DEAF AND DUMB. cl'.NsI S OK THK. 



DEAF AND DUMB, CENSUS OK Till:. 



400 



shire, South Wales, WilUhire, SooieneUhire, Essex, and Shropshire ; 

 Ul these are maritime districts except the but ; the mere vicinity of 

 the sea in these fine climate* of the aouth of England cannot surely be 

 favourable to the production of deafness, and we must look for some 

 other cause for the mysterious visitation. Shall we look for it in 

 nodal causes f There U much lriiuu u the coast, but it i.iu-n arises 

 from the porerty of the imputation hregular work and wage* un- 

 equal and often poor feeding exposure to weather and bad dwelling* 

 without due meani of ventilation ; theee observations apply to mart of 

 the nailing-towns in all parU of the kingdom. We next come to North 

 Wale* ana Gloucestershire, with respectively 1 in 1514 and 1 in 1565 

 of their population deaf-mutes; tlio district* are very dissimilar in 

 their phyaioal features u well aa in their geographical position ; the 

 aune cause for deafness can scarcely have struck them both. The 

 next group of counties with a proportion of from 1 in 1614 to 1 in 

 1674, includes Buckinghamshire, Westmoreland, the West Riding of 

 Yorkshire, Sussex, and Berkshire. Westmoreland, with its lofty moun- 

 tains and barren moors, has then to sympathise with the pleasant and 

 fertile vales of Buckingham, and the manufacturing industry of West 

 Yorkshire with the downs of Sussex : truly the physical characteristics 

 bare are too conflicting to account for the striking similarity in these 

 proportions. In the uext gradation, namely, from 1 in 1714 to 1764, 

 are the counties of Rutland, Suffolk, Bedford, the North Riding of 

 Yorkshire, and Norfolk ; all these are agricultural counties, and on 

 the eastern side of the country, but there seems no reason for their 

 greater degree of exemption from deaf - niuteism than some that have been 

 previously named. Northumberland, Northamptonshire, Cambridge- 

 shire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire, and Cheshire present 

 proportions varying from 1 in 1818 to 1 in 1874, but with no apparent 

 reason why Lincolnshire on the east, Cheshire on the west, and North- 

 umberland on the north, should produce such similar results. The 

 counties which contain respectively 1 in 1917, 1 in 1947, and 1 in 1958, 

 are Cumberland, Surrey, and Leicestershire ; so that Cumberland, on 

 the Solway, is more favoured than its nearest neighbour Westmore- 

 land, notwithstanding its greater proximity to the sea ; and Leicester- 

 shire and Surrey, both inland, populous, manufacturing, and highly 

 cultivated, have no immunity from these causes. Hampshire, War- 

 wickshire, Oxfordshire, Lancashire, and Nottinghamshire vary in their 

 proportions frum 1 deaf-mute in 2000 to 1 in 2088 ; the same dissimi- 

 larity in position, and in the occupations of the people prevails here aa 

 in some of the results we have previously considered, with this notable 

 exception, that three of these counties have large manufacturing popu- 

 lations, and confirm to some extent the truth of the registrar-general's 

 observation, that "a greater degree of prevalency of deaf-dumbness 

 seems to exist in rural and hilly localities than amidst urban and 

 manufacturing populations." The last group of counties, showing a 

 variation of from 1 in 2215 to 1 in 2488, comprises Middlesex, the 

 East Riding of Yorkshire, Monmouthshire, Kent, and Durham. Here 

 are placed together dense and sparse populations, mountainous and flat 

 districts, and one mining county. Can anything be more dissimilar / 

 Yet these counties are more exempt from deaf -dumbness than any othar 

 part of England, save Huntingdonshire ! a small county with a rural 

 population, and with one-fifth of its acreage fen-land. If marshy dis- 

 tricts were productive of deafness, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, 

 and some portions of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, should have this unfor- 

 tunate pre-eminence ; but if the enumerators of the Census are correct, 

 these counties suffer lew in this respect than many others, and we are 

 instructed to seek other causes for the prevalence of the infirmity. 



We do not totally reject the theory of the Abbd Daras ; to a limited 

 extent we are able to confirm it ; but we are assured that topographic 

 statistics will not enlighten us generally on the mysterious causes of 

 deafness. We look to medical statistics and to the economy of social 

 life to alleviate some of the evils we have been considering. That 

 there is some connection between the physical character of a country 

 or district and deafness there can be no doubt. In some cantons of 

 Switzerland one deaf-mute is found in 200 inhabitants ; Norway and 

 Sardinia again present us with large proportions; and in our own 

 country, the mountainous districts of Scotland and the Penine chain 

 of hills produce analogous results ; the plains of England, on the other 

 hand, with a few remarkable exceptions, generally exhibit the smallciit 

 proportion of the deaf and dumb; and so it is with the plains of 

 Luxembourg and Wiirtembcrg, and the kingdoms of Tuscany, Bavaria, 

 Belgium, and Holland. In Ireland, as in England, the deaf-mute is 

 found most in the rural and least hi the civic districts; the flat 

 counties, such as Roscommon, Westmeath, Dublin, and Kildare, show 

 the fewest cases (1 in 1935), while mountainous Wicklow has 1 in 1031, 

 and Mayo, Limerick, Donegal, Waterford, and also Tipperary, Tyrone, 

 and Fermanagh, the former on the coast, and all presenting mountain 

 ranges, show an average of 1 in 1068. 



