78 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
persons so situated can, with proper instruction, be taught to speak 
and to understand the motions of the lips of others. 
That this is a grave error has been proved by the experience of 
more than a century of oral teaching in Germany. 
The late Moritz Hill, of Wessenfels, Prussia, a man of the widest 
experience and highest standing among the oral teachers of Europe, 
expressed to me the opinion a few years since that out of one hun- 
dred deaf-mutes, including the semi-mute and semi-deaf, only 
“eleven could converse readily with strangers on ordinary subjects” 
on leaving school. Of course a much larger number would be able 
to converse with their teachers, family, and intimate friends on 
common-place subjects; but it would be found that very many 
could never attain to any ready command of speech. 
The explanation of this lies in the fact that a child, deaf from 
infancy, in order to succeed with speech and lip-reading must pos- 
sess a certain quickness of vision, a power of perception, and a 
control over the muscles of the vocal organs, by no means common 
to all such children. 
Mr. Bell’s view has been held by many instructors with more 
or less tenacity, and this fact is explained by a readiness on their 
part to argue from the particular to the general. Having 
attained marked success with certain individuals, they draw, in their 
enthusiasm, the mistaken conclusion that success is possible in the 
case of every other deaf child, overlooking the fact that many 
things, besides the mere deafness of the child, may affect the result. 
Experience has demonstrated that in attempting to teach the 
deaf to speak, failure in many cases must be anticipated. 
Mr. Bell is mistaken in supposing ignorance as to the mech- 
anism of the vocal organs to be a prominent cause of failure to 
impart speech to the deaf. It is no doubt true that among per- 
sons unfamiliar with the training of the deaf, few have made the 
mechanism of speech a study ; but in Germany, Italy, and France, 
not to speak of our own country, many are to be found who may 
be said to have mastered this subject. The results of their labors 
have been made available to instructors of the deaf, and all the 
best oral schools are profiting thereby. . 
Mr. Bell is also mistaken when he says that “in a majority of 
our schools and institutions articulation and speech-reading are 
taught to only a favored few, and in these schools no use of articu- 
lation is made as a means of communication,” and that “ few, if 
