THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 87 



Dumbness, in a large number of cases, is the natural conse- 

 quence of deafness. To this class of persons, possessed as they are 

 of the organs of speech, which need only training and exercise, a 

 phonetic system of language representation would prove of great 

 value. The ear is tutor to the tongue ; render the ear incapable 

 of performing its office and some substitute must be found to carry 

 on the work of instruction. The discovery of Articulation intro- 

 duced this class to spoken language, and it appears to me that an 

 analysis of spoken language, easily indicated on hand and page, 

 should prove of incalculable benefit to the practitioner. 



In reference to the analysis I propose, the objection may be 

 raised that the analysis of thirty-six sounds employed in pho- 

 netic shorthand is not sufficiently minute, in short, that a spelling 

 based upon this classification might better be termed consistent 

 than purely phonetic. The answer may be made that the refining 

 process might be extended almost indefinitely, but for the average 

 ■ear the analysis mentioned will prove ample. A reference to 

 "Pronunciation," in my paper on "The Spelling Reform," in a 

 former part of this journal, may be made by those interested in the 

 subject of practical analysis. The thirty-six sounds analysis has, at 

 any rate, some fifty years of usefulness to recommend it, and has 

 proved equal to the demands made upon it, as can be seen in 

 the practice of phonography. 



The wide and increasing diffusion of a knowledge of phonetic 

 shorthand, the growing importance of the subject, and the improve- 

 ment in primary education along phonetic lines, as seen in the intro- 

 duction of the " phonic method " into our common schools, must 

 bring to our minds the belief that a new era is in store for language 

 representation, in other words, that English will in due time take on 

 a phonetic dress. If the manual herein presented shall have done 

 nothing more than anticipate that event, it will perhaps have con- 

 tributed in some degree to the cause of usefulness and advancement. 



There are to-day hundreds of thousands of persons throughout 

 the English-speaking world who are familiar with the analysis I have 

 employed ; ninety per cent, of these are acquainted with Pitmanic 

 shorthand. These, under the plan promoted, could be brought into 

 touch with the deaf and dumb with so little trouble as to be practi- 

 cally insignificant, Phonographers could learn the handed manual 

 in fifteen minutes' time, for the simple reason that the symbols 



