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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No 264 



difficult of approach. It is an experiment of nature, and as right- 

 fully gets the eager eyes of the psychological student turned 

 towards it, as the transit of Venus attracts the gaze of every as- 

 tronomer's telescope. The majority of cases of deafness combined 

 with blindness, however, do not belong to this category. In many 

 instances enough remains of hearing or sight, or both, to allow 

 these to enter as a factor in the mental development of the individ- 

 ual, and to that extent to vitiate the exclusive inference as to the 

 roles that these senses play in the psychic life. Often, too, though 

 sight and hearing are practically totally lost, the loss occurred at a 

 period of life when the mind has begun to profit by the experience 

 which these senses collect, and can for many years feed upon the 

 material thus brought together. This independence of the intel- 

 lectual centres from their food-supply of sensations after a certain 

 age — the iifth to the seventh year for sight — has been proved by 

 actual observation. The report above referred to mentions that 

 there are between thirty and thirty-five blind deaf-mutes in Sweden, 

 where a benevolent lady has organized a school for such defections, 

 and not less than forty such in this country. Eight of these are 

 mentioned by name ; but in only two of these cases is the age men- 

 tioned at which the loss of the senses occurred, — the one at eleven 

 years, the other at seven, but with enough sight remaining to 

 distinguish color, — and in both these, as well as in a third case, 

 hearing was not lost until the power of speech had been perma- 

 nently acquired. But of all these cases, hardly excepting that of 

 Laura Bridgman, that of Helen Keller deserves the most minute 

 and careful study. A rhumioi the facts concerning her condition, 

 collected by Mr. Anagnos, the director of the Perkins Institute, 

 cannot fail to be of interest. 



Helen is the daughter of cultured and well-to-do parents, and 

 was born in Alabama on June 27, 1880. When about ninteen 

 months old, she was attacked violently with congestion of the 

 stomach ; and to the effects of this disease are referred her total 

 loss of sight and hearing. Previously she is said to have been of 

 perfect health, and unusually bright and active. She had learned 

 to walk, and was fast learning to talk. The loss of her senses thus 

 took place about seven months earlier than in the case of Laura 

 Bridgman, though Helen seems to have been as much if not more 

 developed at nineteen months than was the latter at twenty-six 

 months. In both cases a slow recovery was made, and a painful 

 inflammation of the eyes set in. It is recorded of Helen that she 

 " soon ceased to talk, because she had ceased to hear any sound." 



As her strength returned, she gave ample evidence of the sound- 

 ness of her mental faculties. She learned to distinguish the differ- 

 ent members of her family and her friends by feeling their features, 

 and took an especial interest in the affairs of the household. The 

 little hands were constantly busy in feeling objects and detecting 

 the movements of those about her. She began to imitate these 

 mqtions, and thus learned to express her wants and meaning by 

 signs, to a remarkable degree. Just before completing her seventh 

 year, a skilful teacher from the Perkins Institute — iVIiss Sullivan — 

 was engaged for her. At this age Helen is described as a "bright, 

 active, well-grown girl," " quick and graceful in her movements, 

 having fortunately not acquired any of those nervous habits so 

 common among the blind. She has a merry laugh, and is fond 

 of romping with other children. Indeed, she is never sad, but has 

 the gayety which belongs to her age and temperament. When 

 alone she is restless, and always flits from place to place as if 

 searching for some thing or some body." Her sense of touch is 

 developed to an unusual degree, and enables her to recognize her 

 associates upon the slightest contact. Her sense of smell is very 

 acute, enabling her to separate her own clothes from those of 

 others ; and her sense of taste is equally sound. In this respect she 

 has an advantage over Laura Bridgman, in whom both these senses 

 were reduced almost to extinction. She speedily learned to be neat 

 and orderly about her person, and correct in her deportment. The 

 first lesson is an interesting epoch. A doll had been sent Helen 

 from Boston ; and when she had made a satisfactory exploration 

 of it, and was sitting quietly holding it. Miss Sullivan took Helen's 

 hand and passed it over the doll ; she then made the letters d-o-1-1 

 in the finger-alphabet while Helen held her hand. " I began to 

 make the letters a second time. She immediately dropped the doll, 

 and followed the motions of my fingers with one hand, while she 



repeated the letters with the other. She next tried to spell the word 

 without assistance, though rather awkwardly. She did not give the 

 double /, and so I spelled the word once more, laying stress on the 

 repeated letter. She then spelled ' doll ' correctly. This process 

 was repeated with other words, and Helen soon learned six words, 

 — 'doll,' 'hat,' 'mug,' 'pin,' 'cup,' 'ball.' When given one of 

 these objects, she would spell its name, but it was more than a 

 week before she understood that all things were thus identified." 

