116 VOCAL LANGUAei: Gt LAtJRA ftRJDGESiA??,^ 



" Hitherto," says Dr. Howe, " there had been nothing very encotff-' 

 aeing ; not much more success than in teaching a very intelligent dog 

 a variety of tricks. Bat we were approaching the moment when the 

 thought would flash upon her that all these were efforts to establish a 

 means of communication between her thoughts and ours. It was as 

 though she were under water and we on the surface over her, unable' 

 to see her, but dropping a line and moving it about here and there, 

 hoping it might touch her hand, so that she would grasp it instinc- 

 tively. At last it did touch her hand, and she did grasp it ; and we 

 pulled her up to the light ; or rather she pulled herself up. This 

 exercise with the separate letters could not go on long without hcF 

 perceiving that it presented- a way by which she could make a sign of 

 what was in her own mind, and show it to another mind. At last she 

 did perceive it. She grasped the end of the cord that was thrown to 

 her, and was drawn by it up and into human association. From this 

 moment the way was plain and easy, and the success certain." Under 

 the guidance of her skilful teacher she not only acquired the power of 

 verbal thought, and the means of conversing with others, but has 

 manifested unusual mental vigour and aptitude for intellectual devel- 

 opment. When, however, she is spoken of as mute, it has to be borne 

 in remembrance that there is no defect in her vocal organs. Like 

 the majority of deaf-mutes, she does not speak, simply because 

 she is alike destitute of all knowledge of the nature of audible sound;, 

 of the effect it can have upon others, and of its utterance by them. 

 The mere deaf-mute sees the motions of the lips and other external 

 indications of speech, of which she is unconscious ; so that her mind 

 is debarred from all conception of spoken language, except such aS' 

 may be innate and instinctive. 



Here then is a remarkable example of an active and highly intelli- 

 gent mind, in a condition more completely excluded from acquiring 

 phonetic signs of thought than any " wild man " shut out from all 

 intercourse with his kind, and growing up from infancy as one of the 

 natives of the forest. It may possibly throw some light on the gene- 

 ral question of the source of language if we inquire how far, in her 

 case, any traces of instinctive elements, or phonetic types, could be 

 discerned. The first point to be noted in Laura Bridgeman is that, 

 so far fromf being mute by nature, she was accustomed, before being 

 subjected to training, to indulge freely in the use of her voice ; but this 

 being unregulated by the ear, and associated with no specific ideas to 



