GENERAL MEETING. 71 
Why the Deaf employ a Gesture Language. 
A gesture language is employed by a deaf child at home, not 
because it is the only language that is natural to one in his con- 
dition, but because his friends neglect to use in his presence any 
other form of language that can be appreciated by his senses. 
Speech is addressed to his ear; but his ear is dead, and the motions 
of the mouth cannot be fully interpreted without previous familiarity 
with the language. On account, therefore, of the neglect of parents 
and friends to present to his eye any clearly visible form of lan- 
guage, the deaf child is forced to invent such a means of communi- 
cation, which his friends then adopt by imitation. I venture to 
express the opinion that no gesture language would be developed 
at home by a deaf child if his parents and friends habitually em- 
ployed, in his presence, the English language in a clearly visible 
form. He would come to understand it by usage, and use it by 
imitation. 
An old writer, George Dalgarno, in 1680, expressed the opinion, 
in which I fully concur, that “there might be successful addresses 
made to a dumb child even in its cradle, risw cognoscere matrem, if 
the mother or nurse had but as nimble a hand as usually they have 
a tongue.” 
When deaf children enter an institution they find the other 
pupils and the teachers using a form of gesture language which 
they do not understand. For the first time in their lives they find 
a language used by those about them that is addressed to the senses 
they possess. After a longer or shorter time they discard the lan- 
guage that they had themselves devised, and acquire, by imitation, 
the sign language of the institution. 
Harmful Results of the Sign Language. 
After a few months residence in the institution, the children re- 
turn to their friends in the holidays using easily and fluently a lan- 
guage that is foreign to them, while of the English language they 
know no more than the average school boy does of French or Ger- 
man after the same period of instruction. The only language they 
can employ in talking to their friends is the crude gesture language 
of their own invention, which they had long before discarded at 
school ; and they perpetually contrast the difficulty and slowness of 
comprehension of their friends with the ease with which their school 
fellows and teachers could understand what they mean. They have 