 In a surprisingly short time Helen completely mastered the notion 

 that objects had names, and that the finger-alphabet opened up to 

 her a rich avenue of knowledge. Every thing had to be named, 

 and she seemed to remember difficult combinations of letters, 

 such as 'heliotrope' and 'chrysanthemum,' quite as readily and 

 securely as shorter words. In less than two months she learned 

 three hundred words, and in about four months she had acquired 

 six hundred and twenty-five words, — a truly remarkable achieve- 

 ment. She still used her gesture-signs ; but, as her knowledge of 

 words increased, the former fell into disuse. Next verbs were 

 taught her, beginning with such as Helen herself could act, as ' sit,' 

 'stand,' 'shut,' 'open,' etc. Prepositions were similarly mastered. 

 Helen was placed in the wardrobe, and the sentence spelled out to- 

 her. 'Box is <;« table,' ' Mildred is in crib,' are sentences which 

 she constructed after little more than a month's instruction. Ad- 

 jectives were skilfully introduced by an object-lesson upon a large, 

 soft worsted ball and a bullet. Helen felt the difference in size at 

 once. " Taking the bullet, she made her habitual sign for ' small ; ' 

 that is, by pinching a little bit of the skin of one hand. Then she 

 took the other ball, and made her sign for ' large' by spreading 

 both hands over it. I substituted the adjectives ' large ' and 

 ' small ' for these signs. Then her attention was called to the 

 hardness of the one ball, and the softness of the other ; and so she 

 learned ' soft ' and ' hard.' A few minutes afterwards she felt of 

 her little sister's head, and said to her mother, ' Mildred's head is 

 small and hard.'" Even so arbitrary elements of language as the 

 auxiliary ' will ' and the conjunction ' and ' were learned before two 

 months of instruction had passed, and on May 1 she formed the 

 sentence, "Give Helen key, and Helen will open door." 



From this the step to reading the raised type of the blind was an 

 easy one. " Incredible as it may seem, she learned all the letters, 

 both capital and small, in one day. Next I turned to the first page 

 of the ' Primer,' and made her touch the word 'cat,' spelling it on 

 my fingers at the same time. Instantly she caught the idea, and 

 asked me to find ' dog,' and many other words. Indeed, she was 

 much displeased because I could not find her name in the book." 

 She soon added writing to her accomplishments, and carefully 

 formed the letters upon the grooved boards used by the blind. On 

 the 1 2th of July she wrote her first letter, beginning thus : " Helen 

 will write mother letter papa did give helen medicine mildred will 

 sit in swing mildred will kiss helen teacher did give helen 

 peach," etc. This well justifies the statement that she acquired more 

 in four months than did Laura Bridgman in two years. Letter- 

 writing is quite a passion with her, and, as she is also able to write 

 by the Braille system, she has the pleasure of being able to read 

 what she has written. Her progress in arithmetic is equally remark- 

 able, going through such exercises as " fifteen threes make forty- 

 five," etc. As examples of her powers of inference, the following 

 will do service : she asked her teacher, " What is Helen made of.' " 

 and was answered, " Flesh and blood and bone." When asked 

 what her dog was made of, she answered, after a moment's pause, 

 " Flesh and bone and blood." When asked the same question about 

 her doll, she was puzzled, but at last answered slowly, " Straw." 

 That some of her inferences are not equally happy, the following 

 illustrates : " on being told that she was white, and that one of the 

 servants was black, she concluded that all who occupied a similar 

 menial position were of the same hue ; and whenever I asked her 

 the color of a servant, she would say, ■ Black.' When asked the 

 color of some one whose occupation she did not know, she seemed 

 bewildered, and finally said, ' Blue.'" Her memorj' is remarkably 

 retentive, and her powers of imitation unusually developed. One 

 of her favorite occupations is to dress herself up, — a performance 

 which she accomplishes not always with success according to our 

 ideas. Her progress continues, and each letter is a marked im- 

 provement upon its predecessors. A letter to Mr. Anagnos contains 



