The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-21 00:00:00

N°. 22,462.

<--.52-'.

Cure of Deafness.

PRICE
STAMPED,....Sd.

At the last sitting of the Academy of Sciences,
M. Flonrens presented en application addressed to
him by Dr. Tart bull, a Scotch physician, who pre-
posed to employ a method of his own on a certain
determinate number of persons efillcted with want
of hearing, and prayed the Academy to appoint a
committee; first, to ascertain the state of the pa.
tients before being submitted to the treatment in
question, and next, to report at the end of a year
what had been the amount of success arrived at.
Dr. Turnbull has explained his method to M.
Floarens, and will likewise communicate it to the
members of the committee. He has described it in
a sealed paper deposited with the Academy, but
wi.bes it not to be published until the expiration
of a year. The Academy, considering the subject
of immense importance to humanity, at once ap4
pointed a committee composed of MM. Fiourens,
Milne-Edwards, and Bernard. The promptitude
with which this decision has been come to reflects
great credit on the Academy. It appears that when
Lord Brougham was lately in Paris, being anxious,as always, to forward any plan likely to prove
useful to his fellow-creatures, he gave Dr. Turnbull
a letter of introduction to M. Mignet, and through
him the matter was brought under consideration,
and, appearing to the Academy to present
every guarantee of success, was immediately
disposed of, as stated above. It may not
be irrelevant to state that Dr. Turnbull's name
has been long known in England and the United
States as connected with extraordinary cures of
deafness not mere impediments in bearing, but
deafness existing from the first moment of life.
Some years back a paper appeared in Chambers'
Edinburgh Journal giving an account of several
extraordinary cures effected by the practitioner in
question. After speaking of several cases of deaf
and dumb persons successfully treated by the Turn•
bull method, the writer says :

Let us first explain that the deafness of the class of per-
sons called deaf-mutes has hitherto been quite incurable..
With respect to certain modifications of deafness produced
by cold, and other similar accidental means, there has long
been a medical practice attended with some measure of
success : for example, in London there is an institution
ealled the Royal Dispensary for Diseases of the Ear, where,
since its commencement in 1816 to 1840, according to a
statement by its surgeon,Mr Harrison Curtis, 12,000 cases
have been cured or relieved. But for that complete deafness
which is born with a human being and prevents the future
acquirement of speech there is acknowledgedly no cure
whatever upon the medical books. This is fully owned
by one of the first writers and practitioners of the day
on aural surgery, Dr. Wilheim Kramer, of Berlin,
who, in a work on the subject, says:-" There are convinc-
ing proofs of the entire failure of all remedial attempts
hitherto made for the restoration of hearing in deaf-mutes.
• . . The deaf-dumb, whether they be completely deaf,
or merely drill of hearing, are incurable." The condemna-
tion thus pronounced will appear a very distressing one,
when it is known that, in civilised communities, one person
in about every 1,600 is a deal-mute. In each of six Euro-
pean States—France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Russia, and
Prussia—the proportion given by statistics is exactly one to
every 1,585 of the population. The whole number in Great
Britain alone is 12,394, and in France 20,189.
The writer then proceeds to affirm that Dr. Turn.
bull certainly cures congenital and other cases of
deafness, and mentions instances in point. We
quote textually :

During his recent brief residence in Edinburgh, Dr
Turnball effected the entire cure of Miss Catherine Walker,
of Kelso, a young lady known to various friends of our own
as having been deaf and dumb during her whole life up to
that period, and who had accordingly received her education
in the institution for deaf-mutes in Edinburgh. We saw
this young person, first a week, and next time about a
month, after her cure, and found that she heard as well as
any ordinary person. At the time when we saw her last,
she was beginning to use her voice to some little purpose,
insomuch that her friends forbade her to speak to them on
her fingers, Lalleging that they could understand what she
said,

