AMERICAN ANNALS

OF TITE

EDITED ny

EDWARD ALLEN FAY,

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF

E. M. GALLAUDET, OF WASHINGTON, I. L. PEET,

  HARRIET B. ROGERS, OF MASSACHUSETTS,

OF NEW PORK, T. MACINTIRE, OF PENNSYLVANIA,

AND P. G. GILLETT, OF ILLINOIS,

Executive Committee of the Convention of American Instructors
           of the Deaf and Dumb.

VOL. XXVIII, No. 2.

APRIL, 1885.

WASHINGTON, D. C.

PRINTED BY GIBSON BROTHERS. 1

The following Works, Published or for Sale by

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, PEET'S COURSE OF INSTRUCTION

FOB Tm

DEAF AND DUMB.

ELEMENTARY LESSONS,  - - by Harvey P. Peet, LL. D.
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This work has been used in American and foreign institutions for the
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Beautifully illushatad. Over 100,000 copies have been sold. This is
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r

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION, Part 111,

by Harvey P. Peet, LL. D.

Containing a development of the verb ; illustrations of idioms ; lessons
on the different periods of human life ; natural history of animals, an3
a description of each month in the year.
This is one of the best reading books that has ever been prepared for
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also, for the instruction of hearing children.

~uiiy nlustmted. pp. 252. p&t? 81.00.

,

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

by Harvey P. Peet, LL. D.

Extending from the discovery of the continent to the close of President
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idiomatic style, and pronounced hy good judges to be the best and
most instructive history of this country that has ever been condepsed
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MANUAL OF CHEMISTRY, - - - by Dudley Peet, M. D.
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                 by Isaac Lewis Peet, LL. D.

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I Continued on pap .I of c0yer.l

AMERIUAN ANNALS

DEAF

AND

DUMB.

VOL. XXVIII., No. 2.

APRIL, 1883.

DEAF-MUTES AND THE COMBINED METHOD.

BY RICHARD S. STORRS, M. A., HARTFORD,

CONN.

THE argument of a former article* against the combined
method for the instruction of semi-deaf and semi-mute pupils
rested, briefly, upon the comparative ease and success with
which the purely oral culture of such pupils can be prosecuted.
That of the present article against the use of the same method
for either toto or quasi-congenital deaf-mutes will, on the con-
trary, rest upon the extreme difficulty and very small success
of American efforts thus far for the oral instruciion of these
two classes of heaviest disability.  The entire argument is ad-
dressed mainly, of course, to those eclectic oralists who advo-
cate the comqjned method ;' but it also necessarily controverts
many claims of pure oralists.

Up to the present point of the discussion, however, judicious
advocates of the manual system have no controversy with the
pure oralists, except in the single matter of candor.  They
freely concede, of course, what they have themselves always ad-
vocated-the expediency of cultivating the speech of the semi-
deaf and semi-mute; and, although their own records show
excellent results in many such cases by their combined method,
they yet rejoice in the increased. facilities now afforded by
articulation schools for all such cas'es.  Some of them, indeed,
would gladly commit to such schools the entire care and culture
of these least disabled pupils.

.

I

* " Semi-Deaf, Semi-Mute, and the Combined Method," pp. 21-36 of the

January number of the AnnaL.

77

8

78

  Dm f-Mlctes uiztl the Condined Method.

There remains, moreover, a still further concession

I

J

to which

the pure oralist is entitled, before we reach the really debatable
portion of our general field.  Our third sub-class-the yuasi-
congenital deaf-mute-was distinguished from the second, the
semi-mute, it will be remembered, by the fact of total mute-
ness at the time of his admission to institution life.  Now, it is
obvious that this single fact is not in itself and necessarily of
any fatal significance as respects the revival of a previous
power of speech, if such a power has in any case been once
possessed.  On the contrary, hearing may have been so long
enjoyed. and muteness may have so very recently supervened,
that only a moderate degree of effort may be needed for the
full recall of the recently lost ability.  Or, again, the native
shyness of a very diffident semi-mute child may have effectu-
ally repressed the home exercise of an actually existent speech-
power, which, under the special encouragement and authority
of institution training, may develop rapidly from apparent mute-
ness to excellent speech.  It is easy, therefore, to conceive of
not a few cases of real or apparent muteness at the date of
admission, which can be almost as easily recalled to mere semi-
muteness, as if the latter status had never been lost.  All such
cases we would, of course, as readily cdncede to the exclusive
care of the oralist, as we have already conceded to him the
semi-mutes themselves.

Semi-muteness, indeed, might itself be much more reasonably
defined as the partial power of speech at any even earliest period
of life, than as the same power still in exercise at some subse-
quent period arbitrarily fixed upon according ta the differing
opinions of different theorizers.  In the absence of any such ab-
solute and accepted standard of definition the statistics of most
of our institutions upon this point are of little worth.  When
pupils are refused recognition and enrollment as semi-mutes
unless they can converse orally at the time of their admission,
while others who have all their lifetime been able to reoeive
ideas through the ear are enrolled as congenitally deaf, it is
plain that no very valuable data are offered by statistics founded
on such idiosyncracies of judgment.

Of course no standard, either absolute or relative, can have
any weight beyond its own evident reasonableness.  If that of
time be indeed the best one, the age sometinies assumed-four
years-is certainly far too advanced.  Statistics recognizing no

79

semi-muteness which did not continue until that age are of
little worth in discussing the practical questions of deaf-
mute oral instruction. If a time standard were insisted
on, that of two years would be a much more reasonable one
than that of four. My own belief is, however, that the
power of speech at any period of life, even earlier than this,
is a fact of such deep significance as fully to justify its universal
adoption as the criterion of semi-mute classification.  I should,
therefore, regard the clear establishment of this fact, by the
testimony of the child's friends at the time of its admission, as
reasonable ground for anticipating a fair degree of success in
its oral culture and for a prolonged experiment, at least, in that
direction by pure oral methods.

Whether this be a too extreme concession or not, in the judg-
ment of most manualists there can be no question that this
fact alone-of prior speech-establishes such an important dif-
ference between these early semi-mutes and any others who
have never even feebly spoken, as wholly to invalidate inferences
from oral successes with the former to similar success with the
latter.  And yet it is precisely such inferences with which this
discussion is constantly embakrassed.

Indeed, it is just at this point that we again encounter, and
in a much more marked degree, that same apparent disingenu-
ousness of some of our articulation friends,in the use of the
word congenital, upon which we have already commented.
Whatever justification may have been pleaded for describipg
partial deafness as congenital upon the ground that it dates
back to birth, there can surely be no valid excuse for using the
same word in a sense absolutely and exactly opposite to its real
meaning.  Nothing can well be more clear than that a child
who could hear perfectly well at birth and for some time after-
wards cannot properly be called congenitally deaf simply
because he may be found to beJotally mute at the time of his
admission to institution life.

The ground upon which this most misleading usage is some-
times defended is that it is claimed to be harder to revive artic-
ulation in some such cases than to teach it, ab initio, to some
really congenital deaf-mutes. .If this statement, as applying to
cases of similar mental endowments, were as probable as it is
inherently incredible, it still would not justify a use of terms so
incorrect and misleading, every utterance of which requires a

i

80   Del-cf-iThctes ccnd the CYombined Method.
conscious mental correction on the part of both speaker and
hearer.

Let us, however, test this assumed justification of the usage
by an analogy.  Suppose a bright French infant to remain in
its native country until five years of age, hearing and speaking .
only the French language.  Suppose the child to be then re-
moved to America, and thenceforward to hem and speak only

`

English, soon, of course, entirely forgetting its mother tongue.
Suppose, then, this child in adult years to attempt the learning
of French, in company with another English adult who had
never heard a word of French.  Who can doubt that the early
use of his mother tongue by the native Frenchman would soon
prove a great advantage to him?

Undoubtedly, the faculties of the very young child are quite
immature, and much of which he takes only an infant's cog-
nizance fades rapidly and wholly from his mind.  On the other
hand, there are not wanting facts which seem to prove that
some of these early impressions are exceedingly deep and per-
manent. The most vivid impressions of the extremely aged are
often those of early years.  When all the varied experiences of
riper years have faded from the weakening memory, there is
often found, deeply impressed as it were upon the very fibre of
the soul's substance, some record of earliest infancy : as when
the effacing brush upon some palimpsest parchment brings to
light an earlier and long unknown writing.  Less figtlratively,
we are unquestionably warranted in claiming that any habit-
ually-repeated mental activity must ever thereafter tend to
repeat itself, and also that the earliest of such activities are
among the most powerful and persistent.

If this be so, as it most certainly is, what reasonable ground
is there for the claim that children both deaf and mute at the
age of admission to school, but having enjoyed good hearing in
earlier years, have received thereby no appreciable benefit in
respect of their subsequent oral culture?  Or for asserting any
fair analogy at all between such pupils and others really con-
genitally deaf?  Can there be any reasonable doubt, upon the
other hand, that in many such cases a very powerful and wholly
ineffaceable impression has been macTe upon the infant mind, far
transcending in importance, and in relevance to educational
questions at issue, any consideration of the actual language
&quisitions of the child before its hearing was lost?

LL Cokgenitally deaf, but not from birth !"

,

\

,

I

Deaf-Mutes and the Coinbined Bethod.

81

This last, however, is by no means so inconsiderable a factor
in the case, as our oralist friends would sometimes seem to
imply.  Any one who has ever carefully noted the range of
language already at the command of many a bright two-year-old
child will not question its very great value to him in after-life,
even if it were never increased by any subsequent additions of
later hearing years.

This very afternoon I received a visit in my school-room from
a little toddling great-granchild of the pioneer in American
deaf-mute education, -Laurent Clem,-whose range and readi-
ness of perfectly intelligible verbal utterance, at even less than
two years of age, could not fail, even if he were suddenly now
to become totally deaf, powerfully to affect his whole subse-
quent culture, both oral and mental. I quote from some
memoranda, kindly supplied to me at my request by little
Laurent Heaton's mother, not because the experience of any
careful observer may not furnish him with similar illustrations,
but because of the peculiar personal interest attaching to this
case :
On one occasion Laurent's father showed him a picture of a drunken
man, and told him that he was naughty and had been drinking Turn-that
it was a very bad thing to do, and " stung like anadder." At a dinner given
some time after by his father, Laurent was at the table, and was allowed
to sip a little Burgundy from his father's glass ; whereupon he made the
remark, after tasting it, that `` wine was bad and stung like an adder,"
much to the amusement of all present.
Laurent's little cousin, Fred Beers, fell off the piazza onto the ground,
and broke his collar-bone.  When Laurent's mamma told him of it, he
was quite thoughtful, and said : " Poor Freddy's bones all broke.  What
a pity !"

On another occasion Laurent's nurse wrapped him up in a large shawl
to take him into an adjacent house to dine.  His grandma told him he
looked like a mummy.  When dinner was over and he was told it was time
to go home, he said, L` Grandma, baby wants to be a mummy." -

Laurent's papa and mamma told him that sometimes little girls and boys
were lost in the streets in New York, and that they hoped he never
would be, but if he were he must tell his name and where he Itved.  One
day after this Laurent was taking a walk with his papa, and they met a
policeman, who talked with him, and finally asked him his name, to which
he promptly replied, " Laurent Heaton ; I live at the Manhattan, 86th st.
Will the good, kind policeman please take me home to my papa and
mamma ?"

Deeper far in its significance, however, and more subtly stimu-
lating in its influence than any actual acquisitions of the awak-

e

82   Dsuf-Mutes. and the Combined Method.

ening mind through its early hearing endowment, may possibly
be the hint, the glimpse, the clue thus afforded the soul of that
which constitutes its almost highest endowment-the language
embodiment of its own elusive thought activities.  At what
point of early infancy we must place the limit of that myste-
rious power of vocalized thougiht to quicken and instruct the
human faculty, who shall dare to say?  But to what years of
the soul's earthly ekistence should we more naturally look for
subtlest and supremest influences, than to the very earliest and
tenderest ? What hinders that the eagerly listening soul
should even so early as its first year, peT-haps, catch something
of the resonance and rhythm of L` matter-moulded speech,"
and become thereby indelibly subdued and conformed to deep-
est and divinest laws of both verbal and vocal expression'
Baffled, as we are, in our every attempt to comprehend that
mysterious correlation of the outward sense to the inner faculty
which constitutes the very key of human language, who shall
presume to date and define the first responsive thrill of the
awakening soul to the murmurings of articulate speech around
it, or to gauge the tenacity of its subsequent hold upon the
clue thus obtained, or to estimate the imperishable force of such
early impulses to reassert themselves in the mental activities of
later years ?

In our confessed utter inability to penetrated the veil which
hides from us this unknown, but not therefore uneventful,
period of our own or others' lives, we may indeed be unable
to substantiate any such daring conjectures : but this at least
we do know, and know most assuredly, that neither words writ-
ten, nor words signed, nor yet words articulated into a world
of silence, have any such power to enkindle and energize the
human faculty, as words once falling upon the receptive ear.
And with this bertainty in mind, who shall be so bold as to
class in one and the same category beings with experiences so
profoundly dissimilar as are the soul which has and the soul
which has not been even once thrilled in the one divinely ap-
pointed manner '? (` Virtual1.q congenitally deaf, because he lost
hearing at four years of age ? at three years of age '2 nay, even
at two years of age ?" No! a thousandtimes, No!  The differ-
ence is one of kind, mysterious, marvellous, unfathomable ; not
at all one of degree merely, however great.

My own experience, as a manual teacher, would incline me to

.

Deaf-Xutes and the Gombinetl Method.

83

I

go even further than this, and to admit, that the single fact of
the soul's having once responded to articulate speech is prob-
ably of very deep significance, not alone in its subsequent oral
culture, but even in its purely menM processes.  I am indined
to think that too little importance has been hitherto usually
attached to this point, in comparing minually educated deaf-
mutes among themselves. ' Just as the visual conceptions of a
person who has become blind after having once seen will
always be infinitely more correct than those of one congenitally
blind, so may the soul which has been once, even for a brief
interval, thrilled by articulate speech, receive thereby an almost
incalculable advantage over one.whose faculties have never been
thus quickened and instructed.

This much, at least, I can confidently affirm as the result of
much observation upon this point, viz., that in far the larger
number of cases of peculiar linguistic proficiency among deaf-
mutes-as distinguished from mathematical or other general
proficiency-due inquiry will generally develop the fact that the
pupil has at some period of its life been able to hear, if not to
speak.  I have learned, in all such cases, to receive with much
caution the often loosely made statements of friends, that the
child was born deaf. Friends of deaf-mutes, usually, as well as
their oral teachers, are far too ready to infer congenitd deaf- '
ness from the.mere fact of subsequent muteness. It is my own
strong belief, on the contrary, that the instinctive impulse of
the human soul toward embodying its thought in language
may have been already powerfully awakened and even educated
through the ear, long before any corresponding education of
the vocal mechanism has become possible.`

This is not saying that vocal speech is a necessity of thought,
as some oralist theorizers have claimed.  It is not even saying
-though this is probabfy true-that the articulate utterance of
one totally and congenitally deaf, has, in the utter inner silence
of his own mind, both past and present, any very helpful rela-
tion to his thought processes. It is simply suggesting that the
real echoes of vocalized thought, if once awakened in the human
mind, may quicken and instruct the linguistic faculty in an
altogether peculiar and powerful mariner, differencing  that

* On this subject compare the suggestions made by Professor E. A: Park
in his introduction to Mrs. Lamson's Life of Laura Bridgman, quoted in
the Annah, vol. xxiv, page 46.

84

Deuf-Jfutes and. the C'o?nbined Method.

mind in a very important sense and measure from one which
has never had a similar experience.
Notwithstanding, however, the deep significance of this dis-
tinguishing characteristic of our third group,-the endowment
of hearing once enjoyed,-experience does not seem to show
that this alone justifies the claim of the pure oralist upon the
entire group.  On the contrary, with our last concession of
those few members of this group who have not only listened
to, but have actually used, articulate speech, we seem to hare
reached the extreme limit of reasonable concession.  Certainly,
we have at last reached ground which, if not clearly and confess-
edly the exclusive province of the manualist, is at least fairly
debatable.

If, now, with a view of reducing this debatable ground
within its narrowest limits before entering on its discussion, we
were to seek for its boundary line upon the lower as well as the
upper side, we should naturally repeat upon that side of our
general field the same process already pursued upon the other.
Passing over to the extreme limit of deepest disability, we
should endeavor to set aside, in successive ascending groups,
all pupils appearing to be the appropriate charge of manual
institutions by purely manual methods, until, upon this side
also, as well as upon the other, we should reach the confessedly
debatable central ground.

The first group which we should thus encounter would be
one composed of those to whose deafness is superadded some
other physical disability-of vision or of vocal power-obvi-
ously incapacitating them from oral culture.  The number in
this group would depend entirely upon the degree and kind of
disability which should be admitted to constitute this incapac-
ity.  The interpretation might be so liberal as to include within
the class almost all deaf-mutes ; certainly all whose vocal train-
ing should prove at all difficult.  There are probably few deaf-
mutes-or other persons indeed-who are wholly free from
some affection of the eye, or vocal organs, or lungs; and it

' certainly is not unreasonable, in a work of such confessed diffi-
culty, to desire that these extra disabilities should embarrass
the general work as little as possible.

