4lt 



r>EAP AND DUMB. Kl' <>r' T1IK 



DKAF AND DUMB, KI>IV.\TIO\ OF Till: 



t. 



AbW Dnchamp*. and the AbM de \'K\<fv. Father V.uiin empl.<\ ed 

 <Wign both fur giving information on seiuible object*, uid also in an 

 alkgorical way to illustrate abstract and iiitolKvtii.il ide.n. Ve, > 

 and erroneous notion* must havo resulted from a syttem * in. 

 and io little capable uf extensive application. The first penon who 

 excited general attention in Pan* was 1'rfrrire ; he obtained the appro- 

 Uliou of the Academy of Science*, to the member* of which learned 

 body he exhibited the progrM* of hi* pupils. His processes were nude 

 a Mcret even to the mriuben of his family ; he however offered to du- 

 cloee them for a suitable consideration, hi. h wan withheld, and the 

 nature of hit ayatem U only imperfectly known at the present day. 

 Hu i-upils were highly instructed, wore highly perhaps than any of an 

 earlier or a subsequent period. A judgment may be formed of the 

 efficacy of hit method* from the report of a committee of the Academy 

 of Science*, where it U atated that his pupils were able to understand 

 what wa* said to them, whether by signs or by writing, and that they 

 replied ri'nt net, or by writing ; they could read and pronounce dis- 

 tinctly all tort* of French expressions; they gave very sensible replies 

 to all question* proposed to them ; they understood grammar and its 

 application* ; they knew the rules of arithmetic, and performed cxer- 

 cu<* in geography ; and it appeared that M. 1'creirc had given them, 

 with speech, the faculty of acquiring abstract ideas. The two best 

 known of Pereire'* numerous pupils were Saboreux de Fonteuai and 

 D'Aiy d'Etavigny. The former of these two has written an account of 

 the mean* pursued by his teacher, for which we must refer to the 

 work of the Baron Degerando before mentioned. It appears that 

 Pereire employed articulation, reading from the lips, the manual alpha- 

 bet, and a method of syllabic dactylology. By this latter instrument of 

 instruction he was enabled to communicate very rapidly with his 

 pupils, and by the frequent use of words in different combinations a 

 knowledge of their value was imparted to them. Thus the frequent 

 recurrence of words through so rapid a mode of intercourse assimilated 

 the acquisition of language to the ordinary process with bearing and 

 speaking persons. The channel of communication being established, 

 and a copious knowledge of words acquired, the art of the instructor 

 would be little more difficult than that of ordinary education. A few 

 yean after Pereire's methods had received the approbation of the 

 Academy of Sciences, Ernaud presented to them a memoir on what he 

 had attempted for the deaf and dumb. The society gave him encou- 

 ragement, but it appears that the pupil brought under their notice was 

 not far advanced in instruction. Ernaud's attempts were more par- 

 ticularly directed to measures of physical relief ; he revived the sense 

 of hearing in some cases where it had been partially lost, and he asserts 

 that he had never met with an instance of total deafness. Articulation 

 was the principal means he employed In 1770 the Abbe Deschamps 

 published his ' Count Ele'iuentairu d'Education des Sourds-Muets." To 

 the education of this class of persons he devoted his life and his fortune. 

 He followed in the track of Amman, giving the preference to articu- 

 lation and the alphabet upon the lips, over the methodical signs of the 

 AbW de 1'Epee. His establishment was at Orleans, where he received 

 paying pupil*, and instructed the indigent gratuitously. 



In tracing these early steps in the instruction of the deaf and dumb, 

 we have attended more particularly to the winking [ arts ..i' the ditteivnt 

 methods by which such instruction was intended to be conveyed. Wo 

 have passed over the various philosophic theories with which some of 

 these methods are incumbered, because they are either forgotten, or 

 rendered obsolete by recent discovery. Much learning was anciently 

 wasted on subjects in themselves trivial, mysterious, or incomprehen- 

 sible, yet to such researches we owe much valuable knowledge. It 

 seems that no investigation into the laws of nature, however absurd or 

 unattainable the immediate object of such investigation, is utterly 

 without reward. The alchemists of olden times, though failing to dis- 

 cover the wonderful stone for which they sought, found out new 

 properties, new substances, and new combinations, which cheered their 

 labours and conferred direct benefits on society. So, with many of the 

 writers we have noticed, their speculations, though wild, have not been 

 in vain ; the useful parts of their systems have been retained, and are 

 now diffusing good among the class for whom they laboured. 



The Abbe' de 1'Epce was one of the most active and benevolent 

 labourer* in this task of humanity. He brought into systematic ope- 

 ration the notion* which had previously prevailed on the possibility of 

 conveying intellectual knowledge to deaf-mutes, and added to these 

 tores of experience from the resources of his own highly-gifted and 

 well-duciplroed mind. He certainly succeeded to a greater extent 

 than ny of his predecessors in enlisting the public feeling in his 

 favour, and in drawing the attention of sovereigns to one of the most 

 unquestionable works of charity and of mercy ; yet hi* name has not 

 been suffered to descend to posterity unstained by obloquy, nor un- 

 diuimed by malignant censure. It appears that accident 6rst made 

 him acquainted with the deaf and dumb ; benevolence led him to the 

 consideration how their want* might be supplied. He remembered 

 that hi* tutor had once proved to him that there is no more natural 

 connection between metaphysical ideas and the articulated sounds that 

 strike the ear, than between the came idea* and the written characters 

 that strike the eye, and that bin tutor drew this conclusion : that it 

 was a* possible to instruct the deaf and dumb by writing, always 

 accompanied by visible cigni, a* to teach other men by words delivered 

 orally, along with gesture* indicative of their signification. 



