397 



DEAF AND DUMB, CENSUS OF THE. 



DEAF AND DUMB, CENSUS OF THE. 



393 



With this table we may compare the one for France in Departments 

 to the 1st of January, 1853, taken from ' Le Bienfaiteur des Sourds- 

 muets et des Aveugles,' by the Abbe 1 Daras ; which is followed by a 

 few extracts from the Abba's observations on the distribution of the 

 deaf and dumb in France; we shall then review the table of the 

 English counties. 



TABLE OF THE PHOPOETION OP THE DEAP AND DUMB i FBANCE. 



The Abbd Daras very properly says, " If a province of France pro- 

 duces on an average one deaf and dumb to 700 individuals ; if other 

 districts present only a single case among 2000 ; and if, again, between 

 these extremes, numerous departments have one in 800, 900, 1000, 

 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, &c., according to their situation, to the 

 south or north of the empire, in a mountainous or flat country, in 

 healthy or unhealthy places, in manufacturing or agricultural districts, 

 &.c. ; it is evident that this statistical result reveals to families, and 

 even furnishes to the administration, knowledge which may be applied 

 to lessen or extenuate this fearful evil of humanity." 



The physical and social aspects of France are thus connected by the 

 Abbd with the facts revealed in the census. " The irregular table- 

 lands which border the frontiers of France on the north, south, and 

 east, and the uncultivated moors which extend on the west to the 

 borders of the ocean, produce the largest number of deaf-mutes. 

 There, on an average, one is found to every 800 inhabitants. The 

 beautiful plains which occupy the centre of the country, on the con- 

 trary, contain only one in 1600 inhabitants. The high summits of the 

 Alps, the chain of the Pyre'ne'es, the precipices of the Jura, the flanks 

 of Cevennes, the volcanic soil of Puy-de-D&me, the rocky Corsica, the 

 nigged regions of Lozcre and Cant.il, comprehend the provinces most 

 afflicted with deaf-dumbness. There are twenty departments which 

 contain one deaf mute in 600, hi 700, in 800, or in 900 inhabitants, 

 whilst those fertile districts in the interior, which extend themselves 

 by an inclined plain from the western slope of the Alps, of Jura, and 

 of the Vosges towards the Atlantic, contain a much lower proportion ; 

 about forty departments exhibit only one deaf-mute in 1300, 1400, 

 1500, and so on even to 2000 inhabitants. 



" With the map of France before us, if we trace to the east the 

 continuous barrier which stretches from the woody Ardennes and the 

 Argonne to the Vosges, and which goes on from the Vosges to the 

 Jura, to the Alps, to the Cevennes, to the Pyre'ne'es, along the frontiers 

 li:u, Switzerland, Sardinia, the borders of the Mediterranean and 

 Spain, there will be found in Lorraine, Alsace, Franche-Comtd, Bresse, 

 Bugey, Dauphind, Forez, Limagne, Velais, GeVaudan, Vivarais, Itouer- 

 gue, Rousillon, Bigorre, Beam, Gascony, rural populations which have 

 lived for ages in the shades of their forests, on the craggy sides of their 

 mountains, or near to the uncultivated borders of their marshy lakes. 

 On can easily imagine that congenital or acquired deafness, and con- 



sequent dumbness is multiplied in such localities in a [much greater 

 proportion than among those happy populations spread over the rich 

 and salubrious countries of Berri, Touraine, and the Isle of France. 



" Having studied this general rule of topographic hygi6ne in all its 

 applications, we are surprised to find it confirmed where we might 

 expect to meet with an exception. Thus, for example, Provence and 

 Languedoc which separate the Alps from the Cevenues, would appear 

 naturally to produce as many deaf-mutes as the mountains in their 

 vicinity ; but no, Provence and Languedoe, being countries with a flat 

 surface and highly cultivated, obey the general rule, and contain fewer 

 unfortunates. It is remarkable that the departments of the Var, 

 He'rault, the Mouths of the Rhdne, Aube, Lower Charente, and those 

 watered by the Garonne, only count one deaf-mute on 1500 inha- 

 bitants ; this ratio applies also to the central level of the country, to 

 the maritime coasts of Brittany, to the valleys of Normandy, to the 

 chalky plains of Champagne, to the hills of Burgundy, and to the river 

 populations of the large streams which flow in the interior. It is not 

 so in the departments covered with thick and old forests, surrounded 

 with mountains, torn with volcanoes, inundated by the waters of lakes, 

 infected by exhalations from marshes. In the first rank of these are 

 Corsica and the Haut-Rhin, which present one deaf and dumb in 600 

 inhabitants ; then come three departments situated on the Alps, the 

 Vosges, and the Pyrenees, which contain one in 700 inhabitants ; then 

 come Isere, at the foot of Jura, between the Cevennes and the Alps, 

 Lozere and Puy-de-D6me, extending along the ridge of the mountains 

 of Auvergne, and lastly Ariege, an escarpment of the Central Pyrenees; 

 in these departments we find one deaf-mute in 800 inhabitants. 



