308 On the late efforts in France and other parts of Europe 



marked however, that he has never heard or spoken as well as other 

 men. The discharge from the ear, which continued only a few 

 da^s, was not very copious and ceased spontaneously. 



6. The second case in which this mode of treatment appears to have 

 been successful, is that of a young lady, sixteen years of age, who 

 was born with the organs of hearing in a sound condition, and at 

 the end of fifteen or sixteen months, began to talk. The mother of 

 the child was in the habit of taking her to the vineyard in which 

 she was employed, and leaving her on the grass at a time when the 

 weather was damp, while she herself was at work. It was not re- 

 marked at the time that the child suffered any inconvenience : but 

 soon after, it was noticed that instead of improving in hearing and 

 speech, she appeared to have lost both the one and the other. She 

 had since remained deaf and dumb, and was making rapid progress 

 from the instruction she was receiving in the Institution. About the 

 twenty-fifth day of the treatment, she experienced in both ears a 

 very sharp pain, which was so intolerable, especially when the liquor 

 was introduced into the meatus auditorius, that she was obliged to 

 be forcibly held. On the twenty-eighth day while in school, she 

 felt an inclination to sneeze, which was immediately followed by a 

 simultaneous discharge from both ears of a large quantity of very 

 fetid purulent matter. The perfect re-establishment of hearing im- 

 mediately took place, so that the young lady experienced a feeling 

 of extreme terror, and firmly clung to what was at hand, under the 

 apprehension, as she afterwards said, that the house was about to 

 fall upon her. By degrees this feeling left her, but her hearing con- 

 tinued the same. As soon as she heard, she forgot or at least had 

 no desire to use the common signs employed by the deaf and dumb, 

 and rapidly learned to speak. At the end of six weeks she was able 

 to ask for every thing that was necessary, and at the end of six 

 months she spoke very well. Having, at that time, returned into 

 the country, she lost somewhat of her facility in speaking. The 

 discharge from the ears continued fifteen days or three weeks, and 

 ceased shortly after. 



Such is the account of all the well authenticated instances in 

 which, previous to more recent efforts, the deaf and dumb have been 

 restored to hearing. If too limited in number, to warrant any cer- 

 tain conclusion with respect to the extent to which congenital deaf- 

 ness might be cured, they yet were sufficient to show the possibil- 

 ity of so desirable an event, and to point out the means from which 



