Il6 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN 



before the 'black,' enables the deaf-mute to make his syntax 

 supply, to some extent, the distinction between adjectives and 

 substantives, which his imitative signs do not themselves 

 express. 



"The other two are well exemplified by a remark of the 

 Abbe Sicard's : A pupil to whom I one day put this question, 

 ' Who made God ? ' and who replied, • God made nothing,' 

 left me in no doubt as to this kind of inversion, usual to the 

 deaf-and-dumb, when I went on to ask him, ' Who made the 

 shoe ? ' and he answered, * The shoe made the shoemaker.' 

 So when Laura Bridgman, who was blind as well as deaf- 

 and-dumb, had learnt to communicate ideas by spelling words 

 on her fingers, she would say, ' Shut door,' ' Give book ; ' no 

 doubt because she had learnt these sentences whole, but when 

 she made sentences for herself, she would go back to the 

 natural deaf-and-dumb syntax, and spell out ' Laura bread 

 give,' to ask for bread to be given her, and ' Water drink 

 Laura,' to express that she wanted to drink water. . . . 



" A look of inquiry converts an assertion into a question, 

 and fully seems to make the difference between ' The master 

 is come,' and ' Is the master come ? ' The interrogative pro- 

 nouns ' Who ? ' ' What ? ' are made by looking or pointing 

 about in an inquiring manner; in fact, by a number of 

 unsuccessful attempts to say, 'he,' 'that.' The deaf-and- 

 dumb child's way of asking, ' Who has beaten you } ' would be, 

 ' You beaten ; who was it ? ' Though it is possible to render 

 a great mass of simple statements and questions, almost 

 gesture for word, the concretism of thought which belongs to 

 the deaf-mute, whose mind has not been much developed by 

 the use of written language, and even to the educated one 

 when he is thinking and utter-ing his thoughts in his native 

 signs, commonly requires more complex phrases to be recast. 

 A question so common amongst us as, ' What is the matter 

 with you?' would be put, 'You crying.? You have been 

 beaten .? ' and so on. The deaf-and-dumb child does not ask, 

 * What did you have for dinner yesterday .? ' but ' Did you 

 have soup } Did you have porridge ? ' and so forth. A con- 



