370 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



deaf ; he knows no reason why words should be arranged in cer- 

 tain orders. Day by day the same forms are repeated until, 

 brought into play on every appropriate occasion, they are used 

 spontaneously. Fortunately, the scholar does not know what is 

 before him. Ignorant of the amount he is to learn, he absorbs his 

 daily allowance of language, his ideas expanding, and his mind 

 unfolding. All is delightful to him. It is the teacher who feels 

 the great work to accomplish. Various studies can be taken up 

 by the pupil after he has secured some hold of language and his 

 education can be made identical with that of a hearing student. 

 There are no limits for him but his inclinations or circumstances. 



A large number of the deaf were not born in their present 

 condition ; statistics prove that many have lost hearing by disease 

 or accident after learning to speak in ,the natural way. If this 

 should occur when two or three years of age, or when even some- 

 what older, and no educative means are employed immediately, 

 the speech becomes impaired in a short time. Should the child 

 be ten or more years old, he retains his articulation fairly well, 

 but in common with those younger, the voice rapidly acquires 

 unpleasant characteristics. Such children in former years were 

 silenced in the institutions. Their knowledge of speech and re- 

 membrance of forms of expression in language develop into a 

 great advantage over those of the same age who never heard. 

 The difference is inestimable. There is far less chance for mis- 

 understandings, less mystery about ordinary matters ; the mind 

 is older. The impaired speech may be corrected, the voice 

 brought under control, and instruction in speech-reading imparted 

 at once. 



Formerly the ability to understand what is said by movements 

 in the face was called lip-reading ; the term is unsatisfactory, for 

 more than the lips must be watched. Of late this accomplish- 

 ment has received the name of speech-reading. It is an ability 

 to follow the varying expressions in the face as quickly as they 

 appear, and thus to convey thought through the medium of the 

 eye instead of by the hearing. Persons reading the above will 

 look up at some one present, and after watching the face awhile 

 will wonder how it is possible for any being to follow those 

 movements and understand speech thereby. They attempt too 

 much at once. Preliminary steps must be taken. The little 

 child just beginning to read can not scan a page quickly. Suc- 

 cess in speech-reading means an education of the eye secured by 

 practice. Its attainment by the child born deaf grows with his 

 knowledge of spoken language ; the child who has lost hearing 

 after having learned speech naturally, advances in ability to 

 understand others in proportion to his dependence upon that 

 method of communication. The wonderful organ which gives 