The interpretation might, on the other hand, be so rigid as
to reduce the group to a size scarcely exceeding that of the
semi-deaf. group at the other end of the scale of disability,

.

Deaf-Mu fes and the Conzbined Method.

a5

ohe-tenth perhaps of all nominal deaf-mutes.  But whatever
its size, even the most sanguine of oralists must admit the ex-
istence of such a group, dependent for their entire culture on
the manual methods of manual institutions, and must accord
such a measure of utility at least to these institutions.

Our next group would be composed of those either toto or
quasi-congenital deaf-mutes who are noticeably (`deficient in
brain power."  These also our oralist friends are accustomed
graciously to remit to the exclusive care of manual institutions.
Unfair as it might seem, in one point of view, that of two sys-
tems competing for public approval by comparison of their re-
spective results, one should be burdened with, and the other
wholly excused from, responsibility for the really most difficult
portion of that work to which both profess themselves compe-
tent, it is really no slight tribute which is thus paid by the oral-
ists themselves to the real educational superiority of the manual
methods.  It is a truism in educational science that the very
highest test of excellence in a system or a teacher is the power
to quicken and assist the duller pupils.  Any system, any teacher
almost, may answer for bright pupils ; only the very best is
good enough for the dull ones.

Unquestionably, also, the same superiority of system which
is thus acknowledged to be a necessity for the dull pupils, is
equally advantageous, though not equally indispensable, for all.
The brighter pupils may indeed survive the less stimulating and
less broadly educative processes of pure oralisrn ; but, so far as
mental quickening and development is conceraed, the same sub-
tle force in natuml manual methods which avails thus to reach
and awaken minds inaccessible to oral processes, has also a
similar superiority of edaative influence with every higher grade
of deaf-mute pupil, at least until we reach those susceptible of
real "oral restoration to society."  It is with just pride, there-
fore, that the manual system accepts that exclusive charge of
deaf-mutes of defective brain power, which is thus declined by
the pure oralist.

When, however, that reasoning of the oralist, which ha$ found
in defective brain power a valid ground for declining effort in
behalf of those thus doubly disabled, attempts now to reverse
its own step and to find in every failure of any pupil to master
mechanical oralisni a sufficient evidence of defective brain
power. it is certainly time for an indignant protest from all fair-

.

86

minded friends of real deaf-mutes.  An increasing tendency is
of late distinctly observable toward this most baseless and offen-
sive assumption, I quote only one instance from a public print
respecting an institution where the combined method is used :
`L Not all the pupils are thus taught to articulate, but only those
whose mental powers seem to give promise," etc., etc.  I might
fill pages with similar quotations from oralists were it necessary.

A more baseless sophism was never invented to account for
failure in any field of human effort.
capacity is presupposed for even articulation culture, but surely
as little of it as would be consistent with mental training 'by
any other method whatever.  If the claim were, on the other
hand, that it is the manual methods which imply special bright-
ness, there might be more plausibility in it, for precisely in pro-
portion as a deaf-mute child is mentally active and eager, in
just that degree is it usually impatient of mere oral drill, and
buoyantly active and ardent in. the unhindered play of its
faculties along the lines of natural gestural expression.  Not
bright enough, forsooth, to learn mechanical speech by methods
confessedly almost wholly merely imitative, and yet bright
enough to compete in many studies with the pupils of our ord;nary
schools, and to surpass them in some, notably in linguistic ex-
ercises, based in each case upon the translating process ! Surely
no one really understanding the case would be willing so deeply
to misrepresent and even insult an unfortunate class, already
sufficiently misunderstood by merely superficial observers.

The next group which we should encounter in our upward
progress would be that composed of toto-congenital deaf-mutes
of ordinary ability.  The expediency and almost necessity of
conceding to manual institutions, fo? instruction by purely
manual methods, nearly the whole of this class also, upon whose
utter inner silence no single syllable of articulate Bpeech has
ever fallen, would probably be at once acknowledged by nine-
tenths of all English or American deaf-mute instructors, includ-
ing nearly all eclectic oralists advocating the combined method.

SO far, therefore, as our present argument with such-and
with such only-is concerned, we may at once pass on to our
fourth and final group, central among all those hitherto dis-
cussed. This group consists of those quasi-congenital deaf-

' mutes whose early hearing endowment was either too brief or
too slight for their actual acquisition of any measure of speech,

Derf--Mutes ad tha Combined Method.

Of course ordinary mental .

DeiiYHutes and the Combined Nethod.

87

though perhaps quite long enough to have awakened inner
echoes never thereafter to be wholly silenced.  This extremely
limited central group is in truth the only portion of the whole
field respecting which the combined method need feel any
special solicitude; and here, therefore, we at last reach the
only really debatable portion of the field as between eclectic
oralists and pure manualists.  All above it should, as we have
attempted in a previous article to show, be freely conceded to
the pure oralist ; all below it is already conceded by eclectic
oralists, as we have just shown, to the pure manualist.  It is
only therefore'for this very small central group that the com-
bined system can reasonably persist in offering its aid toward a
double culture-oral as well as manual.

I am aware, of course, that in thus hastening on we are
leaving behind us a wide field, which the pure oralist by no
means so easily concedes to the pure manualist as does his
eclectic cousin.  Not only do the former claim for themselves
the whole of this central group last reached, but with almost
equal confidence they assert their right to the entire lower
group of toto-congenital deaf-mutes of ordinary ability.

It is from no indisposition to meet these wholly untenable
claims of the pure oralist in their appropriate connection, that
our present direct argument with semi-oralists alone waives for
the time the wider issue, and addresses itself to the central
question of this final focus of the narrower discussion.  This
question is not, as it i8 sometimes put, Can any of these
quasi-congenital deaf-mutes be taught to articulate by the com-
bined method ?  Nor yet, as it is oftener put, Are not the man-
ual methods of the combined system useful for such pupils ?
But rather, To what extent is it exp,edient to' embarrass the
legitimate working of these manual methods in such institu-
tions by the attempt to engraft upon them the wholly dissimi-
lar method of oralism in behalf of this very small central group '!

The answer to this question would apparently depend upon
two things-the degree of success attending the effort when
thus made, and the degree of embarrassment resulting from
it to the proper work of the institution.
As r6gards the latter of these two elements, nearly all that
was said in our previous article respecting the embarrassments
resulting from the same effort in behalf of semi-deaf and semi-

88   Deaf-#Utes and the Cornbined Method.

mute pupils, applies, of course, in an equal or even greater de-
gree to these of heavier disability.  The same divided aim, the
same distraction of attention, the same interruption of regular
work, the same confusion of classification, the same general loss
of pervasive personal influence throughout the class, are the in-
evitable drawbacks of the combined method whenever and
wherever employed.  Certainly only the most brilliant success
in oral culture should be held to justify such heavy embarrass-
ment of the leading aims and method of manual institutions.

There is, moreover, this important additional consideration
in these cases of heavier disability which should by no means
be overlooked, viz., that the embarrassment grows greater in
direct proportion to the worthlessness of the result achieved.
It is the cases of least remunerative success which require and
receive the most lavish outlay of effort in order to yield even
their pitiful minimum of return.
There is a very small range of oral acquisition which is the
almost universal possibility for even real deaf-mutes, as is well
known to all engaged in their instruction.  There are few deaf-
mutes who cannot be taught with comparative ease to pro-
nounce intelligibly some words.  But to press beyond this low
range most quasi-congenital deaf-mutes requires an outlay of
effort far exceeding that necessary for securing the most bril-
liant semi-deaf and semi-mute successes. That in these latter
cases the maTimurn of success should sometimes be secured by
the minimum of effort, might be granted to be an at least specious
plea for tolerating the attempt by the combined method in
such cases, even in spite of its accompanying embarrassments.
But that the maximum of outlay should in any cases secure
only the minimum of success, as in these cases of heavier dis-
ability,-this certainly should wholly and finally condemn the
system, at least in any such wasteful application of it.  If ever
`` only success should be held to succeed," it surely is where the
embarrassments attending even the experiment are so great.

As to the degree of success .which should in candor be held
to justify the experiments of the combined method, the some-
what paradoxical statement must apparently be made, that the
greater the success attained the less is the just claim of the
method upon the continued care of the case. This seems
to follow necessarily from the concessions which we have
already felt constrained to make to the pure oralist, and from

'

    DeuJ-Xutes and Ihe Coiiibinsd Xethod.

the grounds on which they were made, viz., that for

   89

all those

cases of pre-eminent success in the past experience of both
methods with semi-deaf and semi-mute pupils, the pure oral
methods are the appropriate agency of culture.  It would fol-
low, of course, that in proportion as any quasi-congenital cases
may approach these in oral success, in the same proportion
would they become the appropriate charge of oral schools
instead of manual ones.  If, in any case, the success should be
sufficient to afford just ground of satisfaction, then it would
not merely justify, but would demand, the removal of the child
to larger and better oral opportunities.  If the comparatively
small amount of attention to this branch of culture, which alone
is possible under the divided working of the combined method,
can yet avail for any really valuable result, the very fact is
pkoof that much more might have been accomplished in the
same case by the more concentrated aim and effort of the pure
oral methods.  The very triumphs, therefore, of the combined
method, (if any such triumphs could be shown,) would only the
more conclusively demonstrate the sad mistake which had been
made in accepting for the pupil its really hindering agency.

In truth, however, the supposition of any such triumphs of
the combined system among congenital deaf-mutes is a wholly
baseless one.  It is supported by no facts of experience ; cer-
tainly by none within my own observation ; during a long term
of years I have never seen a single case of such success of this
method among these more heavily disabled pupils as I would
at all covet for myself if I were in the child's place-the final
and only true test by which any one should decide such a ques-
tion.  This is saying nothing, it will be noticed, respecting the
possibility of such success by other methods, focussing their
entire energy for an indefinite length of time upon the single
point of oral culture.  It is simply asserting that the combined  .
method, aa actually employed in our manual institutions, .has
no such possibility and exhibits no such results.

Is it, then, upon its failures of oral success that this method
is driven to rest its ultimate claim to acceptance?  !Phis, of
course, raises at once the question of what really constitutes
failure and what success in such an effort-the very key to the
entire pure oral controversy.  A full and frank answer to this
question will be attempted in another connection of the general
discussion.  For the present, it may be sufficient to say that, if

9 0

by success be meant what our articulation friends are accusd
tomed to admit as their own aim, viz., restoration to society ;
and, if by "failure" be meant-as should be-those merely
partial successes which fall far short of such real restoration,
then, of course, it must be,upon its failures alone that the
combined method rests its claims to acceptance, since all higher
degrees of success become, as we have just seen, the most con-
vincing arguments against those claims.  So far as oralisin
then is concerned, the conclusion of the whole matter would
seem to be, that the combined method should be tolerated only
in those cases in which it is practically valueless !  A surely
somewhat slender basis for any very enthusiastic advocacy.

But it is claimed, perhaps, that although the oral success in
such cases is only partial-and would be only such under any
method-yet the educational advantage to the pupil from the
manual methods, which constitute the other arm of the com-
bhed method, are so great as fully to justify its offered agency.
The reply to this certainly specious argument naturally sub-
divides itself to meet the two degrees of oral success which we
have just been considering.
So far, then, as the cases of real success are concerned,-
those very exceptionai cases,' if any such there be, who by the
supposition may, even under this mixed system, attain a degree
of oral success which, if greatly exceeded under the pure oral
system, as it surely would be, might there become the ready
and reliable medium of full education-so far as all such cases
are concerned, it is clear at once, that the officious offer of the
combined system to undertake anything at all in the child's
behalf is wholly superfluous and mischievous.  Who thinks of
carrying the offer of manual methods into our ordinary schools ?
And yet +heir use there could be better defended than as a
part of an eclectic system, where they hamper and largely
neutralize the efficient agency of the oral methods they aim to
supplement.

So far, on the other hand, as the educational advantage of
the "fpilures" in oral culture is concerned, though that should
unquestionably be sought by manual methods, yet it should
equally certhinly be by such methods in their most unhindered
and efficient working, and not as confused and embarrassed by
wholly dissimilar methods.  It is precisely in order that the
manual method may successfully meet its acknowledged and

De!cf~--i4ii4tss cmC the CTmhi71brZ Method.

heavy responsibility for this class of pupiis that we urge its
refraining from the assumption of others, for which it is wholly
inadequate.
It will be noticed that the entire force of this-the only even
specious argument in defence of this method-rests at bottom
upon an admission of the small practical value of the oral suc-
cess thus secured, with a tacit assumption that this success is
substantially as great as would be secured under any system.
As a matter of fact, this might or might not prove true; but, as
a matter of argument, the assumption is wholly unwarranted.
Although this has been for years the trusted argument of the
semi-oralists against limiting the educational opportunity of
such pupils to pure oral methods, it is too plain for formal
statement, that no valid inference can be drawn from failures
of the mixed method to similar failures under every method.
And our oralist friends have certainly just ground for their dis-
satisfaction that the feeble, hesitating, intermittent experiments
of the combined method in this unfamiliar field, wholly foreign
to its real and honest work, should be ever offered as a fair
sample of the possibilities under a more confident, concentrated,
and skillful agency.
Of all human attempts obviously hopeless, except under the
most favorable conditions possible, the oral culture of real deaf-
mutes'is one of the most marked.  If the too difficult attempt
must be made at all, it should surely be with every possible
advantage.  To attempt it under any other circumstances is
not only useless but much worse than useless, resulting, as it
must, in great and uncompensated loss in other directions.

Indeed, the result ostensibly aimed at by'the conibined
method is so clearly impossible of attainment under any such
divided and doubting agency; the means employed are so
ludicrously inadequate to the tremendous task, that one is
almost drivin to suspicions of the perfect sincerity of professed
motives for employing such an agency for such a work.  One is
almost compelled to surmise that the assumed necessity of par-
tially satisfying the importunate demands of patrons who can
only thus be retained, has more to do with such persistence
tharl any real professional approval of either the' aim or the
method. Certainly, no one of the slightest experience in
educational work would ever expect any valuable linguistic
result from very short periods of daily practice, separated by

long intervals of absolute forgetfulness on the pupil'b: part of
even that little which he had thus feebly and fitfully attempted.
Success under such circumstances would be a miracle of mira-
cles; and the sound judgment of those who persist in thus
attempting it does not appear to conspicuous advantage.
If, however, the wisdom of such an entire separation of the
main working field of these two so dissimilar systems should
be admitted, it might still be asked whether there is not a legiti-
mate place for the combined method in those prolonged experi-
ments which may be considered necessary to indicate the pupil's
proper ultimate assignment ?
In reply to this quesfion, let it be noted, first, that when the
standard of oral success necessary to justify its attempted cul-
ture in State institutions shall have been duly considered at a
later stage of the discussion, it will be at once recognized that
the number of real deaf-mutes who can properly claim any
right to. such prolonged oral experiment is far too small to
justify any formal and costly provision for their discovery.
In the light of that "mutually agreed standard of success"
which is now the great desideratum of the discussion, and must
be the key to the ultimate settlement of the entire controversy,
no prolonged experiments will be regarded necessary for the
very early assignment of at least nine-tenths of the appropriate
pupils of each system.

Secondly, as regards any pupils of very rare aptitude for oral
cultwe among these congenital deaf-mutes, it should be remem-
bered that most of these could hardly fail to make themselves
early evident upon only slight experiment, requiring no such
confusing and `costly machinery for their discovery. Some few
exceptional cases of this kind there undoubtedly are-as rare
probably among deaf-mutes as are instances of transcendent
genius among scholars ; and as little justifying any special pro-
vision for their discovery or education.  In thirty years of ob-
servation among deaf-mutes, I have encountered two!

Thirdly, in regard to all merely average cases, no expectation
need be ever entertained that the combined method would prove
for any such a merely experimerztal opportunity.  Scarcely ever
would these pupils, when once entered within the circle of this
system, be by its feeble and fitful assistance graduated from its
own very limited oral opportunities to .the ampler ones of oral
schools. Almost invariably would their entire educational privi-

-

Deaf-Mutes and the Conahiml! Bethod.

93

lege in this direction prove to have been fixed by the fact of
their entrance within a manual institution.
This would probably prove practically so, even if oral in-
stitutions should not, as some of them so rigidly do, bar their
doors against the admission of any pupils who have once come
under the baleful (!) influence of manual methods.
And, finally, it is to be especially noted that all such experi-
ments as would be really desirable could be just as well carried
on during a short probationary period in either class of in-
stitution, as by any mixed agency specially maintained within
either for this purpose.  With ordinary inteQigence and candor
upon the part of the managers of each institution, all very
markedxases would secure early recognition and appropriate
aseignment. It yould be of far less consequence what particu-
lar assignment were made of all other cases, than that either
method once adopted for them should be applied in its sim-
plicity and concentrated energy, without embarrassment from
dissimilar ones.

