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instances I have given. That gentleman says that he has continued to 
cultivate his language notwithstanding his loss of hearing. I think you will 
find that that is rather a remarkable case, because I have had a great deal 
of experience with persons in that condition. I am sure I have held inti- 
mate conversation with at least four hundred deaf and dumb persons, and 
that is a large amount of experience. Everything I have said in this paper 
has been the result of that enlarged experience, and not the reflecting upon 
the matter merely for a few weeks. I have long, from intimate and lengthened 
consideration of the phenomena presented, entertained the convictions I have 
come to. There has been a great deal of theorizing on this subject. I cannot 
but say that much I have heard is purely theoretical, for I do not think a 
single speaker in reference to this paper has had any experience with the 
deaf and dumb. They may have had intercourse occasionally with one or two 
but as for any amount of experience thatwould warrant anything like deductions 
for a trustworthy theory or statement, I do not think that such experience has 
been possessed by any person who has made observations on this paper. In 
reference to what has been said respecting a primitive race or community of 
persons having no speech, but hearing, that they would frame a language, 
partly gestural and partly vocal, I think, to a certain extent, that is likely. 
I have not the slightest doubt they would give sound-names to eveiy 
sounding object, but they would consider it ridiculous to give a sound- 
name to a soundless object. And as for not giving a gestural name to an 
animal, I think that is very simple. Eveiy animal I have seen, I can 
describe by signs. If I want a horse, what have I to imitate but the ambling 
of the horse ? or a dog, what but to imitate the action that we generally 
perceive m a dog ? Or, if a cat, the whiskers and the stroking of the cat ; 
the cow, by the milking operation ; thus distinguishing the cow from the 
bullock. [The appropriate signs were here given.] And I say there is no 
difficulty m giving a gestural description of any animal that ffias been seen. 
The deaf and dumb are extremely expert in this method of description ; and 
I remember an instance in which a deaf and dumb boy explained to his com- 
panion that he had for the first time seen a steamboat, and he gave a rough 
but very ingenious idea of the motion of the boat. This was done by 
covering the back of the left hand with the palm of the right, advancing the 
hands thus placed with a wave-like movement, and giving a rotary motion to 
the thumbs. [These gestures were exhibited.] 
The Meeting was then adjourned to 3rd December. 
U 2 
