778 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 281. 



through the medium of the manual and 

 gesture language, this method created a 

 class set apart by itself because of its ina- 

 bility to communicate, through any other 

 medium than that of writing, with its hear- 

 ing and speaking environment. 



The recognition in an educational process, 

 of so serious a defect as the creation of a 

 distinct class in the community, subject to 

 the temptation of intermarriage and the 

 consequent possibility of class perpetuation, 

 together with a better knowledge of the fact 

 that many of these people had an amount 

 of hearing power sufiScient to enable them 

 to perceive sounds which they themselves 

 made, brought about the gradual introduc- 

 tion into the manual schools, of a system of 

 voice-training and lip-reading, which has so 

 far gained ground as to lead to the establish- 

 ment of schools devoted exclusively to this 

 method. 



The growth and progress of schools for 

 the deaf in the United States since the es- 

 tablishment of the iirst school in 1817, may 

 be judged from the fact that the twelve 

 original pupils at that date have now in- 

 creased to almost ten thousand, in over 

 eighty schools, and that very nearly half 

 this number of pupils are being taught ar- 

 ticulation. 



With the progress of a method of educa- 

 tion which is ultimately destined in the 

 main to prevail, since it is in the line of 

 that sociological advance which seeks to 

 make and to keep each unit a viable mem- 

 ber of the community, a more precise de- 

 termination of the amount of hearing pos- 

 sessed by each pupil, and the possibility of 

 its improvement becomes a matter of great 

 importance. 



Under the auspices of the National As- 

 sociation of Teachers of Speech to the Deaf, 

 acting in co-operation with one of the bodies 

 forming this Association, the American 

 Otological Society, a systematic examina- 

 tion of all pupils in schools for the deaf 



throughout the United States has been 

 undertaken. 



The purpose of this investigation is to 

 provide not for what might be called a 

 census-taking, but for the establishment of 

 continuous special medical examination of 

 the pupils, firstly, for their immediate ad- 

 vantage, and, secondly, to make records 

 upon a uniform basis suitable for compari- 

 son and tabulation. 



The work, already begun as a prelimi- 

 nary investigation in the Horace Mann 

 School, shows that out of 150 children, set 

 apart by their infirmity and specially edu- 

 cated, fully 8 % are capable of being restored 

 to an amount of hearing which will enable 

 them, in some instances with the help of 

 artificial aids to hearing, to take their places 

 in the society of people of normal average 

 hearing, while still others, to the extent of 

 an additional 5 % , can be so far improved 

 as to be materially aided in their power to 

 acquire well-modulated articulation. 



Between 10% and 15% of these cases, in 

 addition to those already mentioned, are 

 found to illustrate the truth of the saying 

 that disuse is abuse, for in them it is possi- 

 ble, by means of speaking-tubes and other 

 appliances for the direct communication of 

 sound to the perceptive organs, to awaken 

 what may be called, for want of a better 

 term, the latent hearing, and make it, if 

 not a means of communication of consecu- 

 tive thought, at least useful for improve- 

 ment of the articulation. 



With the continued prosecution of this 

 investigation there is opened a large field 

 for the study of the causes of high grades 

 of deafness in young children, and one lead- 

 ing to better knowledge of possibilities of 

 prevention. 



A more recent effort at compensatory 

 education follows lines laid down nearly 70 

 years ago in Bavaria, and since extended to 

 other countries in Europe, finding its most 

 marked success in Italy. 



