New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-02-07
NETWORK HISTORICALSOCIETY.
FEBRUARY MEETING.
Origin and Early History OF the Instruct on
of the Deaf and Dumb.


of the Deaf and Dumb.
The February meeting of the Historical Society
was held on Tuesday evening at its Rooms in tht
University, and was even more largely attended
than usual. Hon. LUTHER BRADIsH, President
Of the Society, occupied the Chair.
After the usual preliminary business, the specia
order of the evening was preceded with being
the reading of Memoir by DR.. Fl. P. PEET, Pre-
sdent of the New York Institution for the Dea
and Dumb, on the
ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY or THE ART OF
INsTRUCTING THE DEAF AND DUMB.
In considering the origin of the art of instruct
ing the Deaf and Dumb, said DR.. Peet, we are
naturally led to inquire what was in ancient
times. the social and intellectual condition of this
unfortunate class, and what views were ex.
pressed by the learned and wise men of antiquity
concerning the possibility of celebrating thor
dtiOn The notices respecting the Deaf and
Dumb which, with laborous research have been
CLEANED from the writings OF the ancents, though
very slight and imperfect, are not inconsistent
with the opinion which we should form pri0ri
that the uneducated Deaf and Dumb have been,
in all ages, much the same, and hence that the
present known characteristics of this class, too
many specimens of which are yet to be found,
were the characteristics of the Deaf MQtes Of
Judea of Attica of ancient Italy.
n
reaches, at this day, the ear was the principal
organ of communication and of instruction, and
articulated words the instruments OF thought
There may 1--WE need not here affirm or deny the
theory have been a much earlier period, in the
infancy OF society, OF which history can no more
preserve the traces than the memory of the indi
vidusl can preserve the events OF his own early
infancy. The prominence which speech acquired
at these early periods and the disuse of the Ian
guege of action, left the Deaf and Dumb without
readily available means OF intercourse with their
fellow men. The consequences of this privation,
the difficulty of acquiring knowledge, and the
absence of human sympathy anud companion
ship and incentives to mental action, while the
Deaf Mute remained in this condition were dHelt
upon by DIR. Peet at considerable length.
The ancients generally believed that all means
Of communicating with this class of persons were
necessarily vague and uncertain. And yet we
NAV well be surprised at the general prevalence
Of this belief when we reflect that the cultivation
and expansion of their own language of panto-
mime is all that is necessary to raise the Deaf and
Dumb to the average intellectual and moral level
of their race, and recall the testimony of Cicero
and Lucen as to the perfection to which the pan
tomime of the Roman stage had been carried in
their times. A remarkable case is recorded by
Pliny, who, speaking of the most eminent painters
of Rome, mentions Quintus Pedius, grandson of
that Consul Quintus Pedius who was named in
Caesars will coheir with Augustus The elder
Pedius was Caesars nephew, and cousin to Au'
gustus) This young man being mute from
birth, the orator, Messela of whose family he was
through his grandmother. thought that he might be
instructed in painting, OF which also Augustus OF
sacred memory approved. The young man made
great proficiency in that art" Eminence in the
art OF painting implies very considerable intel
lectusl development, in this case undoubtedly de-
rived through the language Of Pantomime.
We are told that most of the ancient physicians
believed dumbness TO be not q consequence OF
deafness, but the effect OF & common organic
lesion Of the lingIal and auditory nerves, arising
as they do from neighboriug origin Of the brain
and the authors of the Code of Justinan make
special exception in favor OF such persons deaf
from birth, "to whom the gift Of speech may have
been conceded by nature which indeed, they
considerably add, rarely happens" Aristotle
seems to have been charged, though unJustly,
with lending the sanction of his great authority
TO the prejudceE through which the Deaf and
Dumb were condemned to irremediable ignorance
and degradation. Among the Greeks, the word
denOting primarily dull of mind like our dumb J
was used both for the Deaf and for the Dumb.
Thus in Matthew TX. 10: "The dumb spake : aud
xi s "The deaf hear the same word is In the
original used In both places. Experience had
shown, ss admitted in the Code Of Justinian that
some might be dumb, without being deaf, or deaf
without being dumb; bat in the popular belief
and in popular language, the dumb as class
WSAC uSiu 10 DC l-iCoPaoiS "a sfNNe1
Indeed their daTnbness was probably regsrded as
more striking characteristic than their deatoess,
since as we know many OF them are only par
italy deaf
The invention Of Rlphabetic writing, which, by
presenting svisible lang usge ought TO have made
the instruction Of the Deaf sud Dumb much easier,
in fact made il seem more impractlcable. Digger
Rndo suppoSeS that in ancient Egypt and IL ChiAa,
where the written characters represented not
words, bot ideas the Deaf aud Dumb may have
been instructed through the eye, without any per-
son being surprised at it but Dr.. p could not
agree with him LaboriOus explanation would
have been indispensable. TIE condition Of tae
Deaf Mute was still worse duriog the long nigot
Of ignorance and barbsrism which succeeded the
pRlmy days of ancient learning
Ii is remarkable that the manual alphabet,
which now seems to be appropriate, II not pecul-
lar. to the Deaf, should have been well known, at
least 10 the learned and curious, many centuries
before the instruction Of the Deaf aud Dumb was
thought Of 1t is certain that the ancient Greeks
and Romans had their modes of spelling words on
the fingers some of which have been preserved
10 us by the venerable Bede. The Greeks had,
from very early period, an ingenious and CON-
plete system of Enumeration by arbitrary positions
Of the hands and fingers. Bonet mentions, on the
authority Of John Bsptiste Ports, another ancient
sign. alphabet, the composition OF which reminds
as of the early alphabets OF the Egyptians. Leib-
mtg informs us that the monks OF certain orders
whose rules forbade the use Of the voice. were
accustomed 10 converse BY slgns,-that Is, b. a
manual alphabet; and the early writers on the
instruction Of the Deaf and Dumb, mention seye-
raj kinds Of alphabets as actually in use Tor the