Doubtless the ideal solution of the practical problem would
be schools of each method, under the control of one authority
having no possible interest in the question of respective assign-
ments, except that of the pupil's own highest advantage.
UndeAny other arrangement there must alwaxs be a liability
that some cases of mistaken original assignment may remain
unrectified during the child's entire educational course.  The
responsibility for all such cases our argument would be obliged
to accept as the inevitable incidents of the working. of any plan
under merely human administration where choice must be made
between two possible evils.

It shoul'd be said, however, that the occurrence of such mis-
takes, although confessedly very sad, in whichever direction the
wrong assignment may have been made, is yet not the greatest
possible calamity. Better by far would it be that every
member of this confessedly small central group should go
utterly voiceless through all his life, with the mental education
which manualism can at least give him, than that he should
attain only that very small range of oral success, which is the
highest probable result of the combined method in such cases,
at the very great loss both to himself and others, which is the
inevitable consequence of the prolonged attempt to secure his
oral*culture under the mixed method.

~

*

.

94

Deaf- Mutes and the Condined Method.

If, on the other hand, every child of this small central group
should, as a consequence of the suppression of the combined
method, be withdrawn from manual institutions and placed in
oral schools, even this foreseen result need cause no conscien-
tious hesitance on the part of the former in assuming such a
position. For, first, if oral success should attend this removal
to ampler opportunities; as by the very supposition might
sometimes prove the case, a great benefit would have resulted
from the change, in which all must rejoice.  While if, on the
other hand, even under these more favorable conditions for
oral culture, failure both of that and of any satisfactory mental
development should prove the unfortunate result, it would never
be too late to rectify in some degree the mistake when once
admitted as such by the guardians of the child.  The doors
which separate pufe manual from pure oral institutions open
freely inward toward the former, however carefully they may
be bolted and guarded upon the opposite side.  The responsi-
bility for all the loss of time thus occasioned in the child's en-
tire training would obviously rest not upon the manual institu-
tion wisely declining to intermingle methods so dissimilar, but
upon the parent or his original advisors unwisely then demand-
ing for the child what experience ha's since proved an im-
possibility.

The argument against the combined method as thus far pre-
sented may seem to some to amount almost to a positive argu-
ment for the pure oral method as applied to even quasi or toto-
congenital deaf-mutes.  That this is very far froin being the
case will become evident when the real claim of the pure oral-
ist to any portion of the field below that already explicitly con-
ceded to him shall be fairly analyzed.

If it shall then appear, as it is believed it will, that even the
most concentrated effort of that system can accomplish little
of practical value outside of this conceded field, not only will
the argument against the combined method based upon its
similar failures be greatly strengthened, but the way will be
fully prepared for that which has been from the first the real
aim of the discussion, viz., the fair division of the whole field
between the two co-operating systems.  The presentation of
this portion of the argument will, therefore, form the subject
of a third and concluding article.

o

p

JOHN ALLEN McWHORTER.

BY JAMES C. BALIS, B. A., TURTLE OREEEK, PA.

JOHN ALLEN MCWHORTER was born in Warsaw, Wyoming
county, New York, September 15, 1833.  His father, Samuel
McWhorter, taught the first school in Warsaw ; filled the first
and several succeeding terms of the office of town clerk ; repre-
sented Genesee county in the Assembly in 1822, and served one
term as associatg judge of the county court.  For many years
he held the office of justice of the peace, removing later to Bel-
vedere, Illinois, and thence to Wisconsin, in 1856.

John A. McWhorter received the best common-school educa-
tion then possible, and was ready for college when fourteen years
old ; but circumstances prevented his entering till 1852, when
he matriculated at Beloit College, Wisconsin, being then nine-
teen years of age. ,
It is related of him in this connection that, being eager to
finish his education, he agreed to relinquish all claim upon the
embarrassed family estate, whatever might be its improved
value in the future, provided his father would pay his expenses
at college.  His offer was accepted and his promise was reli-
giously kept.  Though the property became quite valuable in
?fter years, he never asked or received one cent from it.

The record of his college career is an enviable one.  Presi-
dent Chapin says : '' His college course was an honorable one
in'every respect.  In scholarship, he stood third in his class ;
mathematics, I think, was his favorite study.  His moral and
Christian character was well defined, of high tone, and consis-
tently maintained in all his relations.  His bearing was manly
and dignified, and commanded the respect of his teachers aud
fellow-students.  I have always felt satisfaction and pride in
him as an alumnus of our college.  I feel grieved at his death,
which seems to us untimely, as it takes him away in the full
vigor of his manhood fromaa position which he seemed pre-
pared to fill with eminent usefulness."

Graduating in 1856, at the suggestion of President Chapin,
t.hen one of the trustees of the Wisconsin Institution for the
Deaf and Dumb, he entered upon what proved to be his life- .
work as instructor in that Institution.  His age was then
twenty-three.  Three years later he married Miss Eugenia

.

t

.

.

95

96 John A Ueii Mc IVhortei*.

Chamberlain, of Elkhart, Ind., who, with three

sons axld a

daughter, survives him.  He continued his connection with
that Institution until November, 1869.

It was in Wisconsin that the best years of his life were spent
hnd his reputation as a thorough instructor was made.  Young
and vigorous, fresh from the halls of college and the warfare of
intellects waged therein, he speedily took a front rank in the
faculty of the school. With a large, warm heart and endearing
manner, he soon made a place for himself in the hearts of his
pupils, and gained the respect and confidence of his fellow-
instructors.

He.became an adept in the use of the sign-language, and,
struck with its beautiful capabilities, he introduced its use in
the rendition of poetical selections and declamation, which soon
became a regular and prominent feature of the exhibitions of
the pupils and social entertainments of the school.
In February, 1865, on the death of the principal, Mr. J. S.
Officer, he was placed in charge for the unexpired term.  Dr.
H. W. Milligan, who succeeded Mr. Officer, resigning in the
summer of 1868, Mr. McWhorter was again placed in control
pending the choice of a new principal, which fell upon Mr. E. C.
Stone in the following year.  During this interregnum the first
class in articulation and lip-reading at that Institution was
formed under his auspices, consisting of fifteen members, under
the supervision of Miss Emily Eddy, who is still connected with
the school.

Mr. McWhorter then regarded this branch of education in
`the light of an art or accomplishment, as music and the like
among hhe hearing; and experienced  observation failed to
change his opinion that, except for a few semi-mutes,  the
course of oral instruction is a sheer waste of valuable time.

In 1869 he accepted a call to the superintendency of the
Louisiana Institution, and departed for Baton Rouge in Novem-9
ber of that year.
Those who shared in the farewell gathering in the old chapel
at Phcenix Green, Delavan, will long remember the sad, tearful
parting that there took place.  His farewell address is remem-
bered as one of the most impressive ever delivered within its

   Officers and pupils had combined in the purchase of a
silver water-service, which was presented as a token of love and
esteem.  As the tall form and kind, familiar face arose before

. walls.

John A lien Me Whorter.

97

us, and in graceful signs he conveyed his thanks for the remem-
brance and his appreciation of the gift, few withheld their tears.
In thrilling, vivid sentences he told his love for us, and the
high hopes and regard for our welfare he prayerfully enter-
tained.
We of his class, who sat'under his fatherly tutelage and
gracious rule, felt that we should rarely meet again such kid
consideration and warm interest in our well-being as he ever
lovingly displayed in our daily intercourse.  But one of that
class of eighteen ever beheld him again, and he found him the
same genial loving friend and instructor as of old.

We regard our continued prosperity and success in life as the
fruits of his faithful ministry and the encouragement he so con-
stantly gave us by word and deed.  His influence in the class-
room was silent, but effective.  He seldom punished and rarely
chided.  It was not necessary, for we knew he was our friend
and well-wisher ; and to pain him by disobedience or negligence
did not enter our minds.  On the other hand, he knew we felt
so, and that we did our best ; therefore his patience, even when
severely tried, was ever equal to the strain upon it.

                                   Of
indomitable will, governed by Christian principles, he conquered
with a glance that looked right into the soul of the luckless tres-
passer upon his forbearance, and ended resistance then and
there.

Ureat common sense, clear, rapid discernment, rare judg-
ment and gentle firmness marked his course.  A winning ten-
derness from the kindest of hearts drew to him the troubled
and the sorrowing, with the assurance of receiving active sym-
pathy and sound advice.  Little things did not worry him;
petty differences were beneath him, and, among his pupils and
associates. met with such prompt rebuke as sunk them at once
to insignificance.

He was eminently a man of action and great executive ability,
of ready ingenuity and clear perceptions. His sympathies were
`ever with the class he labored to benefit, and their welfare was
his constant object.  A striking instance of this is found in his
course at the Louisiana Institution.

The State had erected a beautiful, commodious building for
the deaf and dumb, but placed it temporarily at the disposal of
the Stytte University.  The friends of the University endeavored

J

He was a man of strong passions under perfect control.

98

John A lbn Mc Whorter.

to secure it permanently, relegating the deaf and dumb to an
old building totally inadequate to its purpose and necessities.
This touched Mr. McWhorter to the quick, and he put forth all
his powdrs and bent all his energies to the work of preventing
the ratification of the measure by the Legislature.  His zealous
defence of the rights of his pupils was for a time successful,
though the University still held possession of part of the build-
ing. It was proposed to add a wing for the use of the Institu-
tion.  Of course it would not do to place two such dissimilar
schools under one roof, and so he said.  Finally, in 1877, in the
political storm that then swept the State, he was brushed aside,
to the regret of all connected with the school, and the change
he had fought so bravely was made, the Institution edifice
going to the University and the Institution to a less eligible
building, under a new and inexperienced head.

Mr. McWhorter then retired to his plantation near Baton
Rouge, and quietly turned his attention to the culture of sugar-
cane, remaining there about three years, ever striving to regain
a place in the profession he loved so well.
In December, 1880, he accepted the position of principal of
the Western Pennsylvania Institution at Turtle Creek, and
came at once with his family to this new field of usefulness, en-
tering upon his duties January 1, 1881.  It was in the midst
of one of the worst of wet winters known in this part of the
country.  Almost one continual storm of rain and sleet char-
acterized the season from November to May.

Coming from the balmy air and sunshine of Louisiana, he
was at once seized with bronchial consumption, which in less
than nine months rendered him almost speechless, choking the
cheerful ringing voice into a husky labored whisper.  A vaca-
tion of sixty days was granted him in March, 1882, which he
spent in the South, returning in the following May apparent-
ly much improved, and with partly recovered voice.  His friends
were hopeful, rejoicing with a joy sincere. and for a season all
was well.

But we little knew the relentless nature of the destroyer that
had fastened upon him. Again the voice was silenced. His
once powerful constitution was slowly undermined ; one by one
he relinquished his walks and his welcome visits to the school-
rooms. Growing weaker 2s the weeks dragged on, he with
much difficulty sought by visits to Clevelmd, and by placing

b

.

John Allen Me Whorter.

99

himself under a renowned physician, to find relief.  But all the
skill and best advice obtainable were of no avail.

In the early days before Christmas, 1882, he was compelled to
keep his bed.  On the Friday before that day of days, when all
the world rejoices and he himself was wont to take a leading
part in the children's merriment, he called the members of his
faculty about his bedside, and, one by one, with trembling hand
and lip, held out to them a gift, and, with a cheerful smile
breaking over his pain-racked features, bade them farewell,
saying, "1 do not think I shall be here Christmas."

               He still lingered patient and
resigned, buoyed up on the wings of hope and the great faith
to which he ever clung.  Eagerly, to the last, his thoughts were
bent upoR the object of his life work-the welfare of the deaf
and dumb.

It is to us of Pennsylvania a muse of sincere congratulation
that for even so brief a period it was granted us to know and
serve him.  Deep and lasting is the memory left us of our dear
friend and honored chief.  The childred loved him as a father,
with that fearless affection rarely won from a child among
strangers.  No pains nor personal inconvenience was allowed to
stand between him and the children of his charge, and every-
thing progressed smoothly and harmoniously during his adrnin-
istration.

For the last year of his life he was very much absorbed in
the elaboration of plans for the new Institution building to be
erected at Edgewood.  Even when driven to his bed he would
lie and think, then arise and plan until eshaustion forced his
return to the couch.

              His idea was to arrange the
divisions according to the proportions of the sexes, thus econo-
mizing space and securing better supervision and greater corn,-
pactness of the whole.  The school-rooms were all to be on
the boys' side, so that the male pupils need never traverse the
female department under any circumstances.  Various other
improvements commend his design to the intelligent considera-
tion of the profession generally.

Not to see it an accomplished fact ; to forego the gratification
of beholding the structure completed, the fruit of his genius
and the reward of earnest thought and toil, was the one great
disappointment he was compelled to endure, as failing health

But the evil day was not yet.

.

His plans were admirable.

o

100

John Allen Mc Whorter.

and strength forced the strong will to bend and yield and at
last lie prostrate, conquered, never more to regain ascendency
over the palsied limbs that now refused their office.
Mr. McWhorter $was of large experience as a teacher of the
deaf.  Having entered the profession with the determination
to know all about it, he made a thorough study of the deaf-
mute, his peculiarities, capabilities, and necessities.  His knowl-
edge of child-life was rare and wonderfully correct. His
visits to the school-room were always welcome, for something
was learned from him whenever he appeared.  He was, what
every principal should be qualified for, a teacher of teachers.

He was a ready instructor, apt at illustration, and possessed
of a very winning manner that encouraged the child.  His
characteristic as a teacher was that of patient, persistent, and
successful endeavor to d&elop the thinking power of his pupils.
He rarely punished ; he gently reproved ; was long-suffering,
forbearing, and just.

As principal, he was very considerate and reasonable, and
disposed to respect the honorable motives of his teachers and
employ&.  He knew their difficulties and the many stumbling-
blocks and perplexities they encounter.  He made them feel,
what is so rare, that the principal and teachers of a gchool form
a copartnership with a common end in view ; that all direction,
advice, and criticisms are so many necessary and welcome fac-
tors in the problem which they are employed to solve by their
professional labors.

The rights of the pupil were guarded and upheld at all
times.  Always cheeryul and disposed to look for the bright
side, the inherent good in all created things, his genial smile
and words of encouragement or hope abolished discontent and
silenced the ill-disposed.  He united the ruler with the friend.
A call upon his time or notice always received courteous atten-
tion and a calm, decisive answer, no matter how busily he
might be engaged.

His opinions were formed after earnest meditation and weigh-
ing of pro and con; they were decided, emphatic, and unequivo-
cally expressed.  He-was deliberate in action, of great dignity
without affectation.  His face was always serene, with that seal
of a warm heart upon it, the gentle questioning look of benig-
nity, that encouraged the diffident and held at bay the would-be
petitioner for trivialities.

I

John Allen Mc Whorter.

101

A master of the sign-language, from his hands the ordinary
conversational signs received new force and explicitness.  Pos-
sessed of a tall, broad physique, his gestures fell upon the eye
full of poetic grace, in well-rounded periods, thrilling the
beholder with the vivid pictures they portrayed.  Each one
had a meaning; and his thoughts, sparkling with intelligent
life, filled the minds of his audience with his own spirit and
interest in the theme.

His sense of humor was large, and his tastes pure.  He liked
the standard works of fiction, but preferred solid works on
science, philosophy, and the religious topics of the day.  Mathe-
matics always delighted him, and he was ever engaged more or
less upon that ffcience.

                                   In
1852-'€i3 he became a convert to religious truth during a period
of revival in the college, and shortly after connected himself
with the Presbyterian church, of which he always performed his
duties as a member conscientiously and with great pleasure.
His Sunday lectures in chapel were practical and deeply im-
pressive, for the air of sincerity he bore about him diffused
itself among his hearers, and they listened with breathlem
attention.

He hoped with the simple trust of a child; his charity never
failed.  He had no fear of death ; no doubting marred his clear
perception of the Divine agency in the blow that laid him upon
his couch of pain ; but peacefully, joyfully, he passed the lessen-
ing hour of patient waiting for his release.

The fruits of almost twenty-three years of constant prac6ce
and close observation appear in able expositions of the course
and methods of instruction in reports of the Louisiana Institu-
tion,* and in those of 1881-732 while at the head of the Western
Pennsylvania Institution.
None but a worker, and a faithful one, could so well`and
clearly demonstrate the manner and indicate the means whereby
the follower in his footsteps may attain success.  As he says
himself, "To teach the deaf is work, and nothing. but work,
and the harder the teacher works the pleasanter it becomes."

And now the calm has settled upon his life among us ; the
buoyant spirit has ceased its weary beating against the bars of

'

.

He was a man of unwavering faith and earnest prayer.

I

-

'

'

* See the Annale, mi, 255; xvii, 174, eto.

.

,

lo?

