417 



DEAF AND DUMB, EDUCATION OF THE. 



DEAF AND DUMB, EDUCATION OF THE. 



413 



of the governor of Aragon, deaf and dumb from his birth, as the others 

 were. What is most surprising in his art is, that his pupils speak, 

 write, and reason very well. I have from one of them, Don Pedro de 

 Velasco, brother of the constable, a written paper, in which he tells 

 me that it is Father Ponce to whom he is indebted for his knowledge 

 of speech." 



The register of deaths of the monastery of the Benedictines of San 

 Salvador de Oiia, informs us of the death of Pedro de Ponce, in August, 

 1584 ; it records of him that he " was distinguished by his eminent 

 virtues, and that he obtained a just celebrity throughout the world in 

 instructing deaf-mutes to speak." John Paul Bouet, also a Spaniard, 

 published a work on this subject nearly forty years after the death of 

 Ponce. He had probably heard of the success which had been attained 

 in this infant art ; and from tradition he might have gained some 

 glimpses into the methods Ponce had pursued ; but it appears that he 

 was unacquainted with those methods in any serviceable form, as he 

 represents himself as the inventor of the modes which he pursued, 

 including mimic signs, writing, dactylology, and the oral alphabet. 

 His work, which was in after-years useful to De l'Ep5e, is entitled 

 ' Reduccion de las Lettras, y Arte para ensenar & hablar los Mudos.' 

 [BONET, Bioo. Div.] During the time of Bonet, the art was also 

 making some progress in Italy. Several individuals are mentioned in 

 Dege'rando's work who were more or less engaged upon the subject. 

 Affinate wrote at the commencement of the 17th century on a manner 

 of teaching the deaf to speak ; and Fabricius of Acquapendente wrote 

 upon the phenomena of vision, voice, and hearing ; and on speech 

 and its instruments. In 1616, Jean Bonifacio published a treatise on 

 the language of action. Pierre de Castro, who was chief physician to 

 the duke of Mantua, instructed the son of Prince Thomas of Savoy, but 

 it is not known on what principles. Pierre de Castro died in 1663. 

 About 1670, Father Lana-Terzi, a Jesuit of Brescia, who is described 

 as " an ardent investigator of nature," employed himself on the subject 

 of giving language to the deaf, and teaching the blind to read and 

 write; his work on natural history, published in 1670, contains some 

 philosophical remarks on the mechanism of speech, so it is concluded 

 he taught on the articulation system. 



Many first discoveries were probably made of this art : several of 

 them originated with, or were carried forwards by, philologists, and 

 particularly among the schemers for a universal language. In England, 

 John Bulwer's name must stand prior to that of any other individual 

 as an author on the subject, and his views, as given in ' Philocophus,' 

 are sound and practical. It has often been attempted to place Dr. 

 Wallis at the head of this list of discoverers in England ; but Bulwer's 

 ' Philocophus, or the Deafe and Dumbe Man's Friend,' was published 

 in 1648, several years before Wallis commenced even his treatise 

 on speech, and he did not publish his claims as an instructor of the* 

 deaf till 1670. We find on consulting the above-named work of 

 Bulwer's, that chap. xv. contains the relation of Sir Kenelm Digby as 

 to what Bonet had accomplished in Spain : and there is no doubt but 

 U':illirf obtained information from the same source, as he was in 

 constant correspondence with Sir K. Digby. [BuLWEH, Bioo. Div.] 



A degree of credit is certainly due to Dr. Wallis for the pains he 

 took to systematise what had been done up to this period, and to bring 

 the philosophy of language to bear upon the art. His two great objects, 

 aa stated in a letter to Mr. Boyle, were " to teach a person, who cannot 

 hear, to pronounce the tnund of tcardt," and to teach him " to understand 

 tt language, and know the signification of those words, whether spoken 

 or written, whereby he may both express his own sense and understand 

 the thoughts of others." Writing, reading on the lips, and speech, the 

 manual alphabet, logical induction, the natural signs acquired from 

 the deaf were the means he made use of. From the accounts which 

 have come to us, he succeeded in his purpose. His pupil, Daniel 

 Whitlley, was exhibited before the Royal Society in the year 1662. 

 The priority of his invention was disputed by Dr. William Holder, 

 rector of Bletchington, who asserted that he had, in the first instance, 

 taught Popham, one of Dr. Wallis's pupils, to speak. Holder pub- 

 lished his ' Elements of Speech, with an Appendix, concerning Persons 

 Deaf and Dumb,' in 1669, which was some years after Wallis's first 

 writings and practice had been made known. 



In the same year in which Wallis published his inventions for the 

 deaf, 1670, George Sibscota issued a little work on the subject, 

 entitled the ' Deaf and Dumb Man's Discourse.' He had learned from 

 the writings of Franciscus Vallesius to what extent Ponce had suc- 

 ceeded. Very little can be gleaned from this work, which consists 

 chiefly of reasoning and theory. 



The next author on the subject whose work we shall notice is George 

 Dalgamo. His treatise, though full of the conceits of learning, is 

 essentially practical, and even at the present day it might serve as 

 a guide to an intelligent person who desired to become an instructor of 

 the deaf. The date of this little work is 1680. [DALOARNO, Bioo. Drv.] 

 Dalgamo announces on the title-page of ' Didascalocophus,' that his 

 treatise is the first (for aught he knows) that has been written on the 

 subject. He commences by showing that a deaf man ia as capable of 

 understanding and expressing a language as a blind man, inasmuch as 

 that' all information is conveyed to the mind through the bodily organs. 

 He goes too far, however, in attempting to show that the deaf man has 

 even superior advantages in acquiring languages to those of the blind. 

