DEAF AND DUMB. 



613 



and Benefactor ; and to a knowledge of his law and 

 our future destiny. In this manner, the deaf mutes 

 in the American asylum (and, we presume, in others 

 derived from it) are made acquainted with the simple 

 truths of religion and morality in one year ; a period 

 in which, in most European institutions, they are 

 scarcely advanced beyond the knowledge of sounds, 

 and the names of sensible objects, qualities, and ac- 

 tions, or the most common phrases. By communi- 

 cating this instruction in the natural sign language, 

 pupils, whose inferior capacity or advanced age 

 would not allow them to acquire enough' of written 

 language to receive religious truth through this 

 medium, have been early prepared to enjoy its bles- 

 sings, and hopes, and feel its sanctions as a restraint 

 upon their conduct, which renders their government 

 more easy, while it aids them in the formation of 

 correct habits. Another plan, which is not known 

 to have been ever employed before its introduction by 

 Mr Gallaudet, in 1817, was to conduct the daily and 

 weekly devotional exercises by signs ; and the deaf 

 mutes have been thus taught to address the Father 

 of their spirits in their own natural language, and 

 have been admitted to the new privilege of social 

 worship. In applying the first principles to the 

 course of instruction in language, an important im- 

 provement lias been made, by combining words into 

 phrases as early as possible, and thus teaching the 

 pupil how to use them. The idea of each phrase is 

 first explained by the sign language, and then trans- 

 lated into words, and then retranslated by the pupil 

 into his own language. The process is carried on 

 for more difficult words, and the phrases are length- 

 ened until they become narratives. The acquisition 

 and use of the connectives are aided by the methodi- 

 cal signs of De 1'Epee and Sicard. The pupil is called 

 upon, at intervals, to express his own ideas in writing, 

 and to explain by signs what is written by others. 

 An important additional improvement is "to em- 

 ploy the pupil, as early as possible, in the study o: 

 books written in an easy style, explained by signs 

 when necessary/' so as to lead him, by bis own, anc 

 often by his unaided efforts, to become acquaintec 

 with the arrangement of words, and the idioms o 

 written language. He is led gradually to infer th 

 rules of grammar from a series of examples, insteac 

 of committing them to memory ; and the theory o 

 language is reserved for the later years of instruc 

 tion, when the pupil is familiar with its practical use 

 The methods of instruction in the elements of arith 

 metic, geography, and history, do not differ materiall; 

 from those usually employed, except that much aic 

 is derived from explanatory signs ; and experiments 

 made in some of' the schools of Europe prove, tha 

 these may be usefully employed to illustrate variou 

 subjects to persons possessed of hearing. 



Articulation. While the instructors of the schoo 

 of De I'Epe'e and Sicard unite in denying that articu 

 lation is necessary to the deaf mute, as a means o 

 mental development, they admit its great value as 

 supplement to intellectual education, if it be attain 

 able. But they differ as to the practicability and ex 

 pediency of attempting to teach it generally. Of it 

 great practical value in darkness, or in cases of sudde 

 danger, there can be but one opinion ; and it is cer 

 tainly important that every deaf mute should b 

 taught some cry of distress, or perhaps a few word 

 for such occasions : for some do not know how to us 

 their voice even to this extent. The power of a 

 ticulating, even imperfectly, may also be of great im 

 portance to the deaf mute, where ignorance in wri 

 ing is combined with a phlegmatic inattention to signs 

 in those among whom he is situated. But that it 

 not indispensable, as an ordinary means of commun 

 cation, is proved by the fact, that the pupils of th 



rench and American schools find no difficulty in 

 taking themselves intelligible to those around them, 

 ther by writing or signs, on all necessary subjects, 

 rticulation is learned and recollected by the deaf 

 ute, as a set of movements and sensations in the 

 rgans of speech. It is taught by pointing out to 

 le pupil the powers of the vowels and consonants, 

 nd the position of the lips, teeth, and tongue, and by 

 making him feel with his hand, or a silver instrument, 

 all the perceptible movements and vibrations of the 

 iroat and interior organs, which are requisite for their 

 renunciation. He is then required to imitate this 

 osition, and to force a quantity of air from the lungs 

 ufficient to produce the sound, and is taught to read 

 lie articulations of others, by observing the position 

 f the organs and the countenance. The facility of 

 oing this will depend much upon the pliability of 

 he organ of speech, and the nature of the language 

 o be learned. We observed, as would naturally be 

 upposed, that the soft and regular language of Italy, 

 n a climate where we have other evidence of a su- 

 icrior pliancy in the vocal powers, was acquired, 

 with tolerable success, by a short period of daily 

 >ractice. But the harsh and guttural sounds of the 

 lorthern languages, and the irregularity which is 

 bund in the pronunciation of some of them, present 

 several additional difficulties, which are perhaps in- 

 reased by the frequent diseases of the vocal organs 

 jroduced by a cold climate. Those instructors who 

 ittempt to teach all their pupils these languages, are 

 usually compelled to make it a constant and indivi- 

 dual exercise, and to make and to demand efforts pain- 

 tul to the teacher, and pupil, and spectator, with only 

 a partial success. Of a number of speakers, whom 

 we have seen and heard of, in various countries, thus 

 taught, few would have been intelligible to a stranger 

 so readily as by signs ; and their tones were ex- 

 tremely disagreeable. On the other hand we have 

 seen a few deaf mutes who are capable of speaking 

 in a manner perfectly intelligible, and of reading, 

 from the lips and countenance, what was said by 

 others. They were such, however, as either retained 

 some remnant of hearing, or had been the subjects of 

 individual instructions for a series of years. We pre- 

 sume the truth lies in that middle course, now adopt- 

 ed by the school of Paris, and by some advocates ol 

 articulation, who have had an opportunity of observ- 

 ing it in all its forms. They believe that, by that 

 portion of the pupils of every institution, whose or- 

 gans are pliable, and who have some remnant of sen- 

 sibility, either in the external or internal ear (those 

 termed demi sourds in the Paris school), the acquisi- 

 tion may be made with a degree of ease and perfec- 

 tion, which renders it a desirable and important 

 branrh of instruction for such portion of the pupils 

 in every institution. They are equally convinced, 

 that to attempt to teach articulation to those entirely 

 destitute of sensibility in the ear, or who cannot ex- 

 ercise the organ of speech without difficulty or pain, 

 is a useless labour, and may produce disease in the 

 pupil ; as more than one instance proves. On the 

 last point, some have maintained that the exercise of 

 the lungs is important to the pupil, while others have 

 declared the contrary. We believe here, also, much 

 will depend on individual organization, and that the 

 general question will be modified much by the cli- 

 mate, and nature of the language to be taught. 

 Most of the schools for deaf mutes employ a manual 

 alphabet, for the more rapid communication in words ; 

 in England, usually made with both hands, and 

 elsewhere with one. This alphabet, with writing, 

 on paper and in the air, and the use of natural and 

 conventional signs, are found adequate means of 

 communication for those who cannot acquire articu- 

 late language. See the Geschichtc des Taubstwn. 



