RELATION OF TONE AND GESTURE TO WORDS. 1 49 



It may tend to throw some light on this hypothetical 

 question — which is of some importance for us — if we consider 

 briefly the psychological status of wholly uneducated deaf- 

 mutes ; for although it is true that their case is not fairly 

 parallel to that of a human race destitute of the faculty of 

 speech (seeing that the individual deaf-mute does not find any 

 elaborate system of signs prepared for him by the exertions 

 of dumb ancestors, as would doubtless have been the case 

 under the circumstances supposed), still, on the other hand, 

 and as a compensating consideration, we must remember that 

 the individual deaf-mute not only inherits a human brain, the 

 structure of which has been elaborated by the speech of his 

 ancestors, but is also surrounded by a society the whole 

 structure of whose ideation is dependent upon speech. So 

 far, therefore, as the complex conditions of the question 

 admit of being disentangled, the case of uneducated deaf- 

 mutes living in a society of speaking persons affords the best 

 criterion we can obtain of the prospect which gesture-language 

 would have had as a means of thought-formation in the 

 human race, supposing this race to have been destitute of the 

 faculty of speech. To show, therefore, the psychological 

 condition of an individual thus circumstanced, I will quote a 

 brief passage from a lecture of my own, which v%-as given 

 before the British Association in 1878. 



" It often happens that deaf and dumb children of poor 

 parents are so far neglected that they are never taught finger- 

 language, or any other system of signs, whereby to converse 

 with their fellow-creatures. The consequence, of course, is 

 that these unfortunate children grow up in a state of intellec- 

 tual isolation, which is almost as complete as that of any of 

 the lower animals. Now, when such a child grows up and 

 falls into the hands of some competent teacher, it may of 

 course be educated, and is then in a position to record its 

 experiences when in its state of intellectual isolation. I have 

 therefore obtained all the evidence I can as to the mental 

 condition of such persons, and I find that their testimony is 

 perfectly uniform. In the absence of language, the mind is 



