DEAF AND DUMB 



1720 



DEATH 



always heard can scarcely appreciate what the 

 mastery of lip reading means to a deaf person 

 in just the ordinary routine of life. Experience 

 has demonstrated the truth of what theory 

 indicates, that the best results in speech and 

 lip reading cannot be attained by the deaf 

 when any use is made of the sign language or 

 finger spelling during the educational period. 

 For this reason the use of silent methods of 

 communication is steadily decreasing in the 

 schools for the deaf, and in ninety-five of the 

 schools in the United States no use whatever 

 is made of the sign language or finger spelling. 



Mutes are taught to speak by observing the 

 lips and other vocal organs of the teacher, and 

 then imitating the motions. When certain 

 sounds are pronounced the pupil touches the 

 teacher's throat, thus being better able to imi- 

 tate the vibration and position of the muscles. 

 The Wright Oral School of New York City is 

 one of the best oral schools for the deaf. 



The Bell system, invented by A. Melville 

 Bell of Edinburgh and introduced into America 

 in 1872 by his son Alexander Graham Bell, 

 consists of a series of alphabetical characters 

 based on the position of the vocal organs when 

 they are in motion. These characters, suggest 

 to the eye the mechanical process of speech in 

 the formation of all the sounds that can be 

 uttered. 



For many years after schools for the deaf 

 were established, pupils were not admitted 

 until they were eight or ten years of age. 

 Gradually it was realized that school instruc- 

 tion should begin at about five years of age, 

 but the years between birth and school age 

 were practically wasted, from the standpoint 

 of language acquisition. Recently, a body of 

 literature has become available for the instruc- 

 tion and guidance of parents of deaf children 

 in their training at home before they are of 

 school age. Among works of this character 

 are John D. Wright's What the Mother of a 

 Deaf Child Ought to Know, and late volumes 

 of the Volta Review, published in Washington, 

 D. C., by the Volta Bureau. 



What can be accomplished in the education 

 of the deaf and dumb is strikingly shown in the 

 achievement of Miss Helen Keller. Though 

 deaf and dumb from infancy and blind after 

 the age of nineteen months, she is a college 

 graduate and successful writer, and is a lecturer 

 of note. J.D.W. 



Consult Garrett's Directions to Parents of Deaf 

 Children; Bell's Deaf Mute Instruction in Rela- 

 tion to the Work of the Public Schools. 



Related Subjects. The reader Is referred to 

 the following articles In these volumes : 

 Bell, Alexander Graham Keller, Helen Adams 

 Bridgman, Laura Dewey Sign Language 



DEARBORN, HENRY (1751-1829), an Amer- 

 ican soldier and physician, born at Northamp- 

 ton, N. H., distinguished as a Revolutionary 

 hero, and honored by having Fort Dearborn, on 

 the site of Chicago, named for him. On hear- 

 ing of the Battle of Lexington on April 20, 

 1775, he marched to Cambridge, a distance 

 of sixty-five miles, with a company of volun- 

 teers and was made a captain. He served at 

 the Battle of Bunker Hill, accompanied Arnold 

 to Quebec and was major under Gates when 

 Burgoyne was captured. By a gallant charge 

 at the Battle of Monmouth he distinguished 

 himself and his regiment. In 1780 he took part 

 in Sullivan's Indian expedition in Western 

 New York and was in the final Yorktown 

 campaign. He was twice a member of Con- 

 gress, and was Secretary of War in Jefferson's 

 Cabinet (1801-1809). Becoming a major-gen- 

 . eral in the War of 1812, he was honored as 

 senior officer of the United States army until 

 his honorable discharge in 1815. In May, 1822, 

 he was sent as minister to Portugal, but at 

 his own request was recalled after two years. 



DEATH. In all plant and animal life there 

 is a time when the vital functions cease to exist. 

 This is called death. The physiologist says 

 that the final cause of death in man is the 

 stopping of the heart's action, which results in 

 the arrest of the circulation and the death of 

 the bodily tissues through lack of nourishment. 

 The average person thinks of death as the 

 final episode in the drama of life; compara- 

 tively, he pictures life as a long line, and 

 death a mere dot at the end of it. 



When Death Begins. As a matter of fact, 

 death begins with birth, for throughout the 

 span of life every part of the organism has 

 its period of vitality and decay, and in con- 

 tinuous succession old cells are destroyed and 

 new ones are formed in all the bodily tissues. 

 Speaking figuratively, life and death are en- 

 gaged in a struggle that ends only when death 

 is finally victorious. Sometimes death is aided 

 by disease, accident or violence, but even 

 when man lives to old age, life must finally 

 succumb to the forces of decay. This is the 

 period, wrote the author of Ecclesiastes, "when 

 the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the 

 strong men shall bow themselves, and the 

 grinders cease because they are few, and those 

 that look out of the windows be darkened." 



