412 Account of ihe Lstabhshments for the Instruction [June1, 
eessity, or the hope of obtaining a re- 
g¢ompence in some degree . proportion- 
ed to the previous fatigue of attending 
it. Those unhappy persons who are in- 
curably dumb (that 1s, who want, or are 
irremediably defective in, the organs re- 
quisite to produce articulated sound) have 
certainty no other resource to express 
what passes within them: yet even they, 
ii their sense of seeing be not as defec- 
tive as their hearing, may be taught to 
yead upon, and understand from, the lips 
of others, every thing that is said in their 
presence, 
_ The most numerous class of dumb per- 
sons, are those who are destitute of speech 
only in consequenee of their being desti- 
tute of the sense of hearing, which ex- 
cites other men to speak; and not from 
any defect in the orgaus of speech, with’ 
which they are in most cases as well pro- 
vided as the generality of mankind, This 
class of dumb persons is what If desig- 
nate by the name oi the deat-dumh; and 
they would have learned to speak from 
their cradle, if they had not been likewise 
destitute of the proper instruction to ob- 
serve and imitate the motions used in 
speaking ; which, in their effects, viz. the 
variety of sounds, are rendered so per- 
ceptible to all who hear. Every indivi- 
dual of this class is capable of beiag in- 
structed, not only to read the motions of 
the faces of others as quick as another 
ean hear, but also to produce within bis 
or her own mouth those very sounds with 
which the motions observed are accom-~ 
anled. 
_ We have upon record instances sufh- 
cient of the exertions of nature in some 
of these forlorn individuals, to suggest, 
without any other proof, the possibility 
of bringing this theory to the same de- 
gree of perfection as the system of in- 
structing how to carry on a conversation 
by the aid of hearing. It is here worthy of 
remark, that the efforts of nature are to 
be observed-in all and the very same 
stages through which art will have to 
follow. 
It is presumable that in all ages the 
dumb have not been destitute of as many 
Signs to express their wants or wishes, as 
they could in that state be supposed to 
have had perceptions; for this species of 
language is not denied even to the brutes. 
It is also presumable that dumb per- 
sons have always been able to invent for 
themselves, and that they have always 
made use of, some particular signs to in- 
timate how far they understood the mean- 
ing, gestures, looks, and actions of other 
people, and the events passing around 
them: for this is what we see every untu- 
tored dumb’ person do of himself, and 
with the greater significance in proportion 
to his greater degree of intellect. This 
is the initiative stage of instruction. - 
The famous French. professors, the 
Abbés de. ]'Epée and Sicard, have foun- 
ded their system of instruction for the 
deaf and dumb upon this natural lan- 
guage of signs. By giving the full extent 
to the inferences that may be drawn from 
the simple observations just mentioned, 
they have filled all Europe with the echo 
of their praise; a praise which every 
friend of humanity who has had an op-. 
portunity of contemplating their success 
with all its consequences, will say is most 
justly merited. : 
In the Philosophical Transactions, No. 
312,* there is an account given on the 
authority of Mr. Waller, the then secre- 
tary to the Royal Society, of a brother 
and sister, natives of the town in which 
Mr. Walle was born, and both aged 
about fifty, who, although they had been 
deaf from their childhood, yet notwith- 
standing, by observing the motions of a 
o>? . . - 
person’s, lips and face. while speaking, 
-understood every thing the person said, 
and returned proper answers. The pro- 
nunciation of this man and woman, al- 
though somewhat uncouth from want of 
being regulated by the ear, was perfectly 
intelligible. 
There is another instance of the ex- 
ertions of nature in what I shall call the 
secoud and third stages of the instruction 
of the deaf and dumb, related by Bishop 
Burnet, in the case of a daughter of the 
Reverend Mr. Goddy, a clergyman of 
Geneva. The young lady was first ob- 
served to have lost her hearing when a 
child of about two years old ; and never 
afterwards, although she retained some 
faculty of perceiving when the air was agi- 
tated by very loud noises, could hear asin- 
gle sound of what was spoken. By. atten- 
tive observation of the mouth and lips of 
persons speaking, she rendered herself. 
able to understand al] that was said in 
her sight; and moreover, by initating 
the motions of their mouths, collected a 
suficient number of words to form a jar- 
gon of her own; in which she could hold 
a conversation with hér friends, and thuse 
‘whose attention and ingenuity were ca- 
pable of supplying her lapses and defi- 
ciencies. With the approach of dark 
her conversation ceased, until candles 
* Abridgment, 
j were 
