November 28, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



299 



Not long since, I received an application for the admission 

 to our college of a young lady whose previous training had 

 been in an oral school of good standing. Her pi-eparation 

 for college was not quite complete, and I suggested that she 

 return to her school and secure the needed preparatory 

 training, which could easily be given her there. Much to my 

 surprise, the principal of this school, on learning of the pur- 

 pose of the young lady's friends to send her to the college at 

 Washington, not only refused to give any aid in preparing 

 her to enter, but declared he would do every thing in his 

 power to prevent her going to college; and the reason for 

 this was simply because in the college the finger alphabet 

 and signs are made use of, and speech (understood to be fully 

 acquired in the schools) is not taught. Thus this principal 

 of a great school was willing to sacrifice the only chance his 

 " very bright pupil " (as he himself characterized her) had 

 for securing the higher education, because of his hostility to 

 the use of a language which his great master. Hill, regards 

 as " a most efficacious means of assisting even pupils in the 

 higher degrees of school-training." 



I have alluded several times to the combined-system 

 schools, in which more than seven eighths of the deaf chil- 

 dren now under instruction in America are to he found. In 

 these schools the principle is recognized and acted on that 

 no one method is suited to the conditions of all the deaf. 

 With many the oral method fails; with some it succeeds; 

 for a large proportion the manual method does not meet all 

 requirements, nor develop all the powers; with a few the 

 aural method is to be preferred to the oral or manual. 



Those who sustain the combined system acknowledge the 

 value of all these methods in their proper place, and in the 

 institutions they promote endeavor to give to each method 

 every possible opportunity for success. They advise that 

 every deaf child should have a fair opportunity to learn to 

 speak, — as in the community at large every child should 

 have a chance to learn to draw and to sing, — but they advise 

 with equal earnestness that time should not be wasted in 

 trying to force birds to sing to whom nature has given only 

 the ability to caw or to scream. 



Ten years ago there was. held at Milan an international 

 convention of instructors of the deaf, at which were pre- 

 sented some notable results of oral teaching in the schools of 

 Milan. The convention was wholly in the hands of partisans 

 of the oral method, and they succeeded in securing the pas- 

 sage of certain resolutions giving a preference for the oral 

 method, which were trumpeted over Europe, and were not 

 without influence even in this country. The effect of this 

 was revolutionary in France and Great Britain, and the 

 cause of oralism made rapid advances during the first half of 

 the decade just closed. In England, however, the progress 

 of oral teaching has received a decided check. 



In 1885 the Queen of England appointed a commission, 

 with the Duke of Westminster at its head, who was later 

 succeeded by Lord Egerton of Tatton. with such men upon 

 it as Sir Lyon Playfair, Mr. Mundella, Drs. Armitage and 

 Campbell, and others less known in America, but of equal 

 distinction in their own country, whose duty it was to in- 

 quire carefully into the methods of educating the deaf, the 

 blind, and the idiotic, with a view of securing much needed 

 parliamentary aid. 



The labors of this commission covered a period of more 



than four years, during which time the promoters of oralism 

 brought every possible influence to bear to secure the ap- 

 proval of their method and the condemnation of all others. 

 They failed in this. While the commission recommended 

 giving every deaf child an opportunity to learn to speak, 

 they recognized fully that many would not succeed, and that 

 for these other methods of teaching must be employed. 



But a more decided support to the combined system comes 

 from England as recently as the last month. Benevolent 

 persons interested in securing the establishment of a new 

 school for the deaf at Preston, for north and east Lancashire, 

 formed a commission of four able men, who examined very 

 carefully the most prominent schools in England of all 

 methods. This commission in their report, made Oct. 8, 

 1890, recommend most strongly a dual or combined sys- 

 tem, declaring that "pure oralism is an idea, not a reality; 

 a useless task to dull pupils; unsatisfactory for a large num- 

 ber of pupils; entirely successful only in exceptional cases 

 and under conditions that are generally impracticable and 

 often impossible." 



Such opinions, reached after the careful and impartial ex- 

 amination of intelligent men, interested to arrive only at the 

 truth, ought, it would seem, to be accepted as conclusive. 



Edwaed M. Gallaudet. 



WORK AT THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL 

 EXPERIMENT STATION.' 



The work now in charge of the first assistant is as follows: — 

 1. Experiments with Swine. — So soon as enough skira milk, 

 etc., is available, it is expected to conduct the pig-feeiling in con- 

 nection with the dairy cattle experiments, and comparison of the 

 different breeds of swine will be made. For the present the ex- 

 periments are confined principally to feeding of various coarse 

 foods that have been used and recommended for swine; e.g., 

 corn- ensilage, sorghum, prickly comfrey, beets, clover and clover 

 ensilage, etc. 



3. Experiments with Poultry. — Feeding-experiments with ra- 

 tions more and less nitrogenous have been made with young and 

 mature laying stock; and these experiments extend always 

 throughout the whole laying season, some of both large and 

 small breeds being used. Feeding- experiments are being made, 

 and have been, with capons and cockerels. Experiments have 

 been made with home-made and inexpensive incubators and 

 brooders, and it is expected to continue them. Preparations are 

 now nearly completed for breeding-experiments with tested in- 

 dividuals of several breeds. Considerable chemical work has 

 been done, and experiments are now (although temporarily inter- 

 rupted) in progress to answer the question definitely whether in- 

 organic material, as stone, oyster-shells, etc , can supply lime for 

 the egg shell. Experiments to ascertain the cost of production 

 and value of product, in rearing chicks of different market breeds 

 from the shell, under different foods and methods of batching 

 and brooding, are expected to be undertaken. 



3. Soil Experiments.— The laboratory work on soils has been 

 for the present discontinued, but only from pressure of more im- 

 mediately necessary work. In the field', application of several 

 cheap chemicals has been made; viz., sulphate of soda, sulphate 

 of lime, sulphate of magnesia, sulphate of iron, carbonate of lime, 

 common salt. The effect on the crop and soil is studied. These 

 have only been applied one season, but it is intended to repeat the 

 application several years on the same strips of soil under ditferent 

 crops. 



4. The Investigation, Selection, and Acclimatizing of Sorghums. 

 — Of the two or three hundred samples of seed, representing a 

 hundred and fifty or more varieties that have been grown during 

 the last three seasons, less than a dozen have been selected for 



1 From the Geneva Gazette, Nov. 14, 1890. 



