516 
A writer in the Monthly Magazine, 
fome months back, {poke of the ** Sy/- 
teme de la Nature,’ as written by the ce- 
lebrated Mirabeau.— The name in the 
title-page 1s Muirabaud, who died long 
before Mirabeau was known; perhaps be- 
fore he wes born. 1’ Alembert afferts that 
it is falfely attributed to him.. Barruel 
{peaks of the work without, I believe, 
naming the author who did write it. 
Cambridge. Iam, &c. 
— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
CASE of @ CHILD blind and fpeechlefs, 
apparently from the OPERATION of the 
INOCULATED SMALL-Pox, 
TOR 
S profeffional fa&s, when any way 
connected with important inferences, 
or with fubjects of philofophical inquiry, 
feem always to be acceptable in your 
Mifcellany, I tranfmit to you a cafe 
which has lately prefented itfelf within 
the fphere of my particular obfervation. 
I cannot, indeed, fay, that it is pregnant 
with any fatisfactory conclufions, either 
of a practical or of a theoretical nature ; 
or, that it furnifhes any immediate proofs 
of the triumphs of thoie fcientifie prin- 
ciples which T am labouring to inculcate: 
but it may, at leaft, afford materials for 
a very interefting {peculation on the in- 
citements and fources of that fnecics of 
imitative aétion, by which certain defin- 
able organs of the human frame are 
enabled to convey, with tolerable preci- 
fon and accuracy, the impreflicns of one 
mind to the apprehenfions of another. [ 
allude, of courfe, to the actions of the or- 
gans of fpeech: aétions, in their ultimate 
phenomena, fufficiently familiar to almott 
every human ‘being; but the laws and 
operations of which have not, hitherto, 
attracted that degree of philoivphical eb- 
fervation to which, from the importance 
of their objects, they are, perhaps, en- 
titled. 
The phyfiolegy of thofe organs, by 
which the funétions of elocution are car- 
ried on, has, fer fome yeas, been the ob- 
ject of my particular attention ;* and Iam 
free to acknowledge, that, among the 
fources of that fuccefs with which my 
public Lectures on the Science and Prac. 
tice of Elocution have been fo generaily 
Ns 
* By a mittake in the arrangement of the 
paragraphs of the Literary Varieties, in the 
Monthly Magazine for April Jaft, the notice 
of Mr. Thelwall’s intended publicatitn on the 
Phyfiology of the Organs of Speech, was fo ine 
ferted, as apparently to aflign the preparation 
ef that work to Mr. john Bell.” 
Cafe of a Child blind and fpeechlefs. 
[July 1, 
encouraged, the moft gratifying to my 
feelings, and the moft timulating to my 
hopes, 1s the notoriety of that relief which, 
in confcquence of {uch attention, TI have 
been enabled to extend to perfons afflicted 
with the moft calamitous impediments ; 
and even to thofe from whom the apparent 
caprices of nature have with-held fome 
of the eflenfial organs of enunciation, 
Till the cafe in quetiion, indeed, any in- 
dividual infiance has not occurred, to 
which the principles of my fcience would 
not practically apply: and I began to 
perfuade myfelf that, by a fimple and 
eafily communicable procefs, every hu- 
man being, who-had the gift of hearing, 
might readily be enabled to fpeak with 
impreflivenefs and facility, at leaft, if not 
with elegance and harmony. But the 
cafe in queftion, feems to prefent an ex- 
ception to my conclufions; and, appa- 
rently, it defeats all.theory. It is not, 
fo ftrictly fpeaking, a cafe either of defed 
or of impediment, as an inftance of the im-_ 
perfect developement, or non-application 
of the organ. It approximates more, in 
its phenomena, to the cafe of Peter the 
wild Boy, or that of the unfortunate Sa- 
wage of Aveyron, than to any of thofe 
examples either of defective conftruétion, 
or of irregular aétion, to which my prin- 
cipks have been hitherto applied. It is 
an infiance, indeed, even more anomalous 
than either of thofe I have mentioned ; 
inafmuch as the child in queftion has been 
brought up in the bofom of civilized fo- 
ciety, and yet exhibits all the negative 
phenomena of enuncistive privation and 
ineptitude, which, in the former inflances, 
are only accounted for from the want of 
-human affociation. 
The early hiltory of this cafe (as far as 
I have been able to afcertain the cireum- 
ftances) is as follows: Augufla (one of 
the Gaughters of a very refpectable gentle- 
man in the neighbourhood of Glafgow) 
was ineculated for the fmall-pox when fhe 
was only three months old. The difeafe, 
however, made its appearance with none 
of the mitigated fymptoms which inocu- 
lation is intended to infure. It raged, on 
the contrary, with the utmoft virulence ; 
and disfigurement and blindnefs were the 
confequences. One of the eye-balls feems 
to have been fo completely obliterated by 
the difeafe, that the clofed and deeply 
funken lids, far retiring in'o the focket, 
only mark the pofition where the vifualk 
organ fhould be. The lower part of the 
ether orb (which ts fufficiently obtrufive) 
appears to retain fome {mall degree of fen- 
fibility to the prefence of light; and: 
through the medium of this organ, it 
appears, 
