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 

 Abb6 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 uttering 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- 



