December 26, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



357 



-always felt so thankful far all you have done in teaching- me 

 to talk. It gives us o;reat pleasure to talk to our precious 

 little boy. He understands if I say 'Baby, don't,' when he 

 pulls my hail'. He can say 'papa,' is six months old, and 

 weighs twenty pounds."' This last is one of those excep- 

 tional cases, which we earnestly wish were more numerous 

 among congenital deaf-mutes, that sometimes reward the long 

 patient labor and ingenuity of the teacher. Among hun- 

 dreds, I have found but few such. It will be noticed that 

 even in this case, where there is both a disposition and an 

 effort to make the most of her acquired speech, signs are 

 necessary to supplement the best she can do with vocal utter- 

 ance. I have refrained from an expression of opinion on 

 this subject, preferring to give the testimony of persons who 

 are unquestionably competent. The statements quoted were 

 given without the knowledge of the use I should make of 

 them. In view of such testimony, how any honest person 

 can say that the sign-language is incapable of the expression 

 of thought and abstract ideas is incomprehensible. I have 

 never known an individual who endeavored to acquire this 

 language to make such a statement. Even Mr. Engelsman, 

 if he had witnessed at the Convention of American Instruc- 

 tors of the Deaf last summer, as many others did, the trans- 

 lation into the sign-language of the philosophical essay by 

 'Mrs. Alice Noyes Smith, simultaneously and concurrently 

 with its reading by its author, would have pronounced it a 

 marvel of exactness, force, and beauty. The sign-language 

 is with that lady vernacular, as she was born and reared with 

 the deaf. Added to this, she has enjoyed the training of her 

 father, Dr. J. L. Noyes, superintendent of the Minnesota In- 

 stitution for the Deaf, who is, I think, the one most dis- 

 criminating, critical, and precise master of its language. 

 Mrs. Smith stated that to her this language had all the etse, 

 elegance, and force of spoken language. 



In July, 1889, there assembled in the city of Paris, 

 France, a -world's congress of the deaf, to consider subjects 

 relating to the welfare of their class,and take such action as 

 might seem to be promotive thereof. This congress was the 

 first of its kind. Its members comprised delegates from 

 Fi'ance, America, Belgium, England, Ireland, Australia, 

 ■Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, and Turkey. They 

 also represented all methods of instructing the deaf, in each 

 of which some of them had received their education. If any 

 company of persons could be expected to speak earnestly and 

 frankly on subjects pertaining to the deaf, it would surely be 

 •such a one as this congress. The congress remained in ses- 

 sion one week, discussing various questions pertaining to 

 their class. At its conclusion the following preamble and 

 resolutions were unanimously adopted: — 



" Whereas the Milan Congress, sitting in solemn conclave, 

 had decided that all deaf-mutes could be taught to speak, 

 and that the pure oral system was superior to all others; 

 whereas, under the influence excited by so august and im- 

 portant a body, changes have been made in some institutions 

 •which have a strong bearing on the immediate and future 

 welfare of the deaf; whereas we, though we believe in the 

 ■utility of the Oral system to a certain extent, know that the 

 conclusions arrived at by said congress are arbitrary and 

 unwarranted by experience and facts: resolved, that the sys- 

 tem known as the American combined system, which ap- 

 proves of the use of both articulation and signs as the only 

 means by which the greatest number of the deaf can be 

 reached, and the greatest amount of good done, is the best; 

 that we deprecate all such arrangements as aim at the introduc- 

 tion of the oral system in its purest form, and the consequent 



exclusion of deaf-mute teachers, who have proved themselves 

 fitted for the position; that the above be published to the 

 world as the sentiments of the deaf-mutes gathered from all 

 nations, in the congress held at Paris, July 11-18, 1889." 



Such evidence as this is not to be lightly esteemed. It 

 should be duly considered that /or the deaf-mute there is no 

 such thing as articulation, though there is articulation by 

 the deaf; for, while he may utter distinct articulate sounds 

 for others to receive, he cannot receive them himself, and is 

 consequently thrown back upon the visible movements of 

 the superficial parts of the organs of voice, which are chiefly 

 the lips. Some mouths are so constructed that many of the 

 movements of the tongue and teeth can also be perceived, 

 but this is by no means frequently the case: hence what is 

 so often spoken of as articulation, and is really such to the 

 hearing, is only a lip-sign to the deaf; and there arises the 

 question, which is better, — the small indistinct signs formed 

 by the lips, which represent nothing but sounds, which have 

 no existence for the deaf, or the large, rapid, concise, and 

 ideographic signs made by the hands and arms? Which the 

 preference of the deaf is, need not be asked; for it is univer- 

 sally the fact, and notorious, that deaf-mutes who have been 

 taught by the lip method, and have been shielded from the 

 "contaminating influence of signs "(!) more closely than 

 they have from disease, when opportunity ofi'ers, take to 

 signs as naturally as ducklets to the water. They are usu- 

 ally such adepts in the sign-language, that it is obvious to 

 the discriminating observer that they are "old hands at the 

 bellows." It would be as sensible to tell a rustic to blear his 

 eyes on Broadway, or a boy to blear his at the circus, or a 

 belle to wear dark goggles in a millinery-store, as to inhibit 

 the deaf-mute using signs when he meets other deaf-mutes, 

 if he has something to narrate. When fish will not swim 

 in the water, and birds will not fly in the air, we may ex- 

 pect the deaf-mute to disuse signs as a means of interchange 

 of thought. These statements are not made because of ob- 

 jection or opposition to teaching deaf-mutes to articulate or 

 to read lip signs, for to some of them this ability is at times 

 very useful. I have one of the largest companies of deaf- 

 mutes in the world, receiving such instruction, and I purpose 

 maintaining it in the future as I have done for more than 

 twenty years, during which time 1 have assigned a thousand 

 of them to teachers for such training. These facts are here 

 set forth that justice may be done the deaf, of whom com- 

 plaint is often made that they do not do better, by persons 

 who fail to duly appreciate the difficulties they encounter. 

 It should not be a wonder that they do no better, but that 

 they do so well. Philip G. Gillett. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Symons's Meteorological Magazine for November contains a 

 climatological table for the British Empire for 1889. The high- 

 est temperature in the shade was 109'^, at Adelaide, on Jan. 13. 

 For five years Adelaide has recorded the highest temperature in 

 the shade, reaching 112. •i" in 1886. It had also the highest tem- 

 perature in the sun, 170.7°, and was the driest station during the 

 year, having a mean humidity of 63 per cent. The lowest shade 

 temperature was recorded at Winnipeg, on Feb. 23, — 42.6°. 

 Only once does any other station come within twenty degrees of 

 it. It had also the greatest range in the year, the greatest mean 

 daily range (34.5°), the lowest mean temperature, and the least 

 rainfall (14.95 inches). The highest mean temperature was 80.5°, 

 at Bombay; and the greatest rainfall, 73.79 inches, at Trinidad. 

 London was the most cloudy and the dampest station, the mean 

 humidity being 81 per cent. The brightest station was Malta, 

 which had little more than half the cloud of London. 



