ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 81 



even in oral schools, especially with advanced pupils, as a means 

 of conveying instruction in the form of lectures. 



Col. Mallery spoke of the capability of sign language to express 

 abstract and abstruse ideas, and remarked that Mr. Edward B. 

 Tylor had maintained that it was incapable of such expression, 

 while Max Miiller claimed that these ideas were all derived from 

 sensuous ones. Mr. Tylor had ' given as examples of conceptions 

 not capable of being conveyed by signs, those of momentum and 

 plurality. He asked how this was. 



President Gallaudet replied that for the conveyance of abstract 

 ideas, a certain amount of explanation in simpler terms was usually 

 necessary, but to say that abstract ideas, such as those of momentum 

 and plurality, could not be conveyed by signs, would simply pro- 

 voke a smile from any practical teacher of the deaf and dumb. 



Dr. Fletcher inquired what proportion of deaf-mutes are found 

 capable of acquiring the power of oral speech. 



President Gallaudet replied that this differed with the language, 

 the Italian being easiest to acquire, and that between one-third and 

 one-half the pupils could learn to speak it. With the English the 

 statistics did not cover a sufficiently long period to deduce the pro- 

 portion accurately, but he thought it would be about one-third. In 

 reply to the further question relative to the children of the deaf and 

 dumb lady whose letter he had read, he stated that they were all 

 normal, and remarked upon the small tendency of deafness to 

 descend to the offspring even of parents who are both afflicted. 



Dr. Hoffman mentioned two deaf Indian children whom he 

 knew, and who seemed incapable of acquiring the sign language 

 of the tribe. 



President Gallaudet could explain it only on the assumption that 

 they were mentally deficient. 



Prof. Mason asked how far are we acquainted with the history of 

 the movement for the education of the deaf in different nations, 

 as Chinese, Japanese, etc. 

 6 



