Sect. TIL] Theori) and Practice of Physic. S6^ 



lost. Justice requires, whenever this subject is 

 mentioned, that the phihinthropic labours of Kush 

 and Beddoes should be duly appreciated. Simihir 

 exertions have also been made, and vv ith like con- 

 siderable success, to throw light on the nature and 

 cure o^ Scrofula, and the Diseases of the Mind, to 

 say nothing of many others equally worthy of notice. 

 Under this head it is proper to take some notice 

 of the successful attempts which ha^e been made, 

 during the eighteenth century, to enable the Deaf 

 and Dumb to speak. Deafness has, in all ages, 

 been considered such a total obstruction to speech, 

 and the knowledge of written language, that the 

 attempt to teach those who are destitute of the 

 sense of hearing, either to speak or read, has been 

 generally regarded as vain. One of the first teach- 

 ers of the deaf and dumb was Bonet, a priest, se- 

 cretary to the constable of Castile, in Spain, lie 

 undertook the tuition of his younger brother, who 

 had lost the sense of hearing at ten years of age; 

 and he published an account of his system in 1620, 

 at Madrid. Amman, a Swiss physician, was the 

 next systematic writer on this subject. He printed 

 at Amsterdam a treatise in Latin, about the year 

 1692, entitled Surdus Loquens. Dr. John Wallis, 

 a iQw years afterwards, suggested, in his Gram- 

 matica LingUiS Anglic ame, a plan for conveying 

 ideas to the minds of the deaf more distinctly than 

 by ordinary signs. He was followed \>y Holder, 

 Dalgarno, and Bulwer, each of whom devised a 

 plan, and made some progress in its execution. 

 There was, however, little done to any vahial)I(,^ 

 purpose till the year 1764, when Mr. Thomas Braid- 

 wood, of Edinburgh, undertook thc' diliicult ta>k. 