Although Dr. Turnbull can restore bearing in such
cases in about a quarter of an hour, the learning to
speak distimtly afterwards is a long up-hill piece
of work, and probably on that account it is that in
his applicacion to the Academy of Sciences he fixed
a year as the period for a fair trial, wishing not
only to present cases of restored hearing but of a
certain facility in speaking. When the patient is
young the difficulty seems to be less, as will be seen
by the following extract from the work already
quoted

Dr Turnbull was in Glasgow at the beginning of the by-
past year, and in public administered to various deaf and
dumb persons. Happening to be acquainted with a gentle-
man who had taken an interest in what was then done, we
wrote to him making particular inquiry into the condition
of two young persons whom we understood to have received
decided and permanent benefit. These were deaf-mutes
named Jane Wilkie and Margaret Muir, the one being
about eight years of age, the other about nineteen.
Our friend answered as follows : " I called on both
the girls to-day, and had the good luck to find-
Wilkie at home. Her mother states freely that she
hears quite as well as the other children, and is at a school
conducted by a female, who seems to be bringing her on
very well, if I may judge from a specimen of her reading I
witnessed to day. Her articulation was very perfect, con-
sidering the short time that she has been at school. They
have no occasion now to speak loud to her, as she seems to,
understand quite well what is said when her back is turned,
. • I found Muir's parent at home, but she herself
was at work in a cotton mill. 1 put many questions to the
parents, which they answered very satisfactorily. They
stated that the surprising effects produced by Dr Turnbull
had not altered in the least drgree, but on the contrary
were rather increased. She hears whatever is said to her,
though she may be in another room with the door shut.:
These extracts, we conceive, will suffice to show
that much advantage is likely to accrue to mankind
from the new treatment when made public, and it
was doubtless the firm conviction of that result
swohpierhominpdtluycetdo DthreTAarenadbeumll's ayopfpSleicieanticoens to accede
.

Naval and Military Intelligence,

Yesterday being the anniversary of her Majesty's access
sion, the royal standard was hoisted over all the entrances
to the public establishments at the royal dockyards, and at
noon a royal saluteiof 21 guns was fired.
The chartered sailing vessel Sir George F. Seymour yes-
terday went alongside the shipping pier at Woolwich Ar-
senal, and commenced loading with war stores for Bermuda.
The Edinburgh,'6o, screw steamvessel, 1,772 tons, 460-
hotse power, late coastguard ship, Queensferry, N. 8., was
yesterday taken into the basin at Sheerness to be dismantled
when she will be placed in the third division of the Steam
Reserve, and will ultimately bo broken up.
The Dauntless, 31, screw steamvessel, 1,575 tons, 580-
horse power, the newly appointed coastguard ship for the
Humber, Capt. J. Strange, has been taken out of the basin
at Sheerness to moorings in the harbour. having undergone
extensive repairs both of hull and machinery. She will be
taken for trial at the measured mile previous to her depar-
ture to her station.

The Fawn, 17, screw steameloop, 751 tons, 100 horse
power, belonging to the first division of the Sheerness
Steam Reserve, we's
yesterday placed in commission. The
Pennant was 11°'Isted by the master in charge, Mr John J.
A. Gravene,:_

CaPt-. C. F. A. Shadwell, C. 8.,
Sur of the Royal Clarence dockyard, Gosport,
- has been appointed Capt..
S
and of Haslar Hospital, in the place of Capt. H. E. Edgell,
flit
C. 8., promoted to g rank by the death of Admiral Sir A.
Fanshawe
ranean in her Majesty's ship Galatea were landed from that
The military K.O B.
invalids brought home from the Mediter-
ranean
ship at Portsmouth dockyard yesterday, and forwarded by
Government steamer to the Royal Military Hospital at
Netley.
T
India in the hired sailing transports Star
of India and Walmer Castle, were disembarked yesterday
shpei t
h troops,
ead
f time-expired men, and invalids Who arrived
at r 0
ra
from those ships, under the superintendence of the military
authorities, and sent to their destination ; the invalids to
Netley, and the time• expired men to the depots of their re-
spective regiments. The Star of India and the Walmer
Castle immediately afterwards sailed for the Thames, having
each a large cargo on board for London.

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