MARY BRADLEY, THE DEAF AND BLIND MUTE, 185 



instruction to Laura Bridgeraan, gives an additional interest to the 

 case now referred to. 



Painful, and seemingly irreparable, as were the privations of Laura 

 Bridgeman, she passed her early years in a comfortable New En- 

 gland home, under her mother's care; and amid the kindly sympathy 

 of friends and neighbours ; oue of whom especially, strove in various 

 s*imple ways to convey to her some knowledge of the outer world. 

 But it was altogether different with the unfortunate blind and deaf 

 mute uow referred to. Mary Bradley was deprived of sight and 

 hearing when not more than five years of age, and was found by the 

 English poor-law authorities, in a state of absolute destitution, in a 

 cellar, where she had been abandoned by her heartless parents. She 

 was placed, at first among the children training in Swinton School ; 

 but her complicated case of loss of senses seemed to place her beyond 

 the reach of every available means of communicating knowledge, and 

 she became a mere plaything and butt for the other children. She 

 was not, however, long left exposed to such neglect. It fortunately 

 chanced that Mr. Patterson, the master of the Deaf and Dumb 

 Institution at Old Wafibrd, had his attention called to the case 

 of Laura Bridgeman, chiefly through the statements set forth 

 in Mr. Charles Dickens' " American Notes " ; and he obtained the 

 permission of the Governor of that Institution to have her placed 

 under his care. She was accordingly removed to the Old Wafford 

 Institution in July, 1846, and has continued to reside there until 

 her recent deatn. But in her case bodily illness precluded her from 

 that joyous perseverance in the use of what might not inaptly be 

 called her recovered faculties, which renders Laura Bridgeman so 

 pleasing a subject of study. Mary Bradley closed her life in June 

 last, after nine years of almost continual suflTering ; so that, during 

 a large portion of the period of her residence at Old "Wafibrd, she 

 has been an object of painful interest to her kind guardians in that 

 valuable institution. 



The following brief notice refers to the efibrts for her instruction 

 which immediately followed her removal from Swinton School ; and, 

 though it lacks the minute details which give so much interest to 

 the narrative of Dr. Howe's training of Laura Bridgeman, a com- 

 parison of it with the facts already stated in reference to the latter, 

 will suffice to show many points in common in the two cases : — 



" Mr. Patterson had set himself a most difficult task, and many 



