278 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
GESTURES OF THE BLIND. 
The facial expressions and gestures of the congenitally blind sare 
worthy of attention. The most interesting and conclusive examples 
come from the case of Laura Bridgman, who, being also deaf, could not 
possibly have derived them by imitation. When a letter from a beloved 
friend was communicated to her by gesture-language, she laughed and 
clapped her hands. A roguish expression was given to her face, con- 
comitant with the emotion, by her holding the lower lip by the teeth. 
She blushed, shrugged her shoulders, turned in her elbows, and raised 
her eye-brows under the same circumstances as other people. In amaze- 
ment, she rounded and protruded the lips, opened them, and breathed 
strongly. It is remarkable that she constantly accompanied her “ yes” 
with the common affirmative nod, and her “no” with our negative shake 
of the head, as these gestures are by no means universal and do not 
seem clearly connected with emotion. This, possibly, may be ex- 
plained by the fact that her ancestors for many generations had used 
these gestures. A similar curious instance is mentioned by Cardinal 
Wiseman (Essays, II, 547, London, 1853) of an Italian blind man, the 
appearance of whose eyes indicated that he had never enjoyed sight, 
and who yet made the same elaborate gestures made by the people with 
whom he lived, but which had been used by them immewmorially, as 
correctly as if he had learned them by observation. 
LOSS OF SPEECH BY ISOLATION. 
When human beings have been long in solitary confinement, been 
abandoned, or otherwise have become isolated from their fellows, they 
have lost speech either partially or entirely, and required to have it re- 
newed through gestures. There are also several recorded cases of child- 
ren, born with all their faculties, who, after having been lost or aban- 
doned, have been afterwards found to have grown up possessed of acute 
hearing, but without anything like human speech. One of these was 
Peter, “the Wild Boy,” who was found in the woods of Hanover in 
1726, and taken to England, where vain attempts were made to teach 
him language, though he lived to the age of seventy. Another was ¢ 
boy of twelve, found in the forest of Aveyron, in France, about the be- 
ginning of this century, who was destitute of speech, and all efforts to 
teach him failed. Some of these cases are to be considered in connec- 
tion with the general law of evolution, that in degeneration the last and 
highest acquirements are lost first. When in these the effort at acquir- 
ing or re-acquiring speech has been successful, it has been through ges- 
tures, in the same manner as missionaries, explorers, and shipwrecked 
mariners have become acquainted with tongues before unknown to them- 
selves and sometimes to civilization. All persons in such circumstances 
are obliged to proceed by pointing to objects and making gesticulations, 
