to restore the Deaf and Dumb to hearing. 307 



*' In reading this observation," observes M. Itard, " it is impos- 

 sible not to see the error of the author in supposing that he had a 

 case of simultaneous paralysis of the organs of hearing, and the or- 

 gans of speech to prescribe for : and the degree to which he was 

 prepossessed with the idea, since to support it, he imagined that the 

 tongue was too thick, and that after the application of the moxa, its 

 thickness was diminished. If, notwithstanding this mistake, the 

 mode of treatment really succeeded ; if the moxa under the chin 

 partly contributed to the cure of the deafness, the sympathy which 

 exists between this region and the ear easily explains the whole se- 

 cret of the success. Paralysis of the tongue never causes complete 

 dumbness : the articulation is defective, but there are some sounds 

 which are distinctly heard. The same thing is true of the paralysis 

 of the muscles of the larynx, which never causes a total privation of 

 speech. The utterance is indeed feeble, and destitute of inflection, 

 but yet it is intelligible. The vocal organs, then, in the case above 

 cited, were not injured, and the cure of the deafness was sufficient 

 to restore them to their functions." 



5. In the year 1786, a man named Felix Merle, a botanical phy- 

 sician, as he styled himself, appeared at the Institution for the Deaf 

 and Dumb at Bourdeaux, and commenced a course of treatment for 

 deafness on all the pupils, amounting at that time to twenty six or 

 twenty seven. It consisted in introducing, morning and evening, 

 into each ear, a drop of a certain liquid of his own composition, 

 which was kept there by a bit of cotton. This treatment was con- 

 tinued a month, but with no effect, except in two instances. The 

 first is that of a young lad, eight or nine years of age, who in in- 

 fancy had possessed the power of hearing, and had become deaf by 

 an accident, but who yet heard a little with one ear. On the twenty 

 third or twenty fourth day of the treatment, he experienced in both 

 ears a very sharp pain. The pain gradually increased till the intro- 

 duction of the liquid into the meatus auditorius became insupporta- 

 ble : two or three days after the first attack, a purulent discharge 

 took place, in the middle of the night, from both ears ; the child im- 

 mediately began to hear more distinctly, so that the ear affected 

 with total deafness, occupied the place of that which had retained 

 some little sensibility, and the sense of hearing in the latter was still 

 more improved. Though the hearing was by no means perfect, it 

 was sufficient to enable the child to learn to speak and to make use 

 of language ; which he has ever since retained. It should be re- 



