Peculiarities of the deaf and dumb as regards medical treatment, and their idiocyncrasies [sic] which have been observed at the Ulster Institution / Henry Samuel Purdon.

  • Purdon, Henry Samuel.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peculiarities of the deaf and dumb as regards medical treatment, and their idiocyncrasies [sic] which have been observed at the Ulster Institution / Henry Samuel Purdon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    music. When these children leave school, they are instructed in various trades so as to give them a means of earning their liveli¬ hood. As regards the peculiarities of deaf-mute instruction I may be allowed to commence the following remarks by stating, that “to be born deaf, or to lose the sense of hearing before the power of speech is attained, or confirmed, or the stock of language so copious as to impress the memory, is invariably followed by dumbness. It is not usual that dumbness proceeds from any malformation of the organs of articulation, or from any other cause than that of deafness, or which is sometimes the case, from want of intellect. Deprivation of speech is not the only calamity which want of hearing involves, for in the case of young persons, it usually entails a train of evils which few can rightly conceive. I have met with many who vastly underrated the extent of the privation under which deaf-mutes labour, and who believed, that if the deaf and dumb were only put in possession of a method of giving expression to their ideas, that all they required had been obtained. For example, it is often imagined, that if the deaf and dumb were only taught the manual alphabet, that they could then spell out words, and sentences, and that they must of necessity comprehend the ideas that were thereby expressed. This, how¬ ever, is very far from the fact. Congenital deafness is one of the sorest calamities that can befall a human being. The dispensation of Providence that closes the -ear of a child at birth against the admission of sounds, shuts his mind up in a cell where scarcely a ray of intellectual, or moral light dawns on his miserable solitude. A deaf-mute may exhibit many of the traits of character that are possessed by his more fortunate fellows, and to the eye of a superficial observer, there may seem little to distinguish him from others; still he is a different being. Not only is his knowledge of the common affairs of life bounded by his own limited and imperfect observation, but his mind is a complete blank with regard to the momentous realities which concern him as an immortal being. There is a notion very common amongst men—as common as it is unfounded—that deaf-mutes are much quicker of appre¬ hension than others ; and that when nature takes away one sense she supplies the one next to it in importance with greatly increased power; and so they conclude that the deaf and dumb must be