",The departments which are about to follow are under similar con- 

 ditions of climate, temperature, and topographic hygiene ; they are 

 Gard, at the foot of the Cevennes, which has one deaf-mute in 910 

 inhabitants ; Cantal, covered with a population thrown on the granite 

 soil of High Auvergne, counting one deaf-mute in 917 inhabitants ; 

 the Lower Alps, shaded by Mount Viso and the neck of Argentiere, 

 and constantly exposed to unhealthy cold and damp winds, producing 

 one deaf-mute in 927 inhabitants ; the Eastern Pyre'ne'es, overlooked 

 by the high summits of the neck of Perche, the neck of Arras, and the 

 neck of Pertuis, showing one deaf and dumb in 928 inhabitants ; and, 

 lastly, the Landes and the Jura, evidently subjected by the nature of 

 the soil and the topographical character to the same morbid vicissi- 

 tudes, and giving one deaf and dumb respectively to 946 and 976 

 inhabitants." 



The AblxS calls the attention of all who are interested by duty or 

 by their avocations to the observation of these phenomena ; he con- 

 siders that natural consequences may be deduced from the facts he 

 has accumulated, and the observations which he has made, which may 

 tend to shed light on one of the most insolvable and mysterious pro- 

 blems of general hygiene. The average number of deaf-mutes in 

 France is high compared with other countries, and with the proportion 

 assigned to Europe, namely, in France 1 in 1212 ; in Europe 1 in 1585. 

 In France, as elsewhere, there are social causes at work, producing both 

 congenital and acquired deafness, such as the influence of hereditary 

 predispositions, the intermarriage of blood-relations, the secluded habits 

 of certain communities, and other conditions of life, the moral and 

 physical temperaments, and ignorance of the nature and consequence 

 of certain diseases ; and to these, as well as to climate, situation, soil, 

 atmosphere, and other topographical influences, a large proportion of 

 the deaf-dumbness BO prevalent must be attributed ; at the same time 

 there are anomalies in France as elsewhere, which for the present defy 

 all efforts towards their solution. 



It is not possible to give such apparently plausible reasons for the 

 greater or less prevalence of deafness in the different counties of Eng- 

 land, as the extracts above give with reference to the various depart- 

 ments of France, yet there are some notabilities, as well as some 

 anomalies, which it seems desirable to place on record. Taking the 

 two counties in which deafness appears most to prevail, Herefordshire 

 with 1 in 1054, Worcestershire with 1 in 1160 ; it appears at first sight 

 that these two counties are among the healthiest in England, both 

 bring to the mind hop-yards, orchards, and fertile lands, watered with 

 fine rivers. Herefordshire, though not mountainous as a whole, is 

 almost hemmed in by high lands ; on the north by those of Shrop- 

 shire, on the west by the Black Mountains and those of Radnorshire, 

 on the east by the Malveru Hills and the Forest of Dean ; Worcester- 

 shire is almost similarly enclosed, having the Clent and the Lickey 

 Hills on the east, and the Malvern and Abberley Hills on the west ; 

 some of these hills are however considered the most healthy districts 

 in England. It is not surprising to find Derbyshire and Cornwall 

 respectively with 1 in 1272 and 1 in 1278 inhabitants deaf and dumb. 

 Both experience and tradition point to mineral districts and exposed 

 maritime coasts as unwholesome to the constant dwellers there. Derby- 

 shire has long been known as a county in which goitre prevails, and 

 glandular swellings, arising from struma, are often the cause of deaf- 

 ness. Cornwall, though mild in climate, is exposed to the heavy 

 clouds from the Atlantic, surcharged with moisture, which being con- 

 densed by the high lands in the centre of the county, pour forth 

 torrents of rain. The prevalent moisture in this case may be favour- 

 able to conditions which produce congenital or acquired deafness. 

 The next group of counties, with their proportions of deafness varying 

 from 1 in 1406 of the inhabitants to 1 in 1493, are Dorsetshire, Devon- 



