58 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 417 



whereof she affirms, for she has other children, now also in 

 adult life, who hear. I sometimes wonder what must be the 

 feelings of a refined, sensitive nature as he sees his class so 

 unjustly represented, as if doomed to perpetual childhood, 

 or as one without whom the , world would be better o£f. I 

 imagine him soliloquizing, " What kind of a being am I ? 

 The Scripture speaks of persons ' of whom the world was not 

 worthy;' but mine is a class of persons whom some seem to 

 deem unworthy to live, and Providence has made a mistake 

 in giving us existence, and I will immediately set to work 

 to help Providence do better hereafter." When criminals 

 and paupers are exterminated, it will be time enough to take 

 in hand honest people who are handicapped by mere physical 

 defects. I would gladly, if I could, say to every parent that 

 a deaf child in a family may be as cunning and lovely, and 

 as much "a thing of beauty and a joy forever," iJ he is 

 properly trained and treated, as the child who hears. Super- 

 intendents are often consulted as to the care of deaf children. 

 Let them be careful not to make of such a consultation a 

 quasi-coroner's inquest. 



Dr. G-allaudet says the deaf will not allow me to compare 

 their misfortune with baldness. If I have done the deaf any 

 discourtesy by the allusion, which was not a comparison of 

 the extent of their inconvenience, hut was merely a citation 

 of a class of persons who have a physical defect, I am will- 

 ing to make due apology. Far he it from me to speak dis- 

 respectfully of the bald, whom I have held in the highest 

 reverence since, when a child, I heard the story of the 

 naughty boys, the bald-headed man, and the bears. I appre- 

 hended, when I made the allusion, that I should hear the 

 growl of bears, but I did not expect that the first one would 

 come prancing out of the office of a college president. Dr. 

 Bell is disturbed by the qualification "in fly-time." lam 

 willing to withdraw the '"in fly-time," and leave the state- 

 ment without qualification ; for I believe that more suffering 

 has resjlted from insufficient head-covering in the way of 

 catarrh, resulting in phthisis, pneumonia, la grippe, etc., 

 than from deafness. Dr. Bell counts the cost of the deaf- 

 mute to society; but what immense outlay has ensued from 

 the above diseases in the way of medical attendance and 

 supplies, and nursing, to say nothing of disorganized families, 

 mourning and funeral expenses ! Would that some scientist 

 would organize a crusade against the intermarriage of the 

 bald, for baldness is surely hereditary. A bald variety of 

 the human race would he dreadful. 



There is another fruitful field of benevolence open to an 

 apostle of altruism. Carious teeth are an hereditary physi- 

 cal defect that has cost many times more suffering and finan- 

 cial outlay than deafness. Let some one anxious for the 

 comfort of future generations expend a little energy here. 

 I see no reason why, among the many sufferers from various 

 physical defects, the deaf alone should be restricted in the 

 exercise of preference in the most sacred of all human rela- 

 tions — the marriage relation — either by legal enactment or 

 public opinion, which has almost the force of law. It is 

 gratifying to know that Dr. Bell now distinctly avows that 

 neither " he nor any one else proposes to inflict this cruelty " 

 of legal enactment. 1 believe he never did; but the trend of 

 much he has said has beeii in that direction, and his inter- 

 viewers have been singularly unfortunate in misapprehend- 

 ing him. Others have advocated it, and have fortified their 

 position by quoting statements of Dr. Bell. Dr. Bell has the 

 tender, sympathetic heart of a humane man, and a sincere 

 interest in the deaf, and would not intentionally wound one 

 of them ; but I am persuaded that he has caused pain that he 



little thought of, both to the deaf and to their relatives and 

 friends. 



Hany years before Dr. Bell appeared on the arena of deaf- 

 mute work there was in the minds of many people a preju- 

 dice against the marriage of parties in whom the liability 

 to produce deaf oifspring existed. Thirty-two years ago, 

 being with a party of deaf-mutes in an important city of 

 northern Illinois, I remember a prominent gentleman in 

 active business inveighing against such persons. In vain I 

 endeavored to show him the mistake of his view. Within 

 the last year the same gentleman and his wife have visited 

 me with reference to receiving as a pupil his grandson, who 

 is now one of my pupils. Comment is unnecessary. Twenty 

 years ago a gentleman {sic), overlooking a company of my 

 pupils, after asking a number of questions, said, "Every one 

 of their parents ought to be in the penitentiary." Such sen- 

 timents are the result of intellectual confusion. Would it 

 not be better for scientific men who have correct information 

 to enlighten rather than confuse the public ? 



Dr. G-allaudet and Dr. Bell object to my " wholesale en- 

 couragement of the intermarriage of the deaf;" one advising 

 the marriage of the deaf with hearing persons as the ideal 

 marriage, and the other of the congenital with the non-con- 

 genital deaf. If I have done this, I have found no reason 

 to regret it, for there have been within my observation more 

 deaf offspring from each of the last two classes than from 

 the intermarriage of the congenitally deaf. My advice to 

 them is to contract marriage just as others do, with whomso- 

 ever they find that compatibility that insures a happy mar- 

 riage, as a truly felicitous union is not chiefly dependent on 

 physical conditions, insisttag only that they be sure of a 

 competence which will insure comfort. I think the most 

 important caution for them is to beware of undue haste. 

 One of their inalienable rights, as of others, is the pursuit of 

 happiness; and I know of no better way of its pursuit than 

 in a congenial conjugal relation. I should expect, as Dr. 

 Bell does, a largec percentage of deaf births from deaf 

 parentage than exists in society at large ; but this is not be- 

 cause the parents are deaf, but because they belong to fam- 

 ilies in which the tendency to deafness inheres, other mem- 

 bers of which are as likely to have deaf offspring as the deaf 

 themselves, and who in fact do more frequently have such 

 children, as is shown by the far greater number of other . 

 relationships to the deaf tharj of parent and child. If it is 

 improper for the deaf to marry, it is as much so for their 

 relatives to ester wedlock. In the year 1886 I made a com- 

 putation of the deaf relationships to my then present and 

 former pupils, numbering 1,886, which showed, that, while 

 thirteen of them had deaf parents (the parents of only one 

 were congenitally deaf), there were 1,209 other relationships, 

 as brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. 



I am sorry that Dr. Bell {Science, Dec. 26) considers this 

 question from the low plane of mercenary considerations. 

 "Two hundred dollars a head " seems to him a terrible out- 

 lay for the deaf, while the per capita for hearing per- 

 sons is but twenty dollars per annum. There is a glaring 

 fallacy in this comparison. The two hundred dollars 

 charged to the deaf pays for his entire instruction and sup- 

 port, which is done for his hea'ing fellows in the home, the 

 church, the school, the mart, the shop, the social circle, the 

 lecture, and on the play-ground. Will Dr. Bell say that all 

 this costs the hearing youth only twenty dollars a year ? 1 

 trow not. If he thinks it will, let him ask some patrons of 

 Vassar, Wellesley, the Pennsylvania Training School, or 

 Mount Vernon Seminary, near his home, or any other re- 