Confirmatory of these views, we can with confidence adduce the 

 following particulars : a very large majority of the pupils who have 

 been admitted into the Yorkshire Institution have been from the 

 district of the West, traversed by the great Penine chain. This chain 

 commences in the Staffordshire moorlands, goes through Derbyshire 

 (the Peak), thence into Yorkshire (Stanedge and Blackstone edge), and 

 extends irregularly northwards (Ingleborough, Wharnside) to the 

 Cumbrian mountains. On the east of this chain of hills, in Yorluihire, 

 and within few miles of them, are the large towns of Sheffield, 



Rotherham, Bamaley, Holmfirth, Huddemficld, Halifax, Dewsbury, 

 Bradford, Leeds, Wakeneld, Keighley, Skipton, ami Sntl,.. This 

 mountainous district, with it* towns, has supplied the Institution with 

 300 out of its 534 pupils ; the plain of York with 35, that of Selby 

 with i:t. of Donoaster with 32, the X,.rth lli.lim; with !I7, Hull and 

 the East Riding with 33, and the ^nwping number hare been from 

 localities leas definitely characterised. It U true that the dense jiopu- 

 lation of Yorkshire U fouiul in the towns above alluded to, but we 

 have already seen, and the observation has been repeatedly confirmed, 

 that the proportion is much less in towns than in agricultural and 

 hilly district*. A very few years ago the writer of this article visited 

 one of the new rising towns within the influence of this range of hill.-, 

 for the purpose of inquiring into several cues of deaf and ilmuli 

 children resident there. He was taken into house after house, and 

 found that he was among a wide circle of relations. At length he 

 made the observation, that many intermarriages seemed to have 

 occurred in the different families, and received this ominous reply : 

 " We're all related here." " No wonder, then," he answered, " at the 

 prevalence of deafness." And this was not a mere guess at the cause 

 of the malady, but was the result of long-continued observation. In 

 addition to the physical conformation or position of a district or 

 country, the seclusion of mountainous localities U unfavourable to 

 social developments ; those who are shut out of the world by natural 

 circumstances, or from other causes, are driven to each other for com- 

 panionship and for nearer ties, and to a certain extent this may account 

 for the prevalence of the deaf and dumb in the cantons of Berne and 

 Argovie, in Switzerland ; in Norway; in Sardinia; in Corsica, Hunt- 

 Rhin, I sere, Lozere, Cantal, and other mountainous and secluded 

 departments in France ; and also to some extent in the remote agri- 

 cultural districts of our own kingdom. 



America furnishes us with the following table from the census of 

 1850. There are other tables to which we have access, but we select 

 this to illustrate a special point : 



It appears that among the free coloured population 1 in 2956 is deaf 

 and dumb ; among the slaves only 1 in 6221. An American writer 

 says, " In entry ttate north, of the Potomac and Ohio, the proportion of 

 deaf and dumb among the coloured population is much greater than in 

 any state touth of those rivers, and in the aggregate of the two f 

 almost four times as great in the northern aa in the southern states. 

 It is also to be observed that in the northern states the proportion of 

 deaf and dumb is generally much greater among the coloured tlmn 

 among the white population, whereas in all the southern states the 

 case is precisely the reverse ; the coloured population of the south it i ; 

 well known are chiefly slaves, whereas at the north they are mostly free. 

 If, then, the census has been correctly taken in both sections, we are 

 led to conclude that deafness is frequently occasioned by the want of 

 physical comforts, with which it is well known the slaves of the south 

 ore, as a body, much better provided than the free blacks of the north." 

 The above paragraph was written twenty-five years ago, and referred to 

 the American census of 1830; succeeding enumerations per]. 

 similar proportions to those alluded to, and the observations are fully 

 applicable to the census of 1850. This, however, is not a satisfactory 

 mode of accounting for the greater prevalency of deafness among the 

 coloured free population, as compared with the white race. The free 

 coloured population of the north are far removed from the genial climate 

 of their race, while the slave populations of the southern states are in the 

 enjoyment of a climate adapted to their nature, and this is a more pro- 

 bable solution of the difficulty than that which attributes the fr> 

 from deafness among the slaves to their possession of more bodily 

 comfort* than fall to the lot of the free coloured population of the 

 northern states ; besides, there are more deaf and dumb proportionately 

 among the whites in the southern than in the northern states ; these 

 whites, chiefly planters and their agents, are in no wont of l>o<lily 

 comforts, and it may fairly be inferrred, that the high t'in|K ratmv 

 which is favourable to the slave population of the south is pen i 

 to the white race, whether European or Anglo-American. Warm 

 countries and plains, as Tuscany and Luxembourg, appear to contain a 

 smaller proportion of the deaf and dumb than cold and inotintiinous 

 ones. Change of climate has doubtless an influence in promoting a 

 tendency to certain diseases in a new generation, and probably to 

 some of those productive of deafness; but this result will only follow 

 where the transition is violent, as from a cold or temperate to a hot 

 climate, and the reverse. To tecure the hujhttt condition! of health., 

 entry rate ihvulil therefore confine ittelfto iti own natural latitwlct. 



The report of the Irish commissioners on the "Status of Disease" 

 must be considered as one of the most valuable contributions that has 

 ever been produced on those infirmities to which humanity is subject; 



such a report for the United Kingdom, win n th uaus is again taken, 



would be invaluable to all institutions establmhed for the alleviation of 

 permanent maladies ; and much assistance might be obtained from tin- 

 officers of such institutions f they were previously apprised of the 



