50 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
this proposition. It is a more ridiculous and absurd fallacy than 
that of Sibscota and more easily disposed of. 
The hypothesis that congenitally deaf children do not naturally 
speak because their vocal organs are defective involves the assump- 
tion that were their vocal organs perfect such children would natu- 
rally speak. But why should they speak a language they have 
never heard? Do we speak any language that we have not heard? 
Are our vocal organs defective because we do not talk Chinese? It 
is a fallacy. The deaf have as perfect vocal organs as our own, 
and do not naturally speak because they do not hear. I have my- 
self examined the vocal organs of more than 400 deaf-mutes with- 
out discovering any other peculiarities than those to be found 
among hearing and speaking children. The deaf children of Italy 
and Germany are almost universally taught to speak, and why 
should we not teach ours? Wherever determined efforts have been 
made in this country success has followed and articulation schools 
have been established. 
Fallacy Concerning the Intelligence of Deaf Children. 
The use of the word “ mute” engenders another fallacy concerning 
the mental condition of deaf children. There are two classes of 
persons who do not naturally speak—those who are dumb on account 
of defective hearing and those who are dumb on account of defec- 
tive minds. All idiots are dumb. 
Deaf children are gathered into institutions and schools that 
have been established for their benefit away from the general observ- 
vation of the public, and even in adult life they hold themselves 
aloof from hearing people; while idiots and feeble-minded persons 
are not so generally withdrawn from their families. Hence the 
greater number of “ mutes” who are accessible to public observation 
are dumb on account of defective minds, and not of defective hear- 
ing. No wonder, therefore, that the two classes are often con- 
founded together. It is the hard task of every principal of an 
institution for the deaf and dumb to turn idiots and feeble-minded 
children away from his school—children who hear perfectly, but 
cannot speak. Although it is evidently fallacious to argue that, 
because all deaf infants are dumb, and all idiots are dumb; there- 
fore all deaf infants are idiots: still this kind of reasoning is un- 
consciously indulged in by a large proportion of our population ; 
and the majority of those who for the first time visit an institution 
