VII. On the Education of James Mitchell, the young Man 

 born Blind and Deaf. By Henry Dewar, M. D. F. R. S» 

 Edin. 



(Read Uh Decemher 1815. ) 



THE practicability of instructing in any kind of language a 

 person blind and deaf from infancy seems not to have 

 occurred to the friends of James Mitchell till suggested by Dr 

 Gordon, whose ideas on the subject are contained in Professor 

 Stewart's account published in the Transactions of this So- 

 ciety *. An attempt has been since made to put in prac- 

 tice a plan for the same purpose, proposed by Mr Par- 

 ker, an English gentleman who resided for a short time in 

 Scotland. This consisted in accustoming him to handle the 

 letters of the alphabet, formed of pieces of wood or paste- 

 board, when placed together so as to compose different words 

 significant of tangible objects, and making him handle the 

 objects in order to learn their meaning. This, hdwever, failed, 

 in consequence of the unwillingness of the pupil to submit 

 to the necessary application. For the details, I refer to the 

 account lately laid before the Society by Dr Gordon f , and 

 particularly to Miss Mitchell's letter to Mr Parker, dated 

 the 31st of October 1814, describing the result of her endea- 

 Vol. VIII. P. I. S voars, 



* See Vol. vii. p. 70. f See the preceding Paper in this Volume. 