In the early part .f i '. 1 T-IKV* career he met with th w. 

 before mentioned, and the enlarged treatise by Amman, | DUMI 

 de Loquela.' With these guide*, aided by the enthusiasm which 

 formed a part of his character, be pursued hi* tank vigorously and w it li 

 a certain amount of succen ; not with the succew of some of hi* fore- 

 runners in the art, who had devoted themselves entirely and for yean 

 to individual pupils. The abW had a Urge number of pupils to whom 

 hu devoted his life and patrimony. Every one who has been a teacher 

 knows well the degree of success which he may expect if his whole 

 mind is concentrated upon the improvement of a few individuals, and 

 the difficulties he may anticipate if his attention is divided among a 

 great number of pupils. The ablxi appears to have made use of arti- 

 culation in one part of his career, for ho wrote a treatise on the mode 

 of teaching by this auxiliary; this treatise was chiefly derive. i 

 the writings of lionet and Amman. He employed dactylology aUo in a 

 subordinate degree. Pictures he found an uncertain resource, and 

 only useful in the earlier stages of instruction. Methodical signs, 

 writing, and natural signs, were the means on which he clm-Hy 

 depended for the conveyance of intellectual knowledge. 



In acquiring a second language, those who already possess one have 

 at command a comparative grammar which informs them to a certain 

 extent of the value of words in certain connection with others; but 

 the deaf have no such advantage; their natural and uncultivated 

 language gesture is powerless for everything but the expression of 

 their most ordinary wants ; they have no separation of their ideas into 

 ftlannon. such as produce the parts of speech in more perfectly formed 

 languages. Adelung mentions the inhabitants of the countries on the 

 Asiatic continent as having " but one sound to signify j"t//u/, 

 rejoire ; and that through all persons, moods, and tenses. The mere 

 radical ideas are set down together, the connecting links must be 

 guessed at. They form plurals as children do, either by repetition, as 

 tree, tree, or by adding the words muck or other, as tree much, tree other." 

 Mithridates, v. i. p. 18. Thus it is with the naturally deaf, the radical 

 idea is all that their gestural language is capable of expressing until 

 modified by those arbitrary forms of speech which are the accessories 

 of every polished language. 



In order to represent the good abbe" fairly, we will take two examples 

 of his process of teaching, from the translation of his. own work, pub- 

 lished in England in 1801. He is about to teach the present tense of 

 the verb to carry. ." Several deaf and dumb pupils being round a table. 

 I place my new scholar on my right hand. I put the forefinger of my 

 left hand on the word 7,and explain it by signs in this manner : show- 

 ing myself with the forefinger of my right, I give two or three gentle 

 taps on my breast I then lay my left forefinger on the word cany, 

 ami taking up a large quarto volume, I carry it under my arm, on my 

 shoulder, on my head, and on my back, walking all the while with the 

 mien of a person bearing a load. None of these motions escape obser- 

 vation. I return to the table, and in order to explain the second 

 person," Ac. All this is as good as any process employed in the 

 present day, and illustrates the application of natural signs. The next 

 example is one in which signs of reduction are employed. M. Linguet 

 had observed that the deaf and dumb were demi-automatons. 

 abbe addressed him, and a short time after Liuguct visited the abbd 

 and his pupils. " I requested him," says the AbW de 1'Epee, " t 

 pose at his fancy, some abstract ideas to be drli\ered l>y methodical 

 signs to the deaf and dumb. As, out of compliment, he referred tin- 

 choice to me, I addressed him to this effect : ' Intellect, intellectual, 

 intelligent, mi : "/'bI;i, 



,'iiin/t/liijililij, unintellii/ibility : here are nine words all generated from 

 "intellect," to be expressed by distinct methodical si ,>rehen- 



fible, incomprehewiblc, comprehensibly, incomprehci" 

 inconceirable,infonccini/ili/ : him. ii,ta : .inati'iii,<n Enable; 



Faith, credence, credible, credibly, -nilmu, ittcretliilily : 



here, learned sir, is a cluster of abstract ideas, which shall be left txi 

 your option.' After some further little contest of politeness, he selected 

 the word unliii-llii/HiiUly, doubtless conceiving it of greater dii; 

 than the rest. It was instantly rendered to the pupil and 

 down. While he was viewing it with eyes of amazement, I thus re- 

 sumed , 'Barely to produce the word you specified, learned sir. U a 

 mere nothing. I will now unfold to you the means taken to prompt il 

 by methodical signs ; the exposition will not detain you long. I 

 these signs were fully sufficient to designate the word ; and you saw 

 with what celerity they were given. The fnt signifies " not an external 

 but an internal action ; " the *.<,,/, " of reading the minn. 

 hibiting the disposition of apprehending the things proposed to It;" 

 the third announces "the possibility of this dI*pO*luon, n 

 arises the appropriate noun-adjective, intelligible; which, being a con- 

 crete quality, is converted into the abstract by a fourth sign, forming 

 ,<>ilit"i ; and a.|i/(A sign being added for n ' : :ibiliti/ 



it produced.'" By this and other examples M. I .induct was convinced 

 that his expression was inaccurate and inconsiderate ; but we need 

 not follow out the examination whi.li the pupils underwent in his 

 presence. We have. i|tioted this example in order to show the mecha- 

 nical nature of the signs employed. That these were well qualil 

 dictation of words was sufficiently proved in the abU'i's experience, 

 but the words might be produced by the pupil from the signs of 

 the teacher, without their being understood, just as an ordinary 

 schoolboy, unused to Latin exercises, might, from the dict-n 