The Sense os Dizziness in Deaf-Bi6ten.

clay, and has soared above the mists of earth and the mingled
toil and sorrow of life's long fevered battle to the land where
all is joy, and love, and peace.
As the dawn of January 14, 1883, was breaking, cold and
gray, through the wintry clouds, across the hills, his gladsome
spirit rose from earth, and clearing with exultant freedom the
world's dark mantle and the star-gemmed vaults of blue, en-
tered within the glorious portals of the realms of endless day.
John Allen McWhorter stands before his friends and the
world a thorough Christian gentleman.  Beloved by all within
his gracious jurisdiction, he has left us a legacy of hope, a
gentle memory to cherish, and a standard by which to measure,
in the future of our lives, true men.

On the evening of the 16th all that was mortal of our loved  ,
friend was taken by his son to Baton Rouge for burial, and
received by his numerous friends there with testimonials of
love and respect. For days the rain had fallen ceaselessly; but
when they opened the casket for a last long lobk, the sun broke
forth from the clouds, flooding the group of friends and the
loved remains about which they were gathered with warm
golden light.  He was buried beside. his daughter, Bessie,
beneath the warm skies of thesunny land he loved so well.

o

,

b

THE SENSE OF DIZZINESS IN DEAF-MUTES.*

.

BY WILLIAM JAMES, M. D., CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

PRWENTED by untoward circumstances from completing an in-
vestigation into the above subject, which I would willingly have
made more thorough, I publish the facts I have already ob-
tained, in the hope that some one with better opportunities
inay carry on the work.  The regular medical attendants of

, deaf-mute institutions seem particularly well-fitted for such a
task.

So far as I can make out, the immunity from dizziness which
is characteristic of deaf-mutes has never been remarked or com-
mented on before, even in institutions.  Anbther illustration of
how few facts "experience" will discover unless some prior in-
terest, born of theory, is already awakened in the mind.

________..~

* Reprinted by permimion from the American Journal of Otology for

October, 1882.

The Sense of Dizziness in Deaf--Mutes.

103

The modern theory, that the semicircular canals are uncon-
nected with the sense of hearing, but serve to convey to us
the feeling of movement of our head through space, a feeling
which, when very intensely excited, passes into that of vertigo
or dizziness, is well known.*  It occurred to me that deaf-mute
institutions ought to offer some corroboration of the theory in
question, if a true one.  Arnong their inmates must certainly be
a considerable number in whom either the labyrinths or the
auditory nerves in their totality have been destroyed by the
same causes that produced the deafness.  We ought therefore
to expect, if the semicircular canals be really the starting-points
of the sensation of dizziness, to find, on examining a large num-
ber of deaf-mutes, a certain proportion of them who are com-
pletely insusceptible of that affection, and others who enjoy
immunity in a less complete degree.

The number of deaf-mutes who have been examined to test
this suggestion is in all 519.  Of these 186 are reported as to-
tally insusceptible of being made dizzy by whirling rapidly
round with the head in any position whatever.7  Nearly 200
students abd instructors in Harvard College were examined for
purposes of comparison, and but a single one rehained exempt
from the vertigo. Of the deaf-mutes, 134 are set down as dizzy
in a very slight degree ; while 199 were normally, and in a few
cases abnormally, sensitive.

The surmise with which I started is thus proved, and the
theory that the semicircular canals are organs of equilibrium
receives renewed corroboration.
Of course the cases observed represent every kind of ear dis-
ease, and it is impossible to analyze them so as to show why
exemption from vertigo should be associated with the deafness
in one case and in another not.  '' Congenital " mutes are found

*For the benefit of possible readers who may not be physiologists I
would say that a summary of the evidence for this view is given in Fos-
ter's Text-Book of Physiology, Book 111, chap. vi, 5 2.  An attack on this
theory haa recently been made by Baginski, a very full abstract of whose
article appeared in the number of this Journal for last January.  [See also
the Annak, vol. xxvii, page 119.1  Baginski's experiments seem to me
far from conclusive ; and his argument has been satisfactorily replied to
by Hiigyes in Pflgiier's Arc?&, vol. xxvi, page 658, and by Spamer, Ibid.,
vol. xxv, page 177.

t It is well known that with the head leaning forward or backwurd, or
townrds one shoulder, the dizziness is much more intense.

-

,

104

The 8enseof fizziness in Deaf-Mzctes.

I

in all three classes,. and so arr! `` semi-mutes, " so that the
age at which the deafness comes on has nothing to do with it.
The diseases which are the most fertile causes of deafness-men-
ingitis, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, etc.-are as apt to leave the
patient's sensibility to vertigo normal a8 they are to abolish it.
The cases from which the above aggregate conclusions are
drawn are from several distinct soumes : the Hartford Asy-
lum ; the National College, and the Primary Department of the
Columbia Institution, at Washington ; the Horace Mann School
in Boston; the Clarke Institution at Northampton ; the In-
diana Institution; the answers to a printed circular I dis-
tributed, and a number of separate voluntary reports I received.
In tabular form the statistics run as follows :

-__~

__ ~ _____
      ____~

__

Institution. ' Not dizzy. I Slightly. 1 Dizzy.

              i
National College .................... l

Primary Dep't, Columbia Inst'n.'
Hartford ..............................
Boston.. ......... ........................
Northampton ......................... ,

Circulars .............................. ~
Various ................................ .'

Indians, .Z ~

.............................

I

18
11
49
45
35

6
28
4

5
1
49
20
30
6
19
4

38
19
57

4
20
4
46
11

The Sense of Dizziness irL Deaf-Mutes.

105

(` slight " may possibly, therefore, fall within the normal limits.
It is more probable however that the majority of them repre-
sent a more or less abnormally reduced susceptibility.  In the
wes I myself examined, every one where the presence of ver-
tigo was at-all doubtful was recorded as `( slight,'' so as not to
overload the column of figures favorable to my hypotheses.
In the Harvard College records, in which each man inscribed
his own result, the expressions (` slightly " and " somewhat "
occur, but they do so very few times indeed.  Where the ver-
tigo was slight, it has often happened that a deaf-mute
examined one day or by one person was reported (( not dizzy,"
whilst another day or another examiner caused the case to be
recorded either as "slightly dizzy " or as "dizzy."  I am dis-
posed to think that both normal and abnormal subjects differ
somewhat in their sensibility to vertigo from one day to
another.*  Lowenfeld says that this is markedly the case with
the vertigo induced by galvanic currents across the head, of
which I shall have something to say anon.

A certain lack of rigorous accuracy in individual instances
ought then to throw no discredit whatever on the main result
of the investigation, which is that disease of the internal ear is
likely to confer immunity from dizziness.  Nobody could pos-
sibly confound the extreme cases, nor could any difference of
opinion arise concerning them.  We see on the one hand an
affection which may nauseate the patient or make it impossible
for him to stand on his feet at all; on the other, absolute and
total indifference to the whirling in every respect whatsoever.

As regards the method of examination, active spinning about
on the feet with the head successively upright, bent forward,
and inclined on one shoulder, is of course the simplest way of
testing the matter.  The eyes must be .closed to eliminate
optical vertigo, pure and simple, but opened when the spinning
is over, so that the patient may have every advantage for walk-
ing straight.  Except in the Boston and Northampton schools
this was the method generally used.  It is likely to give m
unduly small number of total exemptions, frqm the fact that if
the whirling has been long and violent, some feeling of confu-
sion will remain for a few moments, in consequence of head
congestion, and some irregularity of gait, as a cqnsequence of
involuntary continuance of muscular action.  This latter may

* Exp. u. krit. Untermuoh. tu?' EZeotrathara/pie des ffehirna, Munich, 1881.

106

The ,Sense of Disziness In Deaf--Mutes.

be called muscular vertigo-it probably figures in many of the
cases marked " slight."
The muscular vertigo may be entirely eliminated by passive
rotation. The children of the Boston and Northampton schools
were seated on a square board, each angle whereof  had a
rope affixed to it.  The ropes were kept parallel up to ~t height
above the head of the inmate by a cross-shaped brace of wood
which kept them asunder at that point.  Above the cross-
brace they rapidly converged to the point of suspension of the
apparatus.  The apparatus is rotated by the examiner's han&
until the ropes above the brace are tightly twisted.  The child
is then seated on the board, with closed eyes, and head in any
position desired, and the torsion of the ropes is left to work its
effects freely.  These consist in a rapid revolution of the whole
apparatus, including its inmate.  The moment the speed of
rotation slackens the examiner stops the rotation, and sets the
child, who has been instructed previously, to open his eyes and
walk as straight as possible towards a distant point on the
floor.  I examined all the Northampton children myself in this
way, and (with my brother's assistance) repeated thus the
examinations made of the children of the Horace Mann School
by their teachers a year before."  The Harvard students were
also examined in this way.

It is difficult to be sure, in many of the  cases marked
u slightly dizzy," whether the sensation experienced by the
subject was a mild degree of true vertigo or a slight confusion
arising from the effects of centrifugal movement of the intra-
cranial fluids and viscera.  That changes of intracranial pressure
will give rise to dizziness by directly influencing the brain inde-
pendently of the semicircular canals is evident from the number

* In a preliminary report of these inquiries published in the Harvard
Unieersity Bulletin, No. 18, [AnnaL, vol. xxvi, page 198,] the figures are
different from those I give here.  The differences are due to later obser-
vations.  I regret very much that, owing to a rather incomprehensible
degree of thoughtlessness, it never oocurred to me to test the pupils' sense
of rotation after th? origind Crum-Brown and Mach method ; that is, to
seat them in the swing with closed eyes, to rotate it gently through a
comparatively small number of degrees, and to see how accurately they
could afterwards assign the direction rtnd amount of rotation.  It is to be
hoped that any one repeating the observations will not leave this one out.
We should expect that non-dizzy deaf-mutes would be quite unaware of
the rotation if it were absolutely friotionless and slow.

The Sense of Dizziness in Deaf-Mutes.    107

of subjects who are of reduced sensibility as respects dizziness
from whirling, but who say that they feel dizzy when their head
is suddenly raised from a bent position, or when they get up
after stooping to the ground.  In reply to a question in the
circular, "DO you ever experience dizziness under any other
circumstances ?" [than whirling,] two of the `` not dizzy" class,
six of the `` slightly dizzy" class, and five of the `` dizzy" class

In the light of all these facts it became an interesting ques-
tion to ascertain whether the dizziness produced by galvanic
currents through the head be due to irritation of the vertigo
centres themselves, or of their peripheral organ, the semicircu-
lar canals.  Hitzig, as is well known, made a careful study of
these phenomena on normal persons; it may be found in his
i` Urbtersuchulzgelz iiber das Gehirn."  With its theoretical con-
clusions it is impossible to agree.  The objective fads, how-
ever, which I believe he first accurately analyzed, are these : If
the Rubjects' eyes are open, they move slowly towards the side
of the anode when the current is strong, then rapidly recover
themselves by a quick movement towards the side of the
kathode.  At the same time the world appears to swim towards
the kathode, and the head and body incline over towards the
anode.

At the Northampton school we tested forty-three pupils with
a galvanic current strong enough to make four normal adults,
on whom it was tried, bend body and head strongly over.  Of
twenty-three deaf-mutes of the "not dizzy" class, only five
showed this phenomenon.  Of twenty pupils of the `` dizzy "
class, ("slight" cases were not tried,) fourteen showed it in a
greater or less degree.  At the Boston school the girls became
so nervous that the few results I obtained with them were value-
less.  Of the boys, fifteen "not dizzy" cases were tried, and
but one swayed towards the anode.  Three " slight " cases were
tried ; one swayed, the other two did not.  One (( quite dizzy"
case had the current passed, but did not sway.

With respect to the subjective feelingu accompanying the cur-
rent's pkssage, they are so numerous and often so intense that
a deaf-mute child experiencing them for the first time can
hardly be expected to give a very lucid amount of them.
Stinging of the skin over the mastoid processes, subjective
noises, (often very loud,) flashes before the eyes, strange cerebral

, speak of experiencing this feeling.

,

108

The Serise of Dizziness iii Deuf-Xutes.

confusion, are prominent among them.  Nevertheless, it seemed
evident that many of the patients whose body did not sway at
all, and whose eyes showed no perceptible nystagmus, did have
eome sort of a vertiginous feeling, which they expressed by
moving the hand wavingly across the forehead, by saying they
were "dizzy" or felt like "falling."  I regard the expetiments,
therefore, as almost iqconclusive.  To be of value they should
be repeated many times with the same subjects on different
days, and with non-polarizable electrodes fastened by a spring
ar6 behind the ears, so as to follow the head in its movements
without modifying the contact.  The current should also be
measured, which was not done accurately in the above cases.

Taken as they stand, all I feel like saying of them is that they
make it appear not improbable that both the vertigo centre and
its peripheral organ are galvanically excitable ; but that the
peripheral organ is much more sensitive to the current than is
the centre. There was certainly a marked difference of demeanor,
on the whole, between the Lc dizzy " and the `` not dizzy " pupils
of the Northampton school, when under the current, even
though in many cases the difference was only one of degree.

In view of the great probability that sea-sickness is due to an
over-excitement of the organs of vertigo, propagated to the
cerebellum or whatever other "centres" of nausea there may
be, I inquired of many deaf-mutes whether they had been ex-
posed to rough weather at sea and suffered in the usual way.
The majority, of course, had not been exposed.  Fifteen of the
"not dizzy " or `L scarcely dizzy " classes'had been exposed, and
of these not one had been sea-sick.  This, it is true, is negative
evidence, and mighf easily be upset by two or three cases of
exemption from dizziness with susceptibility to sea-sickness."
As it stands, however, it affords a presumption that non-dizzy

,

* I have three such possible counter-cases, but in all the record is so
imperfect (and no address being given, further inquiry cannot be made)
that they cannot be used. To question 8 in the circular, " Have you been
exposed to sea-sickness and been sea-sick since losing yopAearing ?" one,
forty-two years old, not dizzy, replies, " Yes, but onckia my childhood."
Another, slightly dizzy, thirty-nine years old, deaf at thirteen years, says,
"Was greatly nauseated by my first ride in the rail. cm when fourteen
years old."  The third, not dizzy, writes, "Was on a coast steamer for
three days out of sight of land in a storm ; felt slightly uncomfortable in
stateroom, but was all right in the open air of the deck."  The stateroom

                                               /
sickness may have been due to smell.

The Sense of Diaziness in Deaf-Mutes.

109

deaf-mutes may, ipso facto, enjoy immunity from sea-sickness.
And it suggests the application of small blisters behind.the ears
as a possible counter-irritant to that excitement of the organs
beneath, in which that most intolerable of all complaints may

8 take its rise.

\Perhaps the most interesting of all the results to which our
inquiries have led is the following.  A certain number of non-
dizzy deaf-mutes, when plunged under water, seem to be affected
by an indescribable alarm and bewilderment, which only ceases
when they find their heads above the surface.  Every one who
has lost himself in the woods, or awakened in the darkness of
the night to find the relation of his bed's position relatively to
the doors and windows of his room forgotten, knows the alto-
gether peculiar discomfort and anxiety of such `( disorienta-
tion ') in the horizontal plane.  In ordinary life, however, the
sense of what is the vertical direction is never lost.  Even with
eyes closed, and the `` static )' sense, as Brewer calls it, of the
semicircular canals lost, gravity exerts its never-ceasing influ-
ence on our limbs, arid tells us where the ground is and where
the zenith, no matter what our movements may be.  (` So shakes
the magnet, and so stands the pole."  Helmholtz, who wrote
his " Optics " before the semicircular-canal sense was discovered,
ascribes much of the sea-sick vertigo to the sufferers' sense of
the direction of gravity being thrown out of gear : " One feels
the traction of gravity [on board ship] now apparently to the
right, now to the left, now forwards and now backwards, be-
cause one is no longer able to find [with his eyes] the direction
of the vertical.' Only after long practice, as I can myself testify,
does one come,to me gravity as an exclusive means of orienta-
tion, and only then does the vertigo cease."*

But imagine a person without even the sense of gravity to
guide him, and the `( disorientation" ought to be complete ; a

-. -~ -

* Phydol. Optik, page 664.

               One of my colleagues, an eminent geolo-
gist, with a good topographical instinct, tells me that whenever he " loses
his bearings" in the country he becomes nauseated.  I myself became
distinctly nauseated one night after trying for a long time to imagine the
right position of my bed in the dark, it having been changed a day or two
previous.  These fads seem to show that a purely ideal excitement of
imtlgas of `I direction," when strong and confused, such images being
probably faint repetitions of semicircular-canal feelings, may engender
precisely the same physical consequences as would an equally strong and
confused excitement of the canals themselves.

,

1 10

The @ILW of Dizzimss' iii 7)wfM/des.

sort of bewilderment concerning his relations to his en1 '11'011- '

ment in all three dimensions will ensue, to which ordinary life
offers absolutely no parallel.  Now this case seems realized whec
a non-dizzy deaf-mute dives under water with his eyes closed.
HB hears nothing, (except, perhaps, subjective roaring ;) sees
nothing ; his semicircular-canal sense tells him nothing of mo-
tion up or down, right or left, or round about ; the water presses
on his skin equally in each direction ; he is literally cut off from
all knowledge of their relations to outer space, and ought to
suffer the maximum possible degree of bewilderment to which
in his mundane life a creature can attain.

