Star.
London, England, 1829-11-03 00:00:00

DEAF AND DUMB.

The state of the deaf and dumb has of late become a
subject of more interest than formerly, and his now assumed that
degree of importance it is entitled to among the numerous efforts
in which science, benevolence, and liberality, are excited to improve
the unfortunate portion of the community An opinion had long
prevailed that this kind of aB ction was of comparatively rare oc.
currence, and it was not until public sympathy was more recently
excited by the promulgation of statements showing the large propor-
tion of persons in the United Kingdom labouring under partial or
total deprivation of bearing and speech that the subject has at-
tached to itself sufficient importance. There are many public in-
stitutions appointed for their reception and maintenance, but these
asylums are insufficient to make the deaf and dumb fit for general
intercourse with society. Many of these institutions have also this
inconvenience, that no sufferer can be admitted before the age of
nine years ; and according to the Report of the London Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, it will be seen that in seventeen families, containing
17.0 children, there are no fewer than 78 deaf and dumb. From
this fact I am induced to conceive that many of these cases, if
early attended to, admit of cute, for Nature we find rarely errs
in the perfectionipf her works, and it is only in a few insulated
cases that a real structural deficiency occurs ; but the misfortune is,
that no attempts are in general made for the relief of the sufferer until
the disease is established. By an abstract of a Report made by
M. Moon to the Royal Academy of Medicine, at Paris, (on the
method adopted by Al. hard, for the cure of the deaf and dumb)
it appears that M. hard has presented to the Minister of the
Interior, three memoirs—the first relating to the various methods
employed up to this time for the cure of congenital deafness, and
including those employed by the ate hor himself during the course
of a long practice—the second giving an account of experimental
treatment adopted in nearly 0.00 cases, with the view of deter.
mining the advantages and disadvantages of injections through
thy eustachion tube into thy internal ear, a method which a
recent report of the Listiiution would seem to recommend to
public confidence—the third, in which, after comhatting the
above process, M. hard recommends, as exclusively desyreing of
confidence, a medico physiological method, calculated, according to
his statement to relieve a great many cases of congenital deafness.
It is to the last of these alone that the present memoir refers, for,
according to 31. hard, deafness is extremely rare—he admits
nor more than one-fifth to be so. Every endeavour should be
made to relieve any curable defect or obstruction rather than aban.
don a case al hopeless ; for, let it be recollected, it is much more
satisfactory to restore to society one who accidentally suffers, and to
render him useful by the scientific development of his natural
powers, than to breed him up in the indirect and exclu.ive forms
of an artificial and symbolical education, however necessary and
desirable this may be in desperate cases. Notwithstanding
the general advancement of medicine and surgery, and the improved
methods of cure for various diseases, it is to be regretted that those
of the ear are attended with more inconvenience than any other.
In considering the chief obstacles that present themselves, it is to
he observed, in the first place, that the structure of the ear is ex-
tremely complicated, the parts that compose it are principally in-
ternal, and the diseases that assail It chiefly concealed from view—
hence in very many cases arise the uncertainty of diagnosis, and the
difficulty of adopting a proper course of practice. In the second
place is to be noticed the extraordinary prejudice, which, ascribing
all congenital deafness to malformation of the organ of heating. sic
nounces the disease as incurable, and deprecates all attempts at
relief as at once nugatory, and fallacious, or at least painfully
uncertain. A third objection, which has been often urged, is the
difficulty of applying remedies immediately to the parts affected.—
Yet means of relief may be employed without inconvenience, and
often with success. Congenital deafness, and that which is ob-
servable soon after birth, frequently depends upon casual circum-
stances only. In the ear, as in every other organ of the body, cases
of defective formation may present themselves, and in these in-
stances deafness is incurable. But happily such cases form not the
majority of those which usually present themselves to our notice.—
The necessity of the treatment I propose in early infancy, before
the, disease is permanently confirmed by time and habit, will be
more apparent from the fact, that it not unfrequently happens that
there are three, four, five, and in some instances seven children in
one (amity, suffering from deafness and dumbness.---(Prone Mr.
Carlin Essay on the Deaf rind lhanb—Longman and Co.)

Dire ount
•

~~

:;•
.~'• ~
~~. '~ .

.Air;

i, ( i .)

'ALTER SCOTT AND THE MANIAC.
•Ipted up the fallowing. from the gossip of Melrose,
Slsdlfcclnt the respectability of my informants, can vouch for Its
accuracy. A young woman one day recently appeared at the
portal of Abbotsford, and requested admittance to the presence
of Sir Walter : no min is more accessible than the worthy Ba-
ronet, hut the wild hurried manner of the applicant made the
servant hesitate. " Nay, I maun see him," tile exclaimed, " I
maun see him. Ah, sir, dinna hinner me gif ye be a Christian
man ; and gin your heart was breaching as mine is breaching noo
ye wadna stand atween the door an' me." The impassioned sin-
cerity with which she importuned, and the flood of tears which
.creamed down her pallid cheek—the convulsive heavings of her
bosom, joined to a face in which still the traces of beauty chased
by the hand of sorrow might be seen, so operated on the sympathy
if the domestic, that he supported the fainting supplicant into an
anti-room. and went to inform his master. On Sir W. entering
I he room, the scene was affecting heyotal description ; the wretched
maniac (alas ! 'ris true) wrung forward in an extaey of joy, ex-
..ainting " Alt ! the I see ye at last, 1 hae wandered mony a weary
mile and gave !pony a weary gate, hut I cnuldna find ye ; but I'll
tt r leave you non—never I—never !" Immediately relapsing into
melancholy silence, she refused to answer the mild interrogatories
of the astonished Baronet i who here saw the itj agining. of bis
fertile brain unhappily realised), hut kept her eyes atedfastly fixed
•)n a ribbon suspended from her neck. fly soothing and flattering
l,er he at last found out that she belonged to " Aberdeen awa,"
that in her derangements she had left bet home. and wandered in
search of the master-spirit whose effusions bad beguiled many a
happy hour in better days, and that to effect this she bad travelled
140 miles on foot. In this perplexing situation Sir Walter's duty
was unpleasant but decisive.; to lodge her in a place of safety, and
acquaint her anxious friends of the circumstance. After prevailing
on her to recruit her strength by rest and refreshment, under pre-
text of going along with her, she was prevailed upon to enter a
post-chase, in which she was no sooner seated than the driver, ap-
plying the whip to his horses, drove off at a quick pace for Jed-
burgh Castle. On perceiving the deception, she gave a convulsive
scream, and the attendant in the chaise states the scene to have
been afilicting beyond the power of words. She shortly after sub-
sided into a tranquil insanity, and as she lay back in the chaise her
dark ringlets covered her ashy countenance, and the tear-drop
rolling down her check, she at intervals faintly exclaimed " Ah !
deceitful man, did I think ye would beguile'me sae? The warst
may come noo; they hae s' deceived me!" Had this circumstance
taken place before the Heart of Mid-Lothian was given to the
world, I would have ptesumed that one of its characters was mo-
delled on the poor Aberdonian minim—Correspondent of an Edin-
burgh Piper.