3 68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



second may reveal greater defiance than the first. Speech is the 

 expression of feeling, and feeling is best aroused through the 

 hearing. Here is a means of cultivation cut off from the deaf. 

 Can the education of the eye ever become sufficiently developed 

 to atone for the loss in this direction ? Most certainly not. The 

 diversion made by hearing a remark, a laugh, a song, or a mu- 

 sical instrument has oftentimes prevented a quarrel, dissipated a 

 worry, or broken a willful determination. The deaf are deprived 

 of this means of receiving a fresh turn to thought, and this fact 

 should be borne in mind when it is noticed that their disposition 

 is not to give up a plan once adopted. 



What the deaf may become if untaught is not an agreeable 

 picture to face. Some idea may be formed by recalling that they 

 were classed among the idiotic in the years they were neglected 

 and deemed unworthy of efforts to educate. Here is a child, 

 bright, healthy, and active, with an avenue to his brain obstructed. 

 Reasoning from limited knowledge gathered by his observations 

 alone, he misunderstands many efforts to do well by him. He is 

 conscious of lack of communication with others ; in a little while 

 he may be morose and unhappy. Give him the speech he knows 

 not, and the language that is to him a sealed book. With care 

 during the first years it is possible to develop an agreeable voice. 

 It would be wrong to claim it can become always musical or per- 

 fectly natural ; just as wrong is it to assert that some voices hap- 

 pen to be good, some acquire peculiar tricks for which there is no 

 remedy, or that it is right to be satisfied with any vocal efforts ob- 

 tained. The exhaled breath pushing its way between the edges of 

 the glottis becomes voice. If poor, it must be so from incorrect 

 action of the edges ; if good, from correct action. The teacher who 

 understands how to secure the proper working of this delicate 

 instrument can give the pupil a good voice. Speech is related to 

 the affections more than to the intellect. The prompting of the 

 actions of the vocal organs comes from the stirring of some emo- 

 tion. If the intensity is great, cool judgment has no influence 

 upon the voice unless long experience has developed self-control ; 

 if fear or timidity is felt, results are noticeable immediately. The 

 deaf child's happy state is therefore absolutely the first essential 

 for securing a warm or affectionate tone ; next, his thoughts must 

 be thrown out away from himself to enable the organs to act with- 

 out tension. It is for this reason we are not impressed with the 

 wisdom of educating the touch of the finger tips to feel the vibra- 

 tions of the vocal cords, believing as we do that such a method 

 by centering attention upon the throat, a part of the pupil's body, 

 prevents the developing of pure, resonant tones. 



The voice formed in the larynx is molded into the numerous 

 vowels by various shapes assumed by tongue, lips, and soft palate, 