I have received information bearing on this point, and dis-
tinct enough to be quoted, from thirty-three cases in all.  Curi-
ous exceptions occur which I cannot understand, and which I
will presently state.  Meanwhile here are some extracts from
my correspondents' replies, which show the condition above de-
scribed to be no fiction.  Professor Samuel Porter, of the Col-
lege at Washington, from whom I have derived most of my in-
formation on this point, says : '' I am told it is the case with
some deaf-mutes that they sometimes find a difficulty in rising
after EL dive, from uncertainty as to up and down."

L. (3. (not dizzy) writes :

A year after I lost my hearing, on a day when the sun was shining
brightly, I dove from a high place, and inmediately after entering the
water had no knowledge of locality.  In what direction the top was I
could not determine, and it was the same as respects the bottom.  I en-
dured agonies in searching for the surface.  At lnst, when I had given up
all hope, my head was fortunately at the surface, and I was soon mastel;
of the situation.  I was told that I had been swimming on the surface
with the back of my head sometimes out of water, and at other times com-
pletely immersed.  For years I could not summon up coinage to dive
again.

I never feel at my ease under water.*

W. H. (scarcely dizzy) writes:

Since I became deaf it has been difficult to control myself under water.
. . . .  When I undertake to dive into the water I immediately lose all
control over my movements, and cannot tell which way is up or which is
down. . . . . Once I struck against something, but I am not able to say
whether it was the bottom of the river or the steep rocks near the shore.

A. S. L., (not dizzy:)

If I get my head under water it is impossible for me to tell which is
the top or bottom of the river or pond, and there is a great roaring and
buzzing in my head.

*Says eyes were closed.

111

G. M. T., (not dizzy:)

Before I lost my hearing I was a good diver, but after that time I

M. C., (not dizzy :)

Difficult to swim or dive without being frightened terribly.  . . . . I
generally close eyes till under water, then open them till top is reached.
If eyes are kept closed I become confused.

could never trust my head under water.

J. L. H., (doubtfully dizzy :)

It is very seldom that any deaf-mute can escape drowning when his
head has got under water.  Persons with such heads as mine are rendered
unable to come out of the water in the right direction.

J. C. B., (not dizzy :)

Dare not go under water at all unless by day and with eyes open.

. . . . Must keep the eyes open.

Impossible to swim in the dark.

C. S. D., (not dizzy :)
Can't dive at all.

          As soon as water gets in my eyes I can't get them
open ; get confused, and do not know whether I am standing on my head
or my feet.

A. B., (not, dizzy :)
Gets perfectly bewildered under water.
C. P. F., (not dizzy:)

Dives with closed eyes.

I undertook on one occasion to turn a summersault in water only two
feet deep.  It was done in such a way that I came down Dn my hands and
knees on the bottom with my head under water.  Instantly I seemed to be
in water fathoms deep, facing a cliff which I was trying to climb up with
my hands and feet. I pawed and pawed, but could not rise, neither could
I sink.  There was no sensation to prove to me that I was in a horizontal
podtion j every sensation was that of standing upright in water above my
head.  It seemed hours before I could climb that cliff, though it was only
a second or two before my pawing brought me into water so shallow that
my head appeared above the surface.  Instantly the sensation of being in
an upright position vanished, and I felt fnyself to be where I really was,
on my hands and knees in the water.

Of this class of cases there are fifteen out of the thirty-three.
The remaining ten "not dizzy'' say they can dive perfectly well.
Two of them report that they do so equally well with eyes
closed or open, and of two others Professor Porter sends me
the same account. Of the residupl eight there are five normal
as respects dizziness.  One complains of losing equilibrium,
another of turning giddy, a third of u not knowing which way I
am going," a fourth of " losing presence of mind," the fifth of
having `` lost power of directing movements."  Closer inquiry
of this last case showed that the perplexity only happened once,

*I

112

and that its cause was then the bright sunshine on the bottom
of the bathing tank which he mistook for the light of the sky."
Finally, three cases, `` slightly dizzy," complain of noises in
the ears, and peculiar feelings which make diving difficult of

performance.

                       In the eight
last cases the symptoms might be due (in all but the fifth) to
the entrance of water through a perforated tympanumi This is
well known to cause both dizziness and roaring ; but the pres-
ence of tympanic perforation in the subjects in question is
unknown. It is impossible to say whether some of the `nbewil-
derment" of the first fourteen may not be due to this cause;
but as they report themselves "not dizzy" to whirling, this
seems in the main unlikely.

The intermediate class of ten "not dizzy," four of whom we
know to be able to dive with closed eyes without being bewil-
dered, is the hardest to deal with, and threatens even to upset
our pretty little theory. The only reason why we do not imme-
diately confess that it does so is the suspicion (always possible)
of some error in the report, which a minute personal examina-
tion would reveal. I can therefoFe only hand the matter over
to those with opportunities for investigation as an as yet un-
solved mystery, upon which, it is to be hoped, they may throw
some farther light.

A noteworthy fact (which shall be immediately explained) is
that the non-dizzy patients who got bewildered under water
were all more or less afflicted with ataxia or some other dis-
order of movement.  A natural explanation of their trouble
would then be that they had simply lost control of their limbs
for swimming movements.  This may be true of some: two
report trouble under water soon after loss of hearing, but not
now, the ataxia having meanwhile improved  But the ten non-
dizzy who can dive happen also all to be ataxic.  So that ataxia
per se cannot be held to be an all-sufficient reason for ,the
phenomenon in question.

The reason for the great predominance of locomotor dis-

The Sense of Dizziness i?t DeqfMutes.

Obviously the conditions are very complicated.

* The same cause seems to have increased the bewilderment of Mr. L. G.
on the occasion described in the first quotation above, (page 110.)  He in-
forms Professor Porter that he always keeps his eyes open under water,
and that they were open on that occasion.  He speaks of the sun shining
brightly.

The Sense of Dizziness in Deaf--Mutes.     113

orders in the persons who answered my circulars is this : one
of the first things I discovered on beginning my inquiries was
the fact, notorious in deaf and dumb institutions, but apparently
not much known to the outer world, that large numbers of
deaf-mutes stagger and walk zigzag, especially after dark, and
are unable to stand steady with their eyes closed.  To such
deaf-mutes as these were most of my circulars purposely sent.
I do not refer to the awkward gait and shuffling of the feet,
which are so xommonly exhibited in institutions,* but to a real
difficulty in controlling their equilibrium.  Congenital deaf-
mutes appear hardly ever to show this peculiarity. I have only
heard of two or three cases of their doing so.  The bulk of
those that stagger were made deaf by scarlet fever or some
form of meningeal inflammation. When the facts first began to
come in I naturally thought that the staggering,? which usually
improves in course of time, might be due to the loss of the
afferent sense most used in locomotor muscular co-ordination,
supposing the semicircular-canal feelings to constitute this
afferent sense.  In the preliminary note published in the Har-
71wd Uuivemity Bulletin, I wrote as follows :
`-"The evidence I already have in hand justifies the formation
of a tentative hypothe,sis, as follows : The normal guiding sen-
sation in locomotion is that from the semicircular canals.  This
is eo-ordinated in the cerebellum (which is known to receive
auditory nerve fibres) with the appropriate muscles, and the
nervous machinery becomes structurally organized in the first
few years of life. If, then, this guiding sensation be suddenly
abolished by disease, the machinery is thrown completely out of
gear, and must form closer connections than before either with
sight or touch.  But the cerebellar tracts, being already organ-
ized in another way, yield but slowly to the new eo-ordinations
now required, and for many years make the patient's gait un-
certain, especially in the dark. Where the defect of the auditory

* This seems little more than a bad habit produced by two causes :
(1.) When they walk with each other their eyes are occupied in looking at
each other's fingers and faces, and cannot survey the ground, which then
is, as it were, explored by the feet : and (2.) Their deafness makes them
insensitive to the disagreeable noise that their feet make.
t Moos, quoted .by McBride, (Edinburgh Medical Journdl, February,
1882.) says the staggering is cured in twenty-seven months after cerebro-
spinal meningitis.

I find it to have often lasted much longer.

,

114

nerve is congenital the cerebellar machinery is organized from
the very outset in co-ordination with tactile sensations, and no
difficulty occurs.  To prove this hypothesis a ininute medical
examination of many typical cases will be required.  If this
prove confirmatory, it will then appear probable that many of
the so-called paralyses after diphtheria, scarlet fever, etc., may
be nothing but sudden anssthesis of the semicircular canals.'>

The minute medical examination I spoke of I have been pre4
vented by circumstances from making or getting made.  What
ought to be done would be to carefully test the staggering
patients for such anesthesia of the body or limbs, losses of
tendon reflex, and various locomotor symptoms of ataxia, as
would show the presence of central nervous disorder independ-
ent of the labyrinthine trouble, but joint results with it of the
disease that left the subject deaf.  If a certain residuum of
patients were found without any signs of such nerve-central dis-
order, the hypothesis quoted would receive corroboration.  I
must confess, however, that the very large number of stagger-
ing and zigzagging deaf-mutes, who are free from any labyrin-
thine lesion, (as evidenced by their being normal as respects
dizziness,) and whose cases have been made known to me since
the preliminary report was written, make it seem plausible that
the ataxic disorders usually flow directly from lesions of the
locomotor centres, sequels of the meningitis, scarlet fever. or
whatever other disease the patient may have had.  Whether
they do so exclusively cannot be decided.  I know of no more
interesting problem for a physician with good opportunities for
observation to solve than that of the relation of the semicircu-
lar-canal sense to our ordinary locomotor innervation.  And
certainly fresh cases of deafness coupled with loss of sensibil-
ity to rotation seem the most favorable field of study.

It has been suggested, I no longer know by whom, that the
mysterious topographic instinct which some animals and certain
classes of men possess, and which keeps them continuously in-
formed of their (` bearings," of which way they are heading, of
the ilay of the land," etc., might be due to a kind of unconscious
dead reckoning of the algebraic sum of all the angles through
which they had twisted and turned in the course of their jour-
ney.  If the semicircular canals are the organs of sensibility
for angular rotation, the abolition of their function ought to
injure the topographic faculty.  I accordingly asked in my cir-

The Xense qf Dizziness in Deqf-iWi~tes.

The Sense qf Dizeiness in DeqfMutes.

11,"

cular the question : (( Have you a good bump of locality ?"  A
rather stupidly expressed phrase, but one which I supposed
would be popularly intelligible. Forty-seven persons, not dizzy,
or scarcely dizzy, answered this question distinctly, forty with
a " yes," and seven with a "no."  So that in this (truly vague
enough) matter, my inquiries give no countenance to the sugges-
tion alluded to."

(` Dizziness '' on high places was also made the subject of one
of my questions.  This feeling, in those who experience it nor-
mally, is a compound of various muscular, cutaneous, and vis-
ceral sensations with vertigo ; and of course the answers of my
correspondents, not being of an analytical sort, would be of
very little value, even were they much more numerous than they
are. They stand as follows:

-

"Are you dizzy on high places ?"
Of those not or scarcely dizzy on whirling, sixteen say "yes,"
twenty-nine `` no."
Of those dizzy on whirling, twenty-nine say `( yes," and four-
teen " no."

Taken in their crudity, these answers suggest the bare possi-
bility that anaesthesia of the semicircular canals may confer
some little immunity from that particularly distressing form
of imaginative weakness.  The centres of imagination of fall-
ing may grow weak with the disuse of the sense for falling, and
the various reflex results (feelings in the calves, hypogastrium,
skin, respiratory apparatus, etc.) which help to constitute the
massive feeling of dread, not following upon the sight of the
abyss, as they normally should do, the subject may remain cool-
headed, when in former times he would have been convulsed
with emotion.

                     The following
letter from Dr. Beard, of New York, speaks for itself:

One more point, of perhaps greder interest.

NEW YORK, JuZy 2, 1881.

DEAR DR. JAMES : Acting upon your suggestion, I have succeeded in

* In a long and interesting article in the Revue PhiZosophique for July,
1882, (le Sens de l'orientatioa et ses Organes,) Mr. C.Viguier maintains the
view that the semicircular canals are organs in whose endolymph terres-
trial magnetism determines induced currents which vary with the posi-
tion of the canals, and (apparently) enable the animal to recognize a lost
direction as soon as he finds it again.  Clever and learned as are Mr.
Viguier's arguments, I confess they fail to awaken in me any conviction
that their thesis is true.

. -'

T7Le Sense of Dizziness in Deaf--Mutes.

abolishing the sense of vertigo in my trance subjects.  I have accom-
plished this in two ways.  First, by means of a swing, which you have
used in your experiments.  I find that persons when put into trance sleep
and placed in a swing which is twisted up tightly, so that it untwists
rapidly and for a considerable time, feel no dizziness or nausea, but when
hrought out of the trance at once walk away without the least difficulty.

I find-as you did-that the great majority of individuals cannot in the
normal state do this j but are made very dizzy and sick, and sometimes
even fall out of the swing.
Secondly, by having the subject look at some limited space on the ceil-
ing, holding his head up, and turning around rapidly four or five times.
Scarcely any one can do this, in the normal state, and walk off straight.
They will stagger, as though intoxicated or suffering from ataxia.  The
trance subjects, when put into that condition with their eyes open, can go
through this test, and immediately walk off without any difficulty what-
ever.

These experiments-I may say-have been witnessed by a large number
of physicians in this city, and have been confirmed independently by
some of them.  There is no difficulty in confirming these experiments,
when you have trained subjects to co-operate with you.

I regaid these experiments as of a demonstrative character ; that is, as
belonging to the class of experiments that prove the genuineness of the
trance phenomena, since there are very few indeed who can simulate
them.

I have no doubt whatever that sea-sickness could be cured entirely by
putting persons into trance.

Yours, truly,

GEORGE M. BEARD.

Finally, (to wring the last drop from an inquiry which, how-
ever slender may be its basis of fact, will be accused by no one of
not having had the maximum possible number of theoretic con-
clusions extracted from it ! ) I will subjoin the following extract
from one of my correspondents' letters as a crumb for vivisec-
tional physiologists, to whom the fact narrated may be un-
known :
I` If a dog grms up and his tail is cut off suddenly, he staggers so badly
he cannot cross a foot log."*

To all my correspondents I owe thanks for the facts imparted
in this paper. Without the most painstaking co-operation of ,
Professor Samuel Porter, in particular, it could hardly have
been written.  To Principal Williams, of the Hartford school ;
Miss Fuller, of the Boston school; and Miss Rogers, of
Northampton, my best thanks are also due.  Dr. J. J. Putnam

* Experiment made hy a preacher in EaRt Tennessee, a friend of the

writer.

o

A RepZy. 11 7

v

has assisted me with counsel and aid in the galvanic observa-
tions. Dr. Clarence J. Blake examined the condition of the
ears of the Northamptan children, but not being able to deduce
any conclusions relevant to my own inquiry from his observa-
tions, I leave them unrecorded here.

A REPLY.

BY MISS HARRIET B. ROQERS, NORTHAMPTON, MASS.

THE January '4 nnuls contained an article entitled `` Semi-
Deaf, Semi-Mute, and the Combined Method,`' to a portion of
which I desire to reply.  While differing from many of the
writer's opinions, I shall speak only of certain statements which
refer to the Institution of which I have charge.  On page 24
we read :

I called not long ago upon a young lady recently graduated from an
articnlation school, where, during her entire period of instruction, she
had been catalogued a8 iicongenital."  `Yet, I now found it easily
possible to carry on a long conversation with her in almost my ordinary
tone of voice, while sitting so far behind her that she could not see my
lips !  It is true, this young lady said that her hearing had been improving
somewhat during the later years of her schoollife. I remembered, however,
that many years before this, when the child was still at her own home,
her mother had told me that she was even then accustomed to call the
child from her chamber orally, while herself standing in the hall below.
At no time, therefore, of this child's school life could she have been
properly spoken of as "congenitally deaf."  To do so could not but
greatly mislead every visitor.

From a conversation the writer of the article once had, as I
have recently learned, wibh one of our teachers concerning a
former pupil of this Institution, I know that he refers to that
pupil in the passage just quoted.
It has been our custom $0 u catalogue " the condition of our
pupils when they enter school. not when they leave it.  In
classing pupils as semi-mute or semi-deaf, we have followed
the rule given in every January number of the Annals for the
past twehe years in a-note at the foot of the annual " Tabular
Statement of Institutions :11 "Under this head [semi-mute] are
included the semi-deaf and all the deaf who have acquired some
knowledge of language through the ease"  The question now
arises, Ought the pupil referred to in the passage above quoted
to have been classed under this head ?  The statement filled

118 A Reply.

when she entered school at five years of age says that she was
born deaf, but that she then spoke three words.  She had some
hearing, but her mother did not know how to designate the
amount; so I said that after a time, when I could judge of
its value, I would fill in that part of the record, which I did in
this way: "Can hear loud sounds, but not enough to learn to
talk through hearing."  In one of our Reports I mention her
among others as not speakingwhen she entered school.  In
another Report, after speaking of the number of semi-mute and
semi-deaf pupils in school that year, I say: LL.A few others
could distinguish enough of the vowel sounds; when spoken
close by the ear, to make their voices pleasanter than those of
totally deaf children."  To learn whether my memory of the
child's condition when she entered school agreed with that of
her mother, and also that of her first teacher, I wrote to
them both.  The mother says: "The words she spoke were
mum, mum, when she spoke to me ; and she would call the cat
kithie, kithie, and would`run to tell me bar, bur, and make a
sign that the baby was crying.  In regard to my speaking any
louder to her, I do not think we did, for she shrank from loud,
harsh voices ; so I could not say positively whether she learned
from the lips or from her hearing."

