The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-09-17
The Deaf and Dumb.

10 DE ueaI Is not necessarily anu al
ways to be dumb, and to make the
dumb speak is no longer work which
only miracle could accomplish. Il see
a voice" says Bottom in the character
OF Pyramus; ''now will l to the chink to
spy and l can hear my Thisbe's face"
Hearing q face is not, so far as we
know, a mode of perception yet realized,
though the quick apprehensions of the
blind through other senses seem to sug-
gest something like tactual and audible
vision. But seeing voice is what al
most any deaf person, trained suf-
ticiently soon and sufficiently well, can
be taught to do. He may to all intents
and purposes hear by the eye. He can
read words by observing the motions of
the lips, as he can read written or print
ed signs and as he can initiate the lat
ter by the hand, so he can reproduce
the former by the tongue. Generations
before the instruction of the deaf and
dumb in oral speech was systematized,
there had been remarkable instances Of
it, which were treated as miracles-as
sports and marvels of ingenuity to be
wondered at, rather than as examples
to be initiated.
The case Of the younger brother of the
constable of CASTLE, where Sir Kenelm
Digby saw when he accompanied
Charles l. (then Prince of Wales) to
pain is well known, He was and had
been from birth so deaf that he could
not hear if a gun were shot off close by
his ear, and that he had been dumb un-
til he was taken in hand by an intelli-
gent and hospitable priest. "He would
repeat after anybodie any hard word
whatsoever, which the Prince tried of
ten, not only in English but by making
some Welchman that served his high
ness speak words of their language,
when it was so perfectly echoed that l
confesse that l wondered more at that
than at all the rest, and the master him.
self would acknowledge that the rules
of his art reached not to produce that
effect with any certainty" Why it
should be harder for Spaniard to read
Welsh words than English on the lips
OF a foreigner may seem question OF
some difficulty. Sir Kenelm Digby had
probably the feeling that English, after
all, is the natural language of human
beings, though he does say something
about the cultural sounds of the Welsh
tongue not being obvious in the motions
OF lips. He goes on to note that this
young Spanish noble could converse
currently in the light, though they
talked with whispers never so softly,
and | have seen him at the distance OF
q large chambers breadth say words
after one that l, standing close by the
speaker, could not hear syllable of
But, if he were in the dark, or if ont
turned ones face out of his sight, hC
was capable of nothing one said" 1t il
a melancholy thing that this curiou.
proof Of what could be done for the dea
was for generations rather viewed will
barren wonder than as an example t
be initiated. For long time the harsl
maxim, "Surdus natus mutus est, e
plane indisciplinablis," ruled in lay
and social usage. When the attemp
was seriously made to instruct the dea
and dumb the false track of finger
speaking was entered upon, and unit
recently it has been followed. To teacl
them to read spoken sounds on the lip
and to enunclate them, thus entering
into the general intercourse of society
was deemed an impossible task in mos
cases and a barren feat in others. The
mistake is now recognized. The con
gress at Milan three years ago decided
in favor Of the purely oral system, an(
the members the of conference at Brus
sells have chiefly had to consider thu
methods Of giving effect to it.-Londol
Negs