 Dalgamo's alphabet is exhibited in the article DACTYLOLOOT. 



ARTS. AND SCI. DIV. VOL. III. 



We will now trace the earlier progress of the art in Holland. Peter 

 Montans offered some remarks on the instruction of the deaf so early 

 as 1635. F. M. Van Helmont published ill 1667 a small tract entitled 

 ' Alphabetum Natura:,' in which he shows how the deaf may be made 

 to understand the motions of the organs of speech, much after the 

 manner of others who are taught to read. His book is remarkable for 

 some whimsical opinions on the nature and origin of language ; and he 

 mentions instances of the result of his system, too improbable to be 

 received even by the most credulous. In 1690, John Conrad Amman, 

 a Swiss physician, residing at Haarlem, undertook the instruction of a 

 girl, deaf and dumb from birth. He seems not to have been aware 

 how much had been accomplished in this art ; his own success was 

 decisive ; and while his work was in the press, he became acquainted 

 with the writings of Wallis, and entered into correspondence with him. 

 His essay, entitled ' Surdus Loquens,' the speaking deaf man, was pub- 

 lished in Latin. His methods were founded on articulation. Amman 

 requires that his pupil's organs, of speech shall be rightly formed ; then, 

 he says, " my first care is to make him to sound forth a voice, without 

 which almost all labour ia lost ; but that one point, whereby deaf per- 

 sons do discern a voice from a mute breath, is a great mystery of art, 

 and, if I may have leave to say so, it is the hearing of deaf persons, or 

 at least equivalent thereto ; viz., that trembling motion and titillatiou 

 which they perceive in their own throat whilst they, of their own 

 accord, do give forth a voice. That the deaf may know that I open my 

 mouth to emit a voice, not simply to yawn, or to draw forth a mute 

 breath, I put their hand to my throat, that they may be made sensible 

 of that tremulous motion when I utter my voice ; then I put the same 

 hand of theirs to their own throat, and command them to imitate me ; 

 nor am I discouraged if, at the beginning, their voice is hard and 

 difficult, for in time it becomes more and more polite." 



Amman goes on to explain how he communicates the pronunciation 

 of letters singly and combined, in a way sufficiently plain for any 

 intelligent person to follow his plan. He concludes by saying, " If 

 there occurs to anybody anything either too hard or not sufficiently 

 explained, he may expect a more full edition ; or else let him repair to 

 the author, who, according to the lights granted to him, will refuse 

 nothing to any man." 



At the commencement of the 18th century the art began to attract 

 the notice of the learned of Germany. Very early in the 18th century 

 Kerger commenced the work of instruction at Liegnitz, in Silesia. 

 His sister was associated with him in his labour. He used drawing, 

 pantomime, articulation, and writing ; it is uncertain whether he 

 employed dactylology, but he speaks highly of mimic language. Con- 

 temporary with Kerger was George Raphel, pastor and superintendent 

 of the church of St. Nicholas at Liineburg, who had six children, aud 

 among them three daughters who were deaf and dumb. Paternal 

 affection made him an instructor of the deaf ; he succeeded beyond his 

 hopes, and wrote an account of his proceedings for the benefit of others. 

 His work was published at Liineburg in 1718. Other teachers in 

 Germany were Otho Benjamin Lasius, the Pastor Arnoldi, and Samuel 

 Heinicke. Lasius confined himself almost solely to the teaching of 

 visible language, as reading and writing, associating the forms of the 

 words with the ideas they were intended to convey. It is said that his 

 pupil made a satisfactory progress, and that at the end of two years 

 she could answer important questions on religious subjects. Arnoldi 

 used the means more commonly employed, articulation, drawing, 

 dactylology, writing, and natural signs. Heinicke was the instructor at 

 Leipzig of an institution founded by the elector of Saxony in 1772; 

 it was the first established by any civil government. He had 

 announced previously to this time that in the course of six weeks 

 he had taught a deaf and dumb person to answer whatever ques- 

 tions were proposed to him. He used those means which had been 

 employed by previous instructors, and he also placed instruments in 

 the mouths of his pupils to regulate the positions of the vocal organs 

 in emitting sounds. He claimed the honour of invention on many 

 points, and guarded with strict secresy some of his proceedings. He 

 had adopted the philosophic system of Kant, and published some 

 writings relating to it. He is said to have been a man of considerable 

 talent in the instruction of the deaf and dumb, and of an active and 

 indefatigable spirit. In his controversy with the Abbe' de 1'Ep^e he 

 certainly gained little credit, either as a teacher of the deaf or as a 

 philosopher. He was the great promoter of the vocal system of teach- 

 ing the deaf and dumb which is still retained in most of the German 

 schools. Heinicke's grave mistake was, that articulate words were the 

 only medium by which tlmiujht could manifest itself ; that the written 

 word is only the representative of articulate sound ; that a deaf mute 

 can never become anything more than a writing machine without an 

 acquaintance with spoken language. 



France commenced this art later than the other enlightened nations 

 of Europe. Indeed she opposed its progress by those philosophic pre- 

 judices which in other countries had been refuted by actual experience. 

 A deaf-mute from birth, named Guibal, had made his will in m-iting so 

 early as 1679, and proofs of his knowledge and intelligence were pro- 

 duced in court, so that it was confirmed. It is unknown who had been 

 his instructor. About the middle of the 17th century several indi- 

 viduals in different parts of France turned their attention to the 

 subject. Those of whom we know most are Father Vanin, a priest of 

 the Christian doctrine ; Rodrigue Pereire, a Portuguese ; Ernaud, the 



