60 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
discouraged in his attempt to read from the mouth; whereas, in 
reality, it was not the stupidity of the boy that was in the way of 
his progress, but the ignorance of the teacher, who did not know 
that the words that were so different to her ear were absolutely alike 
to his eye. 
Some teachers, in their anxiety to teach speech-reading to their 
pupils, have the idea that they should refrain from every other 
mode of communication, so that their pupils may be forced to ob- 
serve the movements of the mouth, and the mouth alone. For in- 
stance, it is easy to write an ambiguous word or to spell it by a 
manual alphabet, but some teachers refrain from doing so, under 
the impression that this practice leads the pupil to depend upon 
the hand instead of the mouth. 
Again, deaf persons gather an idea of the emotion that actuates 
a speaker by the expression of his countenance. In fact facial 
expression is to the eye what the modulation of the voice is to the 
ear. It gives life to the inaudible utterances of the mouth; but 
there are some teachers who are so afraid that their pupils may 
come to depend upon the face instead of the mouth, that they think 
they should assume an impassive countenance from which nothing 
could be inferred. 
Requisites to the Art of Speech-reading. 
If we examine the visibility of speech and the causes of its in- 
telligibility, we shall find that there are three qualifications that 
must be possessed by a deaf child in order that he may understand 
readily the utterances of his friends. Omit any one of these quali- 
fications and good speech-reading is an impossibility : 
I. The eye must be trained to recognize readily those movements 
of the vocal organs that are visible. Has this ever been done? 
Have not pupils been required to grapple with all the difficulties of 
speech-reading at once, and to observe not only the movements of 
the vocal organs, but to find out the meaning of what is said? 
II. I have already explained that certain words have the same 
appearance to the eye, and it is necessary, if the pupil is to under- 
stand general conversation, that he shall know the words that look 
alike, so that a given series of movements of the vocal organs shall 
suggest to his mind not a single word, but a group of words, from 
which selection is to be made by context.” 
An illustration will explain what 1 mean. There are many 
