observations which have a much better claim 

 to originality. 



The latest work on the Deaf and Dumb, is that of sicard. 

 the Abbe Sicard. Sicard, after having been for some 

 time the assistant of De 1'Epee, first employed himself as 

 a teacher at Bordeaux. But on the death of his master 

 at Paris, he was appointed to fill his place, and he now 

 conducts a very numerous seminary in that city. Al- 

 though he still continues to trammel his pupils with the 

 system of Methodical Signs, he has so far improved up- 

 on the method of his predecessor, that he instructs them 

 fully and correctly in the meaning of words, and teaches 

 them to compose for themselves. Many of them, we 

 have understood, arc extremely intelligent; but why he 

 does not teach them Speech, we know not. If, however, 

 the method which he pursued in instructing Massieu at 

 Bordeaux, and the detail of which constitutes his work, 

 be that which he adopts in general towards all his pu- 

 pils, we must say, that his system is one of the most te- 

 dious, intricate, and metaphysical, that it is possible to 

 conceive. They who have profited by the simplicity .aid 

 good sense of Wallis and Watson, will not be n 

 prevailed on to wade through many pages of the de- 

 clamation and useless subtlety of Sicard. (a. J.) 



DUMB, DEAF, and BLIND. For an account of an 

 interesting young lad, born in this unfortunate condi- 

 tion, see MITCHELL. 



DUMBARTON, a town of Scotland, situated at the 

 confluence of the rivers Clyde and Leven, and within 

 the parish and county of the same name. Dur,:.rit- 

 ton (the fort of Britons) was the ancient name of the 

 castle, which has been a place of strength from the 

 earliest times, and was long deemed impregnable. It 

 is a bold and insulated basaltic rock, rising to a great 

 height out of the sands on the north side of the Clj Je. 

 It is naturally inaccessible ; but by artificial means, on 

 the north-east side, where it is strongly fortified, access 



