Visible speech.' 195 



we know, and was made by a little girl, daughter of a 

 minister at Geneva. It is described by Bishop Burnet in 

 his letters to the Hon. Robert Boyle. That from Rome, 

 Dec. 8, 1685, contains the account: 'There is a minister 

 of St. Gervais — Mr. Gody — who hath a daughter that is 

 now sixteen years old. Her nurse had an extraordinary 

 thickness of hearing. At a year old the child spoke all 

 those little words that children begin usually to learn at 

 that age, but she made no progress ; yet this was not ob- 

 served till it was too late ; and as she grew to be two 

 years old they perceived then that she had lost her hear- 

 ing, and was so deaf, that ever since, though she hears 

 great noises, yet she hears nothing that one can speak to 

 her. But the child hath, by observing the motions of the 

 mouths and lips of others, acquired so many words, that 

 out of these she has formed a sort of jargon, in which she 

 can hold conversation whole days with those that can 

 speak her own language. I could understand some of her 

 words, but I could not comprehend a period ; for it seemed 

 to me a confused noise. She knows nothing that is said 

 to her unless she seeth the motion of the mouths that 

 speak to her ; so that in the night when it is necessary to 

 speak to her they must light a candle.' 



This part of the girl's discovery is up to the present 

 day, but the next goes far beyond so far as we know. 

 ' Only one thing appeared the strangest part of the whole 

 narrative ; she hath a sister with whom she has practised 

 her language more than with any other ; and in the night, 

 by laying her hand on her sister's mouth, she can perceive 

 by that what she says, and so can discourse with her in the 

 night. It is true, her mother told me, this did not last 

 long ; and that she found out only some short period in 



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