When the Anizals states that pupils speaking three words as
intelligible as "mum, mum, kithie, kithie, bar, bar " are to be
classed as semi-deaf or semi-mute, the pupil under consideration
shall at once be transferred to that list.  As she entered school
four months late, she had individual instruction for some time
before joining a class.  The teacher who gave that writes : (` I
should say -'s slight hearing made her voice much sweeter
and her tones more natural.  She, of course, had a very much
clearer idea of sound and spoken language than a child entirely
deaf could have had. I do not believe she ever could have
been taught to use connected language by her hearing.   I
never used her hearing in giving her any new sound or word,
but always gave all sounds to her as to the others, by the lips.
I distinctly remember how cunning and baby-like she used to
seem as she stood with her hand on my throat, trying to feel
the motion of the organs and to imitate it herself.  After
she had acquired a sound or a word I often used to speak it
loudly in her ear, and then she would imitate it ; but this was

,4 Reply.

119

done more for the pleasure of seeing if she could catch the
sound than for any benefit to her."
Does this pupil rank among those spoken of on page 34?
"Their articulation is substantially such as the Lord gave and
hath noC taken away, for which, therefore, they are called on to
bless the name of the Lord only, and not of their Alma Mater,
whether manual school or oral."  AS far as we can learn in this
case, the Lord gave her three words, (mum, mum, kithie, kithie,
bar, bar,) which we took away, and, after many gears of hard
labor, gave her what language she now possesses.

It is, perhaps, little understood to what degree the power of
hearing may be cultivated.  Remarkable instances are on record
of persons, with normal hearing, unable to distinguish musical
sounds sufficiently to recognize tunes, who yet by years of
culture have learned not only to sing themselves, but to lead
others in singing.  Two such cases have recently come to my
knowledge.  It was a similar development of the power to
distinguish sounds that the pupil referred to received while
with us, partly through the regular work of the school-room,
and, later in her course, through some special training with the
ear-trumpet.  We have never undervalued this acquisition, and
have always been grateful that we were able to cultivate her
hearing to such a degree that it will be of lifelong use.

During her last term at school a final attempt was made to
correct certain elementary sounds which had always been de-
fective in her speech.  Our most earnest efforts, in which all
possible use of her hearing was made, proved unavailing.  We
well remember one day when a child from the Primary Depart-
ment, totally deaf at eight months, was called in to show her
how- perfectly he gave one of these difficult sounds.  Although
when she left school her hearing had been cultivated sufficiently
to enable her to hear whole sentences spoken at a little distance,
a word with which she was unfamiliar could be given to her
much better through lip-reading than through hearing.  Had
the writer of the article tried to have her imitate through heax-
ing his pronunciation of a foreign or even of a new English word,
he would have found serious difficulty, unless her hearing has
improved since she left school.

Such cultivation of hearing is granted in a case cited in the
Thirty-Fourth Annual Report of the American Asylum, page 19 :
Another, who hears only when the mouth of the speaker is almost in

o

120

A Reply.

contact with one of his ears, has improved greatly in his speech, ha8 m-
quired much more quick and discriminating hearing,* and is learning to
read the lips so well that he may ultimately derive much benefit from this
acquisition.

More than thirty-five years ago Jonathan Whipple, of Led-
yard, Conn., took his deaf son, Enoch, before a Teachers' Asso-
ciation of New England, meeting in Hartford.  In a letter
printed in the Fifty-First Annual Report of the American Asy-
lum, the Rev. &. Turner, in speaking of this exhibition, says:

* * * It appeared that the boy could read correctly, with a distinct
enkxiation, both prose and poetry, and could understand from his father's
lips whatever he chose to say to him. * * * I inquired of Mr. Whip-
ple if his son could hear any. He admitted that he could some. * * *
1 asked Mr. Whipple if I might try the experiment of making his son hear
my voice. He had no objection, but was doubtful as to its success.
Placing my mouth within a few inches of his ear, in such a position that
he could not possibly see it, and speaking slowly in a full, clear tone of
voice, he comprehended perfectly several questions put to him, and gave
me pertinent answers to each. * * * The experiment tried with hini
before the Teachers' Convention, when he was about seventeen years old,
showed that he could hear and understand anything said to him under
favorable circumntances. at tAat tivpp,t without seeing the lips of the
speaker.

Mr. Whipple once told me that when Enoch was one year old
he discovered that he was too deaf to be taught as his other
children had been, and so he "began to mouth out the words
to him."  Any one who has had experience in teaching articu-
lation to the deaf who have partial hearing can readily believe
that with sixteen years of patient instruction Enochs hearing
had been cultivated to the degree which Mr. Turner represents,
Probably both Mr. Whipple's son and our pupil would have
grown up dumb if they had been sent to schools where speech was
not taught. On this point I quote from the Nebraska Jozcvnal :
(( We firmly believe that in our general institutions throughout
the country many are made mute and practically deaf who
might be educated equally a8 well, if not better, and graduated
as `hard of hearing ' people iustead."

In our teaching, again and again we have been surprised to
find how little use we could make of the hearing even of those
pupils whom we classed as semi-deaf.  Its advantage lies in
rendering the child's voice and speech more natural and intel-

- __ - __ -

*The italics are mine.

t The italics are mine.

121

ligible than it would otherwise be ; and this advantage is in our
school constantly pointed out to visitors.  Very soon after I
began to teach the deaf I learned that the opponents of
articulation accused teachors of this method of showing off
semi-mute and semi-deaf children as congenital mutes.  I had
no means of knowing whether or not this was true, but I
determined our opponents should never have the opportunity

` to say that anything like deception was practised in any school
for which I was responsible.  Our teachers are instructed to
tell visitors of children in their classes who, on entering school,
had any advantage from either speech or hearing.  There was
never any concealment of either - 's or any other child's
hearing.  We constantly told visitors that she did not talk
when she came to school; that her speech was due to our
instruction, but that her voice and speech were pleasanter on
account of her hearing.  Repeatedly, and especially for visitors
from other institutions, she was called up and her hearing
tested. It scarcely seems eossible that this should not have
been dqne for the writer of the article, if he ever saw her here.
Had she learned language through the ear, she would not
probably have been eleven and a half years in completing our
Common Course of study, when during that time pupils totally
deaf from birth had graduated, one from the same course in
nine and a half years, and another from the High Course in nine
and a half years, both with a more satisfactory use of language
than she had.  Our semi-mute and semi-deaf pupils are not
the ones in whom we have "professional pride,'' but rather
those pupils who come to us without having any advantage
from speech and lip-reading.

I cannot, of course, say what deception may have been
carried on in other articulation schools for the deaf ; but very
probably cases alleged as such, if carefully investigated, might
be as easily explained as ours.
From the beginning of my work among the deaf I have
strenuously held myself aloof from controversy, and should
not now have replied had not the statements just considered iin-
plied carelessness or dishonesty on our part.
There seems to have been a very general impression that our
school has been largely made up of semi-mute and semi-deaf
pupils.  Since the organization of the Institution there have
been admitted 211 pupils.  Of these, according to the rule

'

122

given in the rliz~~ccls, we have catalogued 47 as semi-mute and
19 as semi-deaf. In our school, at the present time numbering
84, are 11 semi-mute and 6 semi-deaf pupils.

In our work for our children our earnest purpose is to give
them such intellectual development and such use and under-
standing of language as shall fit them for useful and self-sup-
porting lives.  In addition to u that merely moderate success
which is all that the average case admits,"  we have also
succeeded in giving them that which enables us to-day to see
little children using such speech as is already of great comfort
to their friends and great pleasure to themselves.  We see
those who have grown up and gone from us able in their daily
life, at home, with associates, and with employers, to avail
themselves of speech and lip.reading, whose value seems to thein
to repay all their patient work in its attainment, and for which
they return warm thanks-the warmer ps the years go by.
Encouraged by these results, we go on in  our work with
renewed zeal and hope.

JOSEPH €3. IJAMS.

BY JUDGE JOHN L. MOSES, KNOXVILLE, TENN.

JOSEPH H. Iuim was born December 11, 1840, in Rushville,
Ohio, to which place his parents had shortly before removed
from Maryland, which had been for several generations the
family home.
He had in his youth excellent educational advantages, having
been for a number 01 years a student of the Iowa State Uni-
versity at Iowa City, and of the Michigan State University at
Ann Arbor.
At an' early period he chose the vocation which furnished his
life-work, and entered as a teacher the Iowa Institution for the
Deaf and Dumb, which had been organized by his brother, Rev.
W. E. Ijams, now pastor of the Green-street Congregational
Church in San Francisco, Gal.
He was subsequently called to a position in the faculty of
instruction of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb,
Washington, D. C., and taught there until he was elected prin-
cipal of the Tennessee School for the Deaf and Dumb.  He
came to Knosviile in November, 1866, and on the 24th of the

*

following month-just sixteen years from the day of his death
--he started out with Mr. E. C. Jones, the steward of the Insti-
tution, in search of pppils.  They succeeded in gathering up
about fifteen, and with that small number the school was re-
opened.

On the 29th of June, 1868, Mr. Ijams was married to Miss
Mary H., daughter of the Rev. Wm. Aiken, of this city, an esti-
mable lady of refinement and culture, who, with five of their
six children, survives him.
His death occurred on the morning of the 24th of December,
1882.
As an officer of the Institution, Mr. Ijams had and deswved
our implicit confidence.  The breadth and strength of his intel-
lectual powers, the rapidity with which he was able to Eender
them subservient to his purposes, his patience, gentleness,
method, conscientiousness, and love of justice were so quickly
and continuously manifested that, directly after he entered upon
the discharge of Ms duties, every member of the Board of
Trustees was satisfied of his fitness for the position,-which few
men are by both nature and education qualified to fill.

Takilg. charge of the school at a time when, through the
ravages of the war then recently ended, the buildings had
become dilapidated, the grounds unsightly, and the pupils scat-
tered, he was largely instrumental in bringing the Institution
up to its present condition of order, beauty, and esciency.
His heart was in his work.  Nothing that related to it seemed
to escape his vigilant eye or to suffer from want of application,
on his part, of body or mind.  His communications to teachers
and pupils were generally concise, but always clear and com-
prehensive.

The last words that he is known to have spoken in the
school-room were addressed to one of the teachers as an encour-
agement to perseverance in a task which seemed slow in the
production of beneficial results.  " Remember," he said, " that
every single thought you impress upon the mind of one of these
children will form part of a bridge over a great gulf."

His wccess as a disciplinarian I have always regarded as
attributable to the fact that his management was preventive
rather than remedial.  He did not wait for troubles to grow,
but suppressed them before they could attain to unmanageable
proportions ; and the result was that the machinery of the In-

124

.

t

stitution moved on with such smoothness and regularity that
the trustees were seldom aware of any friction, and were rarely
disturbed by a call for any adjustment. o
Wherever Mr. Ijams was known he was loved-loved most
by those who knew him best.  And there was abundant reason
why it should be so.  In his intercourse with others he was re-
markably modest and self-forgetful, but appreciative of their
virtues and oblivious of their faults.  It seems as if he had fully
adopted as a rule of his life a resolubion to exercise "charity to
all, malice toward none."  The intimate friends of Mr. Ijams
miss his sunny face, his genial manners, his pleasant words
of encouragement and hope.  Kind of heart and generous in
action, his liberal hand is missed by the suffering poor, and the
entire community regrets the loss of one whose usefulness and
blamelessness of life gave him a high place in that company
whibh is in the front rank of humanity-the company made up
of Christian,gentlemen.

._ . -

Q;s

UPON A METHOD OF TEACHING LANGUAGE TO A

VERY YOUNG CONGENITALLY DEAF CHILD.

BY ALDXANDER QRAHAM BELL, PH. D., WASHINGTON. D. C.

[A FEW months ago Mr. Denison, Principal of the Primary Departiiient
of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, called the attention
of the editor of the Annalv to a new member of his class who possessed a
remarkable command of language.  His attainments in other respects
were not extraordinary ; but he used the English language with a freedom
and accuracy quite exceptional in a congenital deaf-mute.  His education
was begun and carried on for three years by Professor Alexander Graham
Bell.                           Inquiry of Pro-
fessor Bell as to the method by which results so unusual had been attained
led to the preparation of this paper.  We are sure the narrative will prove
no less interesting to our readers than it was to Mr. Denison and the
editor, and we trust it will not only afford encouragement and aid to
parents in beginning the education of deaf children at home, but will also
have a stimulating and inspiring effect upon every teacher who reads it.
Much of the method described iR no less applicable to a class of pupile
than to a single pupil ; and we have no doubt that in the hands of capable
and devoted teachers it would go far toward solving the great problem of
the mastery of the English language by the congenitally deaf.-&.

To the Editor of the American Annals of the Deaf and hmh:

For several years past he had had no teacher.

.

ANNALS.]

SIR: You have been kind enough to express the opinion that

c

This boy was only about five years old when his education
was commenced, and the results obtained in his case during
the first two years indicate that the education of congenitally
deaf children might profitably be commenced at home, and
that they might even acquire a vernacular knowledge of
English-at least in its written form-before being sent to
school.
The value of early home training in language cannot be
overestimated.  Our pupils, as a rule, do not enter school
until after the age when children most readily acquire
language.  If they could commence their school course with
even an imperfect and rudimentary knowledge of English, the
labor of the teacher would be enormously reduced and the
progress of the pupil immensely accelerated.

In the autumn of 1872 I became interested in the boy whose
education forms the subject of this paper, and the following
extract from one of my note-books will give an idea of the
general plan which guided my first steps :

u October lst, 1872.

*

"Master George S- , aged 5 years, became my pupil
this morning.
g6 He was born totally deaf, and has never spoken a word in
his life.  He has never been to school, but has received private
instruction for three weeks from Miss Fuller, principal of the
Boston School for the Deaf and Dumb.

"He seems a fine, bright, intelligent boy, and there is no
apparent defect in his vocal organs.
"For my own guidance, and for the information of friends,
I shall briefly sketch out the course I intend to pursue with
him.

`

"It is well for a teacher not to burden himself with too
many rules, but rather to grasp genercclpr.inciples, and to leave
the details of instruction to be worked out by experience.

"1 propose to divide his education into two great branches-
one relating to articulation, the other to mental development.
`` The method of teaching articulation has been explained at

,

126

length in the Americpn Annals of the Beaf and
January, 1872.

A Jfethocl q f Teaching Langwqe.

~uwi for

`( The-general principle is this : I'he pronunciation of word#
and sentences is not to be attempted until the vocal organs have
been toe11 drilled on elementary sounds and exercises.*
"While, then, the mouth is being brought under control by the
use of the visible speech symbols, the mind is to be educated
by ordinary letters.

  "1 believe that George Dalgarno (in his work entitled `Didas-
calocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor,' published

he asserts that a deaf person should be tclught to read and
write in us nearly as possible the same way that young ones
*We should talk to the deaf child just as we do to the hear-
/ ing one, with the exception that our words are to be addressed
to his eye instead of his ear.

"Indeed, George Dalgarno carries his theory so far as to
assert that the deaf infant would as soon come to understand
written language as a hearing child does speech, `had the
mother or nurse but as nimble a hand as commonly they have
a tongue !'

" The principles inculcated by Prendergast (in his `Mastery
of Languages,' 1864,$) and by Marcel (in his ` Study of Lan-
guages, or the Art of Thinking in a Foreign Language,' 1869,;)
would, if applied to deaf-mutes, point to the same result and
to the same method of teaching.

" The principles of Froebel's Kindergarten method of teach-
ing me applicable to deaf-mutes.
u Froebel believes that the natuval ii,sti?rct oj the child to
play should be utilized in his education.

" His ideas would seem to indicate that the succesbful teacher
must appeal to the faculties of imagination and imitation,
ana encourage self-activity in his pupil.
(`I propose, then, to blend the principles of' ljalgarno aiacl
J'roebel-to familiarize the child with written language by
means of play.''

In pursuance of this plan the school-room was converted

The pupil must learn to read and write.

i

J / in 1680,t) has given us the true principle to work upon when

'

`i are taught to speak and understund their mothei tongue.

4

4;2

<

* Experience and reflection have led me to modify this principle.
t Reprinted in the Annals, vol. ix, pp. 15-64.
1 Reviewed in the Annals, vol. xiv, pp. 193-204.

i

I

into a play-room, and language lessons were given through the \
                                              /-

I was fortunatein securing the co-operation of a very excellent
tescher-Miss. Abbie Locke, now Mrs. Stone, of St. Louis-
with whose assistance George's education was carried on.

