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Ordinary Meeting, November 15th, 1881. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., President, in the Chair. 
“ On the Pronunciation of Deaf-Mutes who have been 
Taught to Articulate,” by William E. A .Axon, M.R.S.L. 
At the meeting of the French Academy of Sciences on 
the 7th, M. Felix Hdment stated that his observations had 
led him to the conclusion that the deaf and dumb who have 
been taught to speak, do so with the accent of the district 
in which they were born, rather than with that of their 
teachers or associates. This was discredited by M. Blanch- 
ard, but some curious facts tending in the same direction 
have already been recorded. In the “ Philosophical Tran- 
sactions” (No. 312), there is the following case. About the 
age of seventeen, a young man, a congenital deaf-mute, was 
twice attacked by fever. “ Some weeks after recovery, he 
perceived a motion of some kind in his brain, which was 
very uneasy to him, and afterwards he began to hear, and, 
in process of time, to understand speech. This naturally 
disposed him to imitate what he heard, and to attempt to 
speak. The servants were much annoyed to hear him. He 
was not distinctly understood, however, for some weeks ; 
but is now understood tolerably well. But what is singular, 
is, that he retains the Highland accent, just as Highlanders 
do who are advanced to his age before they begin to learn 
the English tongue. He cannot speak any Erse or Irish, 
for it was in the Lowlands he first heard and spoke.” The 
curious circumstance of his possession of the Highland ac- 
cent is confirmed by the testimony of similar phenomena in 
Spain. “ One fact,” says Ticknor, “ I witnessed, and knew 
therefore personally, which is extremely curious. Not one 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Soc.— Yol. XXI.— No. 3.— Session 1881-2. 
