1865.] Van Asch on Oral Instruction of so-called Deaf and Dumb. 45 



mistakes you make. Where will your mamma take you in the holi- 

 days, do you think ? " 



Pupil. '• I do not know." (Interval.) " A. sent H." (two of her 

 brothers) " a nice book, namely Longfellow's poems, because it was his 

 birthday." (The confounding of namely with named or called will be 

 observed.) 



Teacher. " Did you see it ? " 



Pupil. " No. I think H. will show me next month." 



Teacher. Show you what ? " 



Pupil. " Show me it. 



Teacher. " Do you suppose you can read it ? " 



Pupil. " I think so." 



Teacher. " But do you think you can understand it ? " 



Pupil. No.—" 



Third Case. 



J. M. A. is a boy, 11 years of age, and has been under instruction 

 two years and eight months. His previous condition may be conceived 

 from the appended certificate written by the rector of the village 

 whence he came, and from the fact of his being able to utter half-a- 

 dozen words, as " papa, mamma, bat," &c, in an indistinct manner and 

 from remembrance of former times. 



" Feb. 28, 1862. 



" I hereby certify that J. M. A. has been well known to me for the 

 last four years ; that I have had many opportunities of observing him. 

 He appears to have some degree of hearing, and a slight, though at 

 present, very slight power of speech. I further consider him to pos- 

 sess considerable intelligence, but, from his defective hearing and 

 speech, not capable of being instructed in the usual mode adopted 

 with other boys." 



Under these circumstances I need hardly remark that nature's ten- 

 dency wanted but little of human art to re-establish the mechanical use 

 of a faculty lost through a woful disease in infant age. Gaining the 

 intelligent use of that faculty was a matter of time, because the organs 

 of hearing were only sufficiently sensitive to be useful when acting in 

 concert with those of touch ; and oral sounds were not imitated by the 

 single agency of the ear. The relatives of the boy and a private 

 teacher had tried that experiment by shouting in the ear, but beyond 

 the echo of the few simple words that were learnt as an infant, nothing 

 could be taught. In cultivating the voice then, it was essential to 

 keep two objects in view. One, to accustom the boy to depend upon 

 muscular action, and to pay attention to the positions of the vocal 

 organs ; the other, to exercise his hearing, which latter is of great 

 moment, when it be remembered that experience shows that hearing 

 when it presents itself to such a degree as ivas the case here, seems 

 to improve, if its sense be cultivated simultaneously with the prac- 

 tice to let the deaf child feel the vibration which sound causes on 

 the top of the throat and elsewhere. One example will make this 

 plain. Suppose the sound of the word " like " was made in a full 