                            The different
% parts of the room, the articles of furniture, and the various ob-
jects in the room were also all labelled, so far as possible.  Each
window had pasted upon it a piece of paper on which was writ-
ten the word " window ;" so with the doors, mantel-piece, table, #/
black,board, etc., etc.

The words were written in ordinary script characters, with
the letters slightly separated.  Against one wall was a card-
rack arranged to display from one to two hundred little cards,
each about one inch square.

Upon these cards were written from time to time the names
of his toys, and of, all the different objects for which he had
invented sign-names.  Most of his playthings were kept locked
up, and were only produced one or two at a time, so as to afford
constant variety.

Word Exercises.

1. Our exercises would commence somewhat as follows:
George would make his appearance in the morning anxious for
play-making vigorous signs for some of his most valued toys.
For instance, he would fold his arms and beat his shoulders
rapidly with his hands.                      The
doll was accordingly produced, and his attention was directed
to the word `` doll '' pasted upon the forehead.  We compared
this word with the words written upon the cards, to see who
would first find that card with the word " doll '' upon it.  Of
course in the beginning-much to his chagrin-I would gene-
rally be the successful searcher.  Having found the proper card,
we would play with it a sort of game of hide-and-seek, which
interested him exceedingly.  He would turn away or shut his
eyes while I replaced the card in the rack in some place to him
unknown.  The game consisted in finding it again.

Doll in hand, he would search for the card, comparing each
written word with the word on the doll's forehead.  He would
shake his head gravely at each wrong word, and nod vigorously
when he thought he had found the correct one.

instrumentality of toys and games.

\\

Every toy was labelled with its proper name.

This was his sign for "doll."

128

A Jidhod (d' XNC`JI Uiy Liii~yrrtcyr.

When he made a mistake I pointed out the proper card and
made fun of him.  He was very sensitive to ridicule, and was
geherally ambitious to try again and again until he succeeded
without my assistance.  He was also much interested in my
(pretended) unsuccessful efforts to find a card placed by him in
the rack while my back was turned.

George seemed to enjoy this game exceedingly, but we rarely
continued it for more than a few minutes at a time, and even
then we constantly varied the names sought for, so as to avoid
m on0 tony.
In the beginning the cards were all blank, and the first day I
filled in about half a dozen names, but required him tb find
only one card.  Next day we sought not only for that card, but
for one or two of the others.  After the lapse of a few days he
became pretty familiar with all the names, and then each day
two or three new names were added, until he had quite an
extensive collection of words at command.

2. When he became familiar with a few names I would get
him to seek for the proper card without first consulting the
label upon the toy.  He would piek out some card and then
compare it with tPe word pasted upon the toy.  Great was his
mortification when the two did not correspond. and great also
was his triumph when they did.

I made a mental note of the names he learned by heart in
this way, and then pretended not to understand his signs for
the corresponding objects.
For instance, I remember that one morning he came down
stairs in high spirits, very anxious to play with his doll.  He
frantically beat his shoulders with his hands, but I could not
understand what he meant.  I produced a toy-horse ; but that
was not what he wanted.  A table ; still he wag disappointed.
He seemed quite perplexed to know wcat to do, and evidently
considered me very stupid.  At last, in desperation, he went
to the card-rack, and, after a moment's consideration, pulled out
the word "doll" and presented it to me.  It is needless to say
that the coveted toy was at once placed in his possession.  I
always pretended to have great difficulty in understanding his
signs when we were anywhere near the card-rack, so he soon'
became accustomed to pick out the words for any objects he
desired.

3. The same plan was pursued at meals.  A little card-rack

a

A Method of Tdczching Xanguage.

129

was prepared for the dinner-table, so that he might have written
words at hand for everything he required to eat or drink.
4. Another word exercise, pursued for a few minutes each day,
consisted in the recognition of such words as `` stand," `` sit,"
u walk," "run," "jump," etc., which were written upon the
blackboard and illustrated by standing, sitting, walking, run-
ing, and jumping.

ASentence Exercises.

The greater portion of our time was taken up-even from the
first day-with -the recognition of complete sentences, instead of
single words.
The' exercises appeared under two forms : (1) impromptu
written conversation, and (2) regular sentence exercises.
1. The impromptu conversation was going on all the time.
I constantly asked myself the question, "If Qdorge could hear,
what would I say to him now ?" and whatever came into my head
I wrote.  I kept on writing to him all the time until the black-
board was covered with writing and my arm ached.

I emphasized words to his eye, and grouped them together
on the board as I would have grouped them in utterance, leav-
ing gaps, here and there where one would naturally pause in
speaking.  In a word, Itried to exhibit to his eye all the rela-
tions that zoould have met his ear, could he have heard my
speech.

I believed thoroughly in the principle announced by Dalgarno
that it is the freyuency with which words are presented to the
mind that impresses them upon the memory, and hence aimed
at much writing as the accompaniment of everything we did.
1 followed up my blackboard conversation by a liberal use of
pantomime, bearing always in mind the general principle that I
had formulated for myself, viz., that the use of pantomime is to
illustrate language, not to take its place.  In carrying out this
principle, therefore, I always wrote first and acted afterwards-
avoiding the converse.

AS an example of these impromptu exercises, I will give an
imaginary conversation just as I might have written it upon the

v

, board :

I

A Bethod 0-f Teaching Language.

131

2. Regular sentence exercises. These exercises formed a
regular daily game, which could be varied ad libitum.  A num-
ber of directions were written upon the blackboard which were
to be acted out. The game `consisted in distinguishing one
direction from another.

For example, the following sentenceR might have been written :

-

1/'

We would then act out the sentences, one by one, and after-
wards I would take a pointer and indicate one of the sentences
at random for him to act out without assistance.  Of course he
would make frequent mistakes. For instance, when I pointed to
the sentence, `` Run round the table," he might proceed to give
the doll an imaginary drink of water !  Under such circumstances
I would laugh at him, and write somewhat as follows: "No :
that's not right ; you are giving the doll a drink of water ! !"  I
would then point to the sentence, "Give the doll a drink of
water," and write `` That`s what you did," and make fun of him.

This exercise would be varied by George pla$ng the master
while I became his pupil.
I would test his knowledge by occasionally acting out the
wrong' sentence, and it gave him great delight to correct me.

In this way he learned very readily to distinguish about half
a dozen different sentences, partly from their position on the
board, partly by their differences in length, and partly by the
recognition of individual words.
At first, however, the sentences were not recognized inde-
pendently of their position on the board, and, as a general rule,
by next day he had forgotten their meaning, excepting when
they had been left on the board over night, so that they occupied
the same relative position8 as before.

132

A Method of Peaching Language.

L

writing.

He was extremely fond of these sentence exercises;  but
when he played the master, he was not contented with merely
pointing at sentences that I had written-he wished to write
them himself!  This desire was forced upon my attention one
day in the following manner : He took the chalk and scribbled
all over the board, and then macle signs for me to act that out!
After consideration of the subject, I came to the conclusion that
this was a clear indication that the time had come to teach him
to write.  The great difficulty in the way of doing this lay in
the fact that at this time he did not know a single letter of the
alphabet-he recognized words and sentences only as wholes.

I determined to make the experiment of teaching him to write
sentences as wholes, and the result was as surprising as it was
gratifying.
I commenced by writing on the board some direction he
wished me to act out.  After partially erasing this, so as to
leave the writing faintly visible, I placed the chalk in his hand
and allowed him to trace over what I had written.

It is true that his first attempts resulted in rather ludicrous
caricatures of the originals ; but he never forgot the meaning qf
a sentence he had traced over in this way a few times.
The attempt to imitate my writing forced hitn to observe
minutiae that had hitherto escaped his attention, so that sen-
tences began to be recognized quite independently of their posi-
tion on the board, and were remembered from day to day.
His imitation of my writing improved with practice, and soon
became quite legible.  I observed also that his comprehension
of my impromptu writing seemed to improve at the same time,
and he evidently experienced a desire to use words in his com-
munication with others. He had not progressed sufficiently to
be able to write without tracing, but he would often come into
the school-room out of school hours for the purpose of taking
cards from the card-rack to give to servants or friends to make
them understand what he wished.

Spelling.

The moment he evinced the independent desire to communi-
cate with others by written words, I felt that the time had come
to give him a means of forming written words for himself by
teaching him his letters and a manual alphabet.
For this purpose I adopted the plan, recommended by George
Dalgarno, of writing the alphabet upon a glove.  The arrange-

d

!

A Method of Teaching Lunguage.

133

ment of the alphabet I adopted is shown in the following dia-
gram :

J

/

134

A Method of Teaching Language.

This glove I presented to him one morning as a new play-
thing.  He put it on his left hand, Bnd then went to the card-
rack, tw usual, and presented me with the word for some object
he desired ; we shall suppose the word "doll."  I then covered
up the word with the exception of the first letter, "d," and
directed his attention to the glove.  After a little searching he
discorered the corresponding letter upon the glove.  I then
showed him the letter L`o'.) on the card, and he soon foundlit,
on the glove ;`and so with the other letters.

After a little practice of this kind he became so familiar with
the places of the letters that he no longer required to search,
but pointed at once to the proper letter upon the glove. Every
time he required a card from the card-rack I made him spell
the word upon his fingers.

Occasionally I would test his memory by requiring him to
                                When I
became convinced that he knew the word by heart I tore up

, the card.

In this way, one by one, all the cards disappeared from the
rack.  For a long time he was very proud of his glove, and wits
delighted to find that he could communicate with his parents
and friends, and they with him, by simply pointing at the letters
on his hand.

In communicating with me it was unnecessary for him to
wear the glove, as we both remembered the places of the letters.
I kept up the practice of writing to him, as before, but required
him to spell the words upon his hand while I wrote them on
the board. He soon became so expert that he could spell faster
thap I could write, and often finished his sentence by guessing
what I was going to add before I had written more than two-
thirds.  When this stage had been reached I often used the
manual alphabet with him, instead of writing.  I took his hand
in mine and touched the places of the letters upon his hand. He
did not require to look ; he could feel where he was touched.
He recognized the words in this way, however rapidly I spelled
them upon his hand. As I had five fingers, I could touch five
letters simultaneously, if I so desired, and a little practice
enabled me to play upon his hand as one would play upon the
keys of a piano, and quite as rapidly.

I could also give emphasis by pressure upon the fingers, and
group the words together as they would be grouped in utter-

* spell the word while I held the card behind my back.

I

/

A Method of Teaching Zanguage.

135

`1

ance, having pauses, here and there, corresponding to td

pauses made in actual speech.

more I rejoiced in the fact that I had decided to employ an
left his eye free to observe the expression of my face and the It/

alphabet addressed to the sense of touch, instead of sight.

actions and objects which formed the subject of our conversa-
tion.

The general principle upon which I was working was to
speak to him by written words, as I would have spoken to a  I
hearing child by speech, and I believed (with George Dalgarno)
that he would in time come to understand written language by
the same process that children learn to understand their mother
tongue.

It seemed to me that hearing children, in acquiring their
vernacular, derived great assistance from the free use of the
eye as an interpreter of words addressed to the ear, and that
therefore my pupil would derive similar assistance from his eye,
as the interpreter of words addressed to the sense of touch.
In addition, therefore, to the `` regular sentence exercises
and `` impromptu written conversation," I would talk to him a
great deal upon his hand.
We would go to the window and chat by the half hour at a
time about what was going on in the street.  At night also I
would frequently visit him in his bed-room for the purpose of
satisfying myself that I could communicate with him as readily
in the dark as by day.

His progress now became very rapid, and he cemmenced to
talk to me by words, instead of signs.  I placed no other pres-
sure upon him than my pretended difficulty in understanding
his gestures, and allowed him to express himself in any way he
chose.

From the moment we commenced to empioy the manual alpha-
bet I myself abstained from the use of any other gestures than
those I would have employed in talking to a hearing child under
the same circumstances. My pretended difficulty in under- ,
standing his signs increased from day to day, so as to force him
more and more to attempt to express his thoughts by English
words.  I would assist him in this by translating his signs for
him from time to time and making him repeat the sentence
independently upon his fingers. I

The'moreI used with him this means of communication the\

\

j

,

7

136

A MGthod of Teaching Language.

In all our conversations I was careful to employ natural and
complete sentences, but his first attempts at independent ex-
pression (like the first independent utterances of a hearing
child) consisted of isolated words.
The use of the glove alphabet was so little noticeable that I
could talk to him very freely in a crowd without attracting
the attention of others.  I took him to Barnurn's museum and
talked to him all the time the lions were being fed, and I am
sure that no one among the spectators had the slightest suspi-
cion that the boy was deaf.

From the moment he learned the alphabet I gave him regular
writing lessons, so that he should form his letters properly and
write with ease. I then made him keep writing materials about
him, and encouraged him to use them constantly in communi-
cating with friends.

Before six months had elapsed I frequently found the floor
littered with scrap of paper that he had used in this way, and
I am sorry that it did not occur to me at the time to preserve
them for future reference.  It was not until late in 1873 that I
made the attempt to collect a few scraps of this description,
and those that are preserved in my note-book possess great
interest.

I shall conclude this paper by the following specimens of his
composition, which will show that at little more than six years
of age this congenitally deaf boy had acquired a ver acular
knowledge of the English language sufficient to enablekn to
communicate by writing with hearing persons.

dpecimens of Composition.

1. July lst, 1873.

house in Haverhill :
Gurdon is sick to Haverhill in the other Room in the sofa.
2. August l4th, 1873.

Scrap found upon the floor in his father's

Letter to his mother, written from

Brantford, Canada :

Dear M~E

The small cat loves the large cat.  Mary will go to Haverhill.  Grand-
ma S- will go to Haverhill. I will go home in the train and let I
will sleep in the oars.  Mama and Nat and I will drive in Haverhill. ' The
many flags is in Haverhill. I will go upstairs in Haverhill to flags.
Richards and John and nurse and I and Mr. Bell will go home.  After
breakfast I will go to see Breddy.        I will Eat fast.  I love Gur-
cion and auntie.

is sleep.

,

i

A Method of Yewhiny Lanyrraye.

137

3. November 3d, 1873.  Scrap found upon the floor :

Are these mine ? there t,o see the letters? if you please ? Yes Dear

4. Nooemher 4th, 1873. Two scraps containing a conversa-

Mr. Bell.

tion between George and myself:

First map.

Mr. Bell. I think you are tired and ?wt now, so we will be quiet and

Cfewge. `` Rest " means stop.
Mr. BeEZ. Yes, dear.
George. Or "wait."
Mr. Bell. Yes.
George. Please may I put a your handkerchief and be like an old

Note in my recordbook: "After playing lor a while he rq-
membered that his grandmamma had made fun of him for pre-
tending to be a woman, so he wrote :"

Sewnd scmp.

rest now.

What does " rest " mean ?

It means `*stop" or "still."

woman.

I am not put on my towel on my head and be like an old woman and

Grandma said not now Grandma will be so very sorry now.

5. November 23d, 1873. Letter written by George to his
mamma in Haverhill.  No person saw this letter- until it was
finished.  Everything in it, even to the emphasizing of certain
words, is his own.  The omission of capital letters can be traced  ,
to the too frequent use of the mauual alphabet in place of
writing :

`I this is aunday to-day & to-morrow will be Monday.  the people are
going to church.  Mary and Nat are grown by and bye.* john is not sick
now.                                   the kitten is
alive.?  Mr. Bell is reading the book but papa and mama are not coming to
be glad and I matched the lamp on fie.  I looked at my little watch from
my ka. $  we will not drive with Mr. Bell.  I will say please may I be ex-
cused. §  grandpa is tired to drive very fast home.  we are walk very fast
and go to franks horse and drive the colt on Wednesday to see the eggs
and hens and kitten and hay and cracker are on dog is not eat the kitten
fall to die to the grave.  and I amwell and I think that Mr. Bell is sick
to be tired and go to Boston to the house to go to bed to die to lie down

I loae daniel now.

I am going to bed bye and bye.

*Mary and Nat (hk brother and sister) will grow up by ayd by.
t The kitten had been crushed behind a book-case and nearly killed.
$ `` Ka I' was the children's name for George's nurse.
§He had just been taught to use this expression when he wished to

bave the dinner-table before the others had finished.

1.38

A Method of TeacAGng Language.

on on my pocket to put the pretty to keys.*
asleep on my straw.

I looked at the kitten fast

dan is going to the cow milk on Monday.

your loving

from George

6. December 14th, 1873. Another original letter from George

to his mamma:

Salem

Sunday Dec. 14

`. My Dear Mama
"I think that Mr. Bell is sorry that I wrote that to say My Dear
Mama.+

"I am sorry that papa and mama are not coming back now.  I think
that Dan is going to church on sunday with Ellen and Maggie now.  By
and bye Ellen and Maggie and Dan will come after church.  Maggie will
stay here with the house.  Dan and I went out to the cow milked at the
fair.               grandma is afraid but I will not go but
tomorrow.                      I may not kick the
cow with be sorry not glad to be still on sunday but bye and bye mary
and nat is going to bed.                 but grandma is
reading on sunday.  I think that grandma has gone to church with Mr.
Bell. Mr. Bell's beard is coming now.$ is like are the calendar. I am
the deer8 in Boston.11  The snow is stopping.  The rain is not well but
rain is sick? but the snow is well.                  Grandma is

It was dark and it is light.

