64 THE RIGHT TO BE WELL BORN 



deafness is hereditary. Among normal 

 people, a child bom deaf is very rare, un- 

 less there is deafness in one or both families 

 of the parents. Dr. Fay also finds that per- 

 sons deaf by accident do not produce deaf 

 children. Only the parents who are syphi- 

 litic or have the tendency to deafness in 

 their ancestry can transmit deafness. 80% 

 of the inherited deaf mutes either lack cer- 

 tain nerves in their inner ear or these 

 nerves do not respond. 



The "Volta Eeview" gives, among the 

 important causes of deafness, heredity, con- 

 sanguineous marriages, tuberculosis, syph- 

 ilis and infectious fevers. 



Alexander Graham Bell wrote, thirty 

 years ago, "that if marriages between the 

 deaf continued for several generations, 

 there would result a new variety of the 

 human, permanently devoid of the sense of 

 hearing. 



"When one parent is normal and one 

 is hereditarily deaf, the children have an 

 even chance of escaping the imperfection." 



Analogous marriages between persons 

 afflicted with hereditary Bright 's Disease 



