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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 19, 1885. 



a certain extent creates his own language, and we can 

 therefore observe its growth. 



There is a widespread but very erroneous belief that 

 deaf-and-dumb children are inferior in mental capacity to 

 other children. This belief probably arises from the fact 

 that there are children who are dumb from deficient intel- 

 lect ; those who are dumb from the loss of hearing are, 

 however, usually as clever as other children of their age. 

 They live in a world of their own from which all sounds 

 are cut off, a world of sights and touches, tastes and smells; 

 and as far as their senses can be utilised they make use of 

 them, and are keener observers than others, because they 

 can only trust to their own observations. Whatever ques- 

 tions may arise in their minds they have to solve for them- 

 selves, while their hearing and speaking brothers and sisters 

 are too often content to accept hearsay evidence instead 

 of reasoning for themselves. The knowledge of the 

 untaught deaf child is limited to his own crippled sense 

 impressions ; he can know of nothing which he has not 

 actually experienced ; whereas a hearing child in the 

 language it learns is presented with a whole system of 

 philosophy, the stored-up learning of countless generations. 

 The deaf infant makes its wants known instinctively by 

 cries and other signs, precisely in the same way as an 

 ordinary infant. As it gi'ows older its sensations are 

 expressed like those of other children. We can tell by its 

 actions whether what it touches, smells, or tastes is 

 pleasant or unpleasant, and if what it beholds causes it 

 astonishment, fear, or pleasure. The natural expressions 

 called forth by certain feelings are interwoven in the 

 child's mind with the things and actions which cause them, 

 and become in time signs of these things and actions, so 

 that the expressions may be assumed for purposes of 

 communication. The facial expression of the deaf mute 

 plays the same part in his language as the tone of voice in 

 which a hearing person speaks. The deaf child imitates 

 nature and its parents in actions, the hearing child in sounds 

 as well as actions. All congenitally deaf children use the 

 same natural sign for expressing the same idea. They 

 manage to make themselves perfectly understood by point- 

 ing at things, while, when the objects of discussion are out 

 of sight, they describe them pictorially. When thirsty, the 

 deaf child touches its throat and stomach, and acts 

 as if gulping down liquid. If its head aches, 

 the hand is pressed to the painful part. A man 

 who had been marked by smallpox is mentioned by 

 touching the face at various points with the tip of the 

 forefinger. These children make themselves a language 

 which all have in common ; but it depends on the intelli- 

 gence of the individual and on its surroundings how far 

 this shall be developed in his case ; the more intelligent a 

 child naturally is, the more characteristic and special is the 

 sign which he adopts to convey his meaning to others. 

 The deaf child's dictionary is made up of aspects and 

 movements. For him the cat is the animal that scratches, 

 an attribute common to all cats ; the worm is the wriggler; 

 the bull, the tosser ; the bird, the flyer ; the stick, the 

 striker ; the tailor, the sewer ; the oven, the thing that 

 makes you draw your hand away quickly. Thus move- 

 ment is what first and most powerfully impresses him ; but 

 he soon begins to distinguish colours. To express his 

 appreciation of them, he falls back upon his early impres- 

 sions, by which colour was associated with certain familiar 

 objects; thus anything nd is like the lip, green like grass. 

 Form is described by movements of haiids and arms ; for 

 round, a circle is made in the air. To express tree, the 

 child stands up stiffly, with his arms stretched out for 

 branches. Some characteristic part is frequently taken to 

 signify the whole thing ; for donkey, the hands are held 



upon each side of the head, to show that it is " the animal 

 with long ears." Five fingers placed in a group may be 

 used to mean a bundle of sticks ; the hand held flat before 

 the face means mirror : while one finger held up straight 

 is a candle. The deaf child makes up his language from 

 his various observations of nature, animate and inanimate, 

 and the origins of his signs or names may be classified as 

 follows : — 



1. The characteristic movements of the objects, as pea- 

 cock — -the animal that struts. 



2. The uses to which the object is put, as butter — what 

 is spread on bread. 



3. The occupation of the person indicated : doctor — the 

 man that feels one's pulse. 



4. Representation of actions to which certain things 

 are habitually subjected : money — that which is counted 

 out. 



5. Representation of the effects produced on men and 

 animals by the objects : the sun — what makes one blink ; 

 pepper — what makes one sneeze ; brandy — what makes 

 people drunk, the characteristic rolling about being imi- 

 tated, after the sign of drinking has been made. 



G. Individuals are represented by characteristic marks : 

 at one school for the deaf at which I visit one of the 

 teachers who has a prominent nose is always indicated by 

 the sign for a large nose, the child applying his hand to his 

 own. One man is the " fat man," another the " thin." 



7. In a similar way, names are applied to classes having 

 similar characteristics : A criminal is the man whose hands 

 are bound ; a clergyman — the one who wears a white neck- 

 cloth and long coat. 



S. The manner in which things are prepared for use : a 

 match is indicated by imitating the action of striking one ; 

 wine by acting as if pouring it out, and drinking it with a 

 smack of the lips. 



9. The form or appearance of things is shown : for vind- 

 miU the shape of the building is shown with the hands and 

 the action of the sails with the arms. 



10. People and things are represented by the places in 

 which they are generally found : hat— what is put on the 

 head ; sword — what hangs by the side ; grandfather is 

 mentioned by pointing to his chair. 



Curiously enough, deaf children frequently indicate 

 animals by imitating their characteristic sounds. By 

 imitating those movements of the vocal organs which in 

 the animal produce these sounds, they themselves reproduce 

 them, although unconsciously, since they have no idea of 

 what we call sound. Upon this peculiarity is based, to a 

 great extent, that admirable system of teaching " the dumb 

 to speak," to which I hope to refer hereafter. A case 

 of great interest in this connection is mentioned by 

 Eschwege,* who, speaking of a rest during a journey in 

 the interior, says : — " I was occupied the rest of the day 

 in quail-hunting and in making philosophical observations 

 on a deaf and-dumb idiot negro boy about thirteen years 

 old, with water on the brain, and upon whom nothing 

 made any impression except the crowing of a cock, whose 

 voice he could imitate to the life. Just as people teach 

 the deaf-and-dumb to speak, so this beast-man, by observing 

 and imitating the movements of the neck and tongue of 

 the cock, had in time learnt to crow, and this seemed the 

 only pleasure he had beyond the satisfaction of his natural 

 wants. He lay most part of the day stark naked on the 

 ground, and crowed, as if for a wager, against the cock." 



The deaf-and-dumb child qualifies things and their con- 

 ditions in the same way as he names the objects themselves. 

 Of adjectives of colour and form I have already spoken. 



* " Braailien," Part I., p. 59. 