Ellen is not afraid to see the cow too.

Bye and bye Dan will cut.:

Mr. Bell is reading too.

not reading but after dinner it is the sun too.
over here.

are papa stay in Haverhill.

,

7. March 26th, 1874. Letter to Mrs.

any assistance :

-

Haverhill is very far away

H-, written without

Salem, Mass

March 26th 1874

My Dear Grandma H--


tomorrow.
have finished school before dinner.

I have been to the stable.
      I loves Grandma H-.

I am very Glad that Mary will come back
     I love Grandpa H- too and I
    I have new wheel barrow and there

*This referred to some incident with which I was not acquainted.  He
went through a pantomime about it, showing that there was some definite
idea he wished to express, but no one could understand what he meant.

+When George had written " Salem, Sunday, Dec. 14," he attrac$ed my
attention, that I niight see he was going to write a letter.  As he seeiiied
in doubt to whom to address it, I suggetjted that he should begin `` Dear
Mr. Bell ;" but he wrote " My Dear Mamma."  Upon which I looked very
sorry, pretended to cry; and went out of the room, much to his aniuse-
ment.  Whep he was about half through his letter I returned and read a
book till he had finished.

1 "Will saw firewood."
$ George had seen me before I had shaved.
j/ He had been pretending to be a deer

1

c

is Grandma's pig in the stable.  Maggie is not going to church but niaggie
is going to church on Sunday.  Mr. Bell is writinglto you, but I am busy
to write to yon too.           The dolls are sitting in Mary's
chair here.  Nat has a old bird and the new piano.*  Mr. Bell has a new
piano in Boston and play with me and Li1ly.t  I am laughing at you.  I
am not laughing at Grandpa H--.  I have been the ladies last night and
many days.$ I lwe Maggie. I love Maggie dear pet. I must not go
near the horse because the horse is large and I may go near the cow.  I
slept in the train from Canada.               I will go to
Haverhill in a few days.                 She is not finished
sewing.

I have a new doll.

but now I am in Salem.

Isa is upstairs sewing.

Your loving

George T. S-,"

INSTITUTION ITEMS.

BY THE EDITOR.

London AsyZum.-The premises on the Old Kent road,
London, have, been abandoned for the present, and the experi-
mental oral department is temporarily carried on at St. Lawrence,
Ramsgate, Kent.  It is not yet decided where the permanent
branch establishment will be located ; probably a portion of the
former site in the Old Kent road will be used, and in this case
a new building may be erected ; but much will depend upon the
course the oral experiment may take.  The manual department
is continued at Margate, and both branches remain under the
charge of Mr. Elliott.

-

Minnesdta Institution.-Mr. Noyes has been relieved since
May, 1881, of all care and responsibility of the departments
for the blind and the imbecile, and is thus left free to devote
himself exclusively to the growing deaf-mute department.  On
the occasion of his retirement the Board of Directors placed
on record the following t&imonial :

ResoZved, That upon the retirement of Prof. J. L. Noyes from the
superintendency of the departments of the blind and imbecile, the Board
of Directors of the Minnesota Inatitution for the Deaf and Dumb and
the Blind, and of the School for Idiots and Imbeciles, desire to testify to

* A toy bird and a toy piano.
t Mr. Bell had a new piano in Boston a Zong tim ago and played for me

$ `< There were a number of ladies here a few days ago.''

& Lilly.

his deep interest in these several departments ; his efficient and tiniely
services in their establishment; and his wise direction of their early
progress until they have become full-fledged and independent depart-
ments of our noble State charitable institution.
For his cordial and courteous co-operation with the directors in their
work, and for his timely counsel and advice, never withheld when needed,
the Board, by this testimonial, render to him their hearty recognition and
warm acknowledgment.

New York Institution.-Dr. Porter has resigned his position
as superintendent of the Administrative Department, andis ready
to leave upon the arrival of his successor. Mrs. S. M. Henry has
been appointed matron of the Institution.

-

North Carolincx Institution.-Mr. Gudger resigned the posi-
tion of principal at the beginning of this year, to take charge
of the Warm Springs, a place of resort for health and pleasure
in the mouutains of Western North Carolina.  He is succeeded
by Mr. W. J. Young, late a teacher in the blind department of
the Institution.

.

.

-

Ontario Ijisti8ution.-A monument to the memory of the
late John Barrett McGann, the founder of this Institution, which
has been erected in the Belleville Cemetery by the deaf-mutes
of the Province and their friends, was dedicated on the `1st of
November last in the presence of the officers and pupils of the
Institution.  Appropriate addresses were made by Mr. Mathi-
son, Mr. Denys, and Mr. Green.  The monument is a circular
column of marble, fitanding on a square pedestal, and beaiing
a suitable inscription.

-

-

Pennsylvania Institution.-The directors, in order to pro-
vide accommodations for the increased number of pupils in the
Branch for Oral Instruction, have purchased a large house on
the southeast corner of 11th and Clinton streets. The Oral
Branch was removed to its new quarters February 5,1883.

-

Tennessee School.-The vacancy in the office of principal
occasioned by the death of Mr. Ijams has been filled by the
appointment of Mr. Thomas L. Moses, formerly a teacher in
the Institution, and more recently a member of the Knoxville
Board of Education.

,

Miscellaneous. 141

Virginia 1nstitutiolz.-Dr. W. A. Vaughan has resigned the
ofice of principal, which he had held for several months, and
is succeeded by Mr. Chas. S. Roller, late principal of the Au-
gusta Male Academy.

-

Western Pennsylvania Institution.-The vacancy in the
oEce of principal occasioned by the death of Mr. McWhorter
has been filled by the appointment of the Rev. Thos. McIntire,
Ph: D., for many years superintendent of the Indiana Institu-
tion, and late principal of the Michigan Institution.

-

WilheEmsdoGf ( Wiirtemberg) Institution.-A department for
feeble-minded deaf-mutes and others who are too old for the
usual course of instruction has been opened in connection with
this Institution.  The combined Institution continues under the
direction of Mr. Ziegler.

MISCELLANEOUS.

BY THE EDITOR.

A Deaf-Mute Artist.-Mr. Albert Ballin, a graduate of the
New York Institution, who has been studying art in Europe
for some time, has three pictures in the Intehational Exhibi-
tion of the Fine Arts, recently opened at Rome.

Mgr. De Hixerne.-The Lion Belge for February 5, 1883,
contains a fine portrait of our venerable contributor and
friend, Mgi. De Haerne, and a sketch of the great work that he
has done in various ways for his country, his church, educa-
tion, religion, and humanity.

-

An Institution in Cuba.-We received the following informa-
tion concerning the Institution at Havana, Cuba, too late for  .
publication in our Tabular Statement of the Institutions of the
World in the last number of the Annals.  We had sent a circu-
lar of inquiry to the Institution some time before on a mere
rumor of its existence, but, as no reply had reached us, con-
cluded that the rumor was without foundation.

The Institution, which includes a department for the blind
as well as the deaf, is citlled LL Colegio de Sordo-Mudos y Cie-
gos de la Isla de Cuba."  It was established Sept. 15, 1878.

142

Hisce Zlaneous.

The principal is Luis Biosca Comellas, and there is one male
assistant.  There are seven pupils-three boys and four girls.
The combined method of instruction is followed.  The Institu-
tion is supported by the municipalities of the island.

Proposed Institution in PZoi*idu.--l%-. T. H. Coleman, a
graduate of the South Carolina Institution and of the National
College, aided by other gentlemen, is endeavoring to interest
the Legislature of Florida in the establishment of an Institu-
tion for the deaf.  Florida is the only State of the Union that
has hitherto made no provision for the education of its deaf
children.  According to the last census there are 119 deaf-
mutes in the State, of whom 78 are under the age of 25.  The
Governor of the State approves the enterprise in his annual
message, and advises that a portion of the common school fund
be set apart, under the direction of the State Board of Educa-
tion, for this worthy object.

`

-

The Brussels C`o~~ventiolz.-Mr. Va'isse, of the Committee of
Organization of the `` Third International Convention for the
Amelioration of the Lot of Deaf-Mutes," to be held at Brussels,
Belgium, August 13-21 of this year, writes us that in connec-
tion with the Codvention there will be an exhibition of material
relating to the education of the deaf, such as text-books, maps,
charts, diagrams, and other apparatus.  For further informa-
tion with respect to the Convention we refer our readers to the
last October number of the Annals, page 261, and to the Jan-
uary number, page 69.

-

Death of Padre Pendola.-Padre Tommaso Pendola, of the
Scuole Pie, the venerable founder and principal of the Royal
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Sienna, Italy, died on the
12th of February, 1883.  Padre Pendola established the Sienna
Institution in 1828, and remained its director until his death, a
period of fifty-five years.  He was the author of several text-
books and treatises on deaf-mute education, and has long been
recognized as the leader of the profession in Italy.  The change
from the manual to the oral method fifteen years ago was made
largely through his influence.  The first convention of Italian
teachers was held on his invitation at the Sienna Institution in
1873, and he established the periodical DeZZ'EducazionP, etc.,
to promote the cause of deaf-mute education in Italy.

Miscellaneous. 143

His memorial sketch of Padre Marchi6, published in the last
volume of the Annals, (.pp. 163-174,) evinces better than
anything we could say the enthusiasm, simplicity, piety, and
love which characterized this noble t>eacher and philanthropist.

Death of the Rev. 8. &nith.-The Rev. Samuel Smith, the
devoted and successful chaplain and secretary of the Royal
Association in Aid of the Deaf and Dumb, London, England,
died January 3, 1883.  As we have received from Mr. Richard
Elliott, Headmaster of the London and Margate Institutions, a
biographical sketch of Mr. Smith, which will be published in
the next number of the Annals, we here only express our sense
of the great loss that has befallen the deaf-mutes of England
in this death, and our sincere sympathy with the mourning
family and friends.

C'onvention and ConfeGence Pvoceedings.-The " Proceedings
of the Tenth Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf
and Dumb, held at Jacksonville, Ill., August 26-30, 1882," (195
pages, ~vo.,) have been published in an appendix to the Report
of the Illinois Institution for 1882.  Copies may be obtained
free of charge by sending ten cents for postage to P. G. Gillett,
LL D , Superintendent of the Illinois Institution for the Edu-
cation of the Deaf and Dumb, Jacksonville, 111.

The "Proceedings of the Conference of  Headmasters of
[British] Institutions for the Education of the Deaf and
Dumb, held at the Yorkshire Institution, Doncaster, May 30
and 31, 1882," (97 pages, 8 vo.,) of which a brief reporf was
given in the last volume of the Alennls, page 260, have been
published.  Copies may be obtained at 50 cents each, postage
included, of Mr. Joseph Howard, Headmaster of the York-
shire Institution, Doncaster, England.

" TILe Deaf Man's 3riend."--This is a monthly paper, pub-
lished especially in the interest of the audiphone.  It is edited
by Miss N. E. Derby, who formerly conducted the HocZerlz
Times, printed at the Wisconsin Institution.  The subscrip-
tion price is $1 a year, and the address is 107 South Clark
street, Chicago, 111.

144 Miscellaneous.

Reports Received.-We have received the following Reports
of Institutions, in addition to those previously acknowledged :
(Published in 1882.)  Reports of the Alabama, Arkansas,
California, Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Montreal, (Catholic,) New
York Improved, Ontario, Paris, (National,) Rotterdam, South

Carolina, and West Virginia Institutions.

          Reports of the Le Couteulx St. Mary's,
Maryland Colored, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska,
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, St. John's, (Bos-
ton Spa, England,) Texas, Ulster, and Western Pennsylvania
Institutions.

A considerable number of other publications have been re-
ceived, and will be noticed in the next number of the Annals.

(Published in 1883.)

.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

Miss D. B. MARIS has been trained for articulation work by Miss Emma
Garrett, and would be glad to communicate with institutions needing
articulation teachers.  Address Miss Emma Garrett, Pennsylvania Institu-
tion for the Deaf and Dumb, Branch for Oral Instruction, southeast
corner 11th and Clinton streets, Philadelphia, Pa.

-

Miss E~A GARRETT desires to say to persons who wish to be prepared
for articulation teaching that her price for training teachers in the theory
is seventy-five dollars, ($75.)  Students can pay tuitionfee after they have
secured positions, if more convenient for them.

Students will be expected to observe practice daily in the oral school
of which Miss Garrett has charge.  Observation in the school-rooms is, of
course, free to any one.

Miss Garrett reserves the privilege of limiting the number of students
in the training class, as her school duties will not admit of her preparing
many.
Address Miss Emma Garrett, Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb, Branch fm Om2 Instruction, southeast corner 11th and Clinton
streets, Philadelphia, Pa.

, -.

[Cmfinscti from pee I Cfc0wr.J

LANGUAGE LESSONS, - - by Isaac L~wis~Peet, LL. D.
  Script Type. Pp. 232. Prim $1.26, (including pmuge.)
Designed to introduce young learners, deaf-mutes, and foreigners to a

correct understanding and use of the English language.

It is believed that this book will meet a want long felt, as the directions
for use are SO minute that any one, even without previous familiarity
with the instruction of deaf-mutes, may with its aid satisfactorily carry
forward their education.  It is therefore adapted for home instruction
as well as for use in the class-room. In the latter it is admirably fitted
to serve as a standard of attainment and a means of securing uniform-
ity of method, thus rendering classification easier, and obviating the
injury which often arises from transferring a pupil from one teacher
to another. By its means the education of a deaf-mute can be success
fully commenced at a very early age.  In order to employ it to advan-
tage it is not necessary to forego the use of other text-books, but it
will, it is thought, supply many deficiencies; and moreover form in
the pupil the habit of thinking in language.

With this view it need not be confined to elementary classes, as all the
pupils in an institution would derive a benefit from going through the
exercises.

COMF'LETE SETS

OF TEE

AMERICAN ANNALS OF THE DEAF AND DUMB*

. May be obtained as follows:

Volumes I and I1 of the present editor, whose address is given below ;

Volumes 111-XII, inclusive, and the first two numbers of Volume XIII,
of ISAAO LEWIS PEET, LL. D., Principal of the New York Institution
for the Education of'the Deaf and Dumb, fYtatwn M, NEW YORK CITY.

The second and third numbers of Volume XIII, and all subsequent vol-

umes, of the present editor.

The first and second volumes will be sold separately.

Of the volumes for sale at the New York Institution, the third and
fourth, the fifth and sixth, the seventh and eighth, the ninth and tenth,
and the eleventh and twelfth have been bound together, two volumes
in one, the first two numbers of the thirteenth volume being included
with the eleventh and twelfth volumes; these will be sold only as
bound.

Of all the subsequent volumes single numbers will be sold separately.
The price of the Annals is $2.00 n volume, or 50 cents a number.

For

further information address the editor,

B. A. FAY,

KenclalE Urm,

WASH~QTON, D. a.

CONTENTS.

PAOR.

Deaf-Mutes and the Combined Method,

            By Richard S. Storrs, M A.
John Allen McWhorter.. ..... ..By James C. BaZis, B. A.
The Sense of Dizziness in Deaf-Mutes,

                77

                95

By WiZZiam Jamt's, M. D. IOZ

A Reply.. .'. ............... .By Miss Harriet B. Rogers 1 17
Joseph H. Ijams.. ............ ..By Judge John L. Most5 122



INSTITUTION ITEMS. ...................... .By [he Editur I 39

Upon a Method of Teaching Language to a very young Con-

genitally Deaf Child. . By Alexander Graham Bel4 Ph. D. I 24

London, Minnesota, 139 ; New York, North Carolina,
Ontario, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, I 40 ; Virginia,
Western Pennsylvania, Wilhelmsdorf, 141.

MISCELLANEOUS ............................ .By ;he Editor 141

A Deaf-Mute Artist, 141 ; Mgr. De Haerne, 141 ; An In-
stitution in Cuba, 141 ; Proposed Institution in Florida,
142 ; The Brussels Convention, 142 ; Death of Padre
Pendola, 142 ; Death of the Rev. S. Smith, 143 ; Conven-
tion and Conference Proceedings, 143 ; '' The Deaf
Man's Friend," 143 ; Reports Received, 144.

ADVERTISEMENTS : Oral Teaching; Training of Oral Teachers.. 144

THE AMERICAN ANNALS OF THE DEAF AND DUMB is a quarterly publication
appearing in the months of January, April, July, and October.  Each number con-
tains at least sixty-four pages of matter, principally original.  The subscription price
is $2.00 a year, payable in advance.  For foreign subscribers the price,. postage in-
cluded, is 9 shillings 07 marken, ( I I francs or lire,) which may be sent through
the postal money-order office.  Subscriptions and all other communications relating
to the Annalr should be addressed to the Editor,

E. A. FAY,

National Deaf-Mule Collexe,

Kendall Green,

WASHINGTON, D. C.