56 BULLETIN OP THE 



method of articulation should have the preference over that of 

 signs in the instruction and education of the deaf and dumb. 



" Considering that the simultaneous use of signs aild speech has 

 the disadvantage of injuring speech and lip reading and precision 

 of ideas, the convention declares that the pure oral method ought 

 to be preferred." 



Apropos to these resolutions, Mr. Gallaudet quoted the com- 

 ments of the London Times, which journal remarks that — 



" No more representative body could have been collected than 

 that which at Milan has declared for oral teaching for the deaf and 

 dumb, and for nothing but oral teaching," and also speaks of the 

 action of the convention as expressing a " virtual unanimity of 

 preference for oral teaching, which might seem to overbear all 

 possibility of opposition." 



Mr. Gallaudet then proceeded to explain the composition of the 

 convention, which, he stated, consisted of 164 members, of whom 

 eighty-seven were Italians and fifty-six French, these two nation- 

 alities composing seven-eighths of its representation. There were 

 from America five members, while the city of Milan alone furnished 

 forty-six. The president and secretary, both oralists, were from 

 Milan, and seven out of eight other officers were also oralists. The 

 Paris convention, in 1878, had been organized by the Pereire So- 

 ciety, an active propaganda in favor of the exclusive oral method ; 

 and the organization of the Milan convention was of a similar 

 nature, and cannot be regarded as representative of the general 

 body of instructors of the deaf and dumb throughout the world, as 

 the preceding statement of its composition must indicate. The 

 American delegates voted in favor of the combined method of 

 teaching, both orally and by signs. 



He expressed, in closing, the conviction that teachers of this 

 country are working in the right direction, and that, in due time, 

 the relative importance as well as the proper sphere of the two 

 methods will be fully recognized in the combined system. 



191st Meeting. January 8, 1881. 



Vice-President Taylor in the Chair. 

 Twenty-seven members present. 

 The minutes of the last meeting were read and adopted. 



