SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 408 



" 6. A valuable mirror for the teacher, ia which the inlel- 

 lectual standpoint of his pupil is exhibited to him. 



"7. At first the only, and consequently indispensable, 

 means of comprehension between teacher and pupil, but not 

 a language which we merely need to translate into ours in 

 order to induct him into the latter tongue. 



"8. An instrument of mental development and substan- 

 tial instruction, made use of in the intercourse of the pupils 

 with each other; for example, the well-known beneficial in- 

 fluences which result from the association of the new pupils 

 with the more advanced. 



"9. A means, but not the only one, whereby to supply a 

 lack of clearness in other methods of communication, and 

 leading back, in extraordinary cases, to the real object, or to 

 its representation in drawing or model. 



"10. The most convenient, quick, and certain means, in 

 many cases, of making one's self understood by deaf-mutes, 

 whether during tuition or out of school hours, and therefore 

 also employed, perhaps, very often without need, even with- 

 out volition. 



"11. A very welcome means of revisal and correction 

 when articulation brings into use, for example, an ambiguous 

 word. 



"12. A most efficacious means of assisting even pupils in 

 the higher degrees of school training, giving light, warmth, 

 animation, to spoken language, which, for some time after 

 its introduction, continues dull and insipid. 



"13. A practicable means of communication with others 

 beyond the walls of the deaf-and-dumb institution, whether 

 it be used by itself or in connection with articulation." 



Then, after extending somewhat the train of thought sug- 

 gested by these clearly stated points, the author thus con- 

 cludes what he has to say in this part of his book on the use 

 of signs : — 



" But it is particularly in the teaching of religion that the 

 language of pantomime plays an important part, especially 

 when it is not only necessary to instruct but to operate on 

 sentiment and will, either because here this language is in- 

 dispensable to express the moral state of man, his thoughts, 

 and his actions, or that the word alone makes too little im- 

 pression on the eye of the mute to produce, without the 

 aid of pantomime, the desired effect in a manner sure and 

 sufficient." 



The only comments necessary on Hill's conclusive argu- 

 ment in favor of the sign-language are (1) that his single 

 criticism in Paragraph 5 loses its weight altogether when 

 manual or combined schools are considered ; for in these the 

 sign-language, far from being "abandoned to a limited 

 sphere of haphazard culture," as is the case in the oral 

 schools where it is used at all, has had a century and a half 

 of careful and often scientific development, and now serves 

 as a medium for expressing and receiving abstract ideas, the 

 reckless statements of ignorant critics to the contrary not- 

 withstanding; and (2) if "the imperfect natural production" 

 employed in the German schools as sign-language deserves 

 the high approval given it by Hill, what must be the value 

 of the perfected ideographic language now used in the man- 

 ual and combined schools, and among thousands of the deaf 

 in this country, with great profit and the keenest pleasure? 



The limits of this paper forbid even the briefest mention 

 of the many reasons in favor of the use of the sign-language 



in the teaching of the deaf, which might be added to Hill's, 

 from the points of view of the maniialist instructor. 



Tt remains only to allude to the very great error, that all 

 deaf children can be successfully taught to speak, and then 

 to add a few words concerning the system of instruction 

 which includes all that is good in all methods. 



That all, or nearly all, deaf children can be taught to 

 speak, is not denied ; but this is precisely as all normal chil- 

 dren can be taught to draw or to sing. All normal children 

 possess the power of producing musical tones, and of delin- 

 eating the outlines of an object with a pencil. So all deaf 

 children have the organs of speech and the power of pro- 

 ducing articulate sounds. 



Now, it is well known that very many normal children 

 cannot succeed as artists or vocalists; and few would advise 

 the teaching of art or music to such after it became clear 

 that the talent for these accomplishments was lacking. Suc- 

 cess in these lines does not come without effort, and seldom 

 without long and severe training; while success in speaking 

 comes to every normal child by mere association with his 

 fellows, without effort and without special training. 



To the totally deaf child success in speaking is attained 

 under conditions not unlike those which attend normal 

 children in their development of the art faculty. When this 

 is absent, or present in a hopelessly weak degree, effort and 

 training will yield only painful and disappointing results; 

 and it is precisely so with certain deaf children who lack a 

 faculty, to which no name has as yet been attached, the ex- 

 istence of which in others insures success in speech, to the 

 joy of their teachers and the pride and delight of admiring 

 friends. 



In considering the case of the deaf learning to speak, it 

 must never be forgotten that under no circumstances can 

 they do this as normal children do, by association and with- 

 out effort, but that in every case speech is an acquisition 

 only possible with great and sustained effort on the part of 

 the pupil, assisted by the skill, patience, and perseverance of 

 able and competent teachers. If one will attempt to master 

 the pronunciation of a foreign tongue, without ever hearing 

 a word of the language spoken by another, he will appreciate, 

 though only in a limited degree, the difficulties attending 

 the acquisition of speech by the totally deaf. 



In point of fact, a large proportion of the deaf children 

 educated in oral schools utterly fail of any thing that can 

 be called success in speech ; and the value to such, of this im- 

 perfect utterance, always painful and often utterly without 

 meaning to listeners, is as nothing when the labor, time, and 

 expense of attaining it are considered. 



But, worst of all, the claim that all the deaf can be suc- 

 cessfully taught to speak is often flatly refuted by the con- 

 duct of those who make it. Cases have come under my 

 own knowledge where admission to prominent oral schools 

 has been denied to certain uneducated deaf children for the 

 reason, given to their parents, that they would be unlijjely 

 to succeed in speech, and I have known these very children 

 to be taught to speak in schools conducted under the com- 

 bined system. Such inconsistency on the part of oral teach- 

 ers, when known, cannot fail to impair confidence in every 

 thing they may do or say. And this is not the only point 

 in which the attitude of some of the most prominent pro- 

 moters of oralism is open to condemnation. 



