74 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



forms of the Imperfect and Pluperfect Subjunctive in the 

 Roman folk-speech may be summed up as follows : 



1. The classical form of the Imperfect Subjunctive proba- 

 bly did not exist among the common people. 



2. The classical form of the Pluperfect Subjunctive was 

 used to express the Imperfect and probably also the Plu- 

 perfect idea. 



3. A comj)ound of the Pluperfect Subjunctive in habere 

 and esse with the Past Participle Passive was sometimes em- 

 ployed for the Pluperfect tense, probably when the speaker 

 wished to lay special emphasis upon the fact of antecedence. 



TWENTY-FIFTH REGULAR MEETING. 



June 1, 1880. 



Is Thought Possible Without Language ? — Case of a 



Deaf Mute. 



By SAMUEL PORTER. 



The paper opens with a statement of the theory of Mr. 

 Darwin, Professor Huxley, and Max Miiller, in which the 

 rational faculty of man is regarded as the result of the pos- 

 session of language. 



As a contribution to the solution of the question, Pro- 

 fessor Porter gave a detailed narrative of Mr. 'Melville Bal- 

 lard, now a teacher in the Columbia Institute for Deaf 

 Mutes, at Washington, who has been totally deaf since he 

 was eighteen months old. The speaker stated that those 

 who lose their hearing at such an early age have no advan- 

 tage over those deaf from their birth. 



Mr. Ballard's account of his experience proceeds as fol- 

 lows: 



His father and mother, at an early age, endeavored to give 

 him some idea of the Supreme being and of a future life. 

 He pondered the matter over and over in fruitless effort to 



