Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-05-02
MARRIAGE OF DEAF.MuTEs.

i
BALD, Blind and Toothless
What may be called the deaf MUTE
Problem" is giving considerable agita.
ton just at present to the scientific
mind in New England. And no wonder,
since it has been recently shown that
during the last thirty years. while the
population of the United States has
simply doubled. the number of deaf
and dumb people in this country has
been multiplied by five. This really
appalling increase has no other cause
than the intermarriage of persons born
thus defective, the offsprings of such
unions being almost invariably SINH
larry afflicted. The latter marry
among themselves in turn. producing
another generation of unfortunates
without speech or hearing. who do
likewise, and so on, the result being
the propagation of special human
breed lacking two senses of the five
with which the animal man is designed
by nature to be equipped.
! The first recorded intermarriage OF
deaf-mutes in America was that OF a
Massachusetts couple in 1919. From
1850 to 1880 there were no less l, 400
such marriages, and already deaf mutes
by descent have appeared in the fourth
generation numerously. There is every
reason for supposing that their num-
bers will 60 on increasing indefinitely
until there comes to be recognized a
separate variety of the race. all the
members of which are born deaf and
therefore dumb.
Is it not strange that so mournful q
state of affairs should have been
brought about by one of the most bene-
ficent works ever attempted by human
kindness and charity?
Until within quite few years deaf
mutes were kept so entirely secluded.
by reason of their helplessness, that
marriages among them were unknown.
Bnt at length benevolent science ex-
tended a friendly hand, taught them a
language they could understand. gave
them knowledge through that language
of all things others know, and
even showed them with endless
pains how to speak with the
voices they could not themselves hear.
In this manner they were enabled to
assume the conditions of ordinary
human existence, to meet their fellow
creatures, form societies. marry, and
have children. For obvious reasons,
they nearly always marry one another.
If. on the other hand. they take part
ners who are normally equipped as re-
CARDS the primary senses. the resulting
offspring are more apt to be born deaf
and dumb. If not then some of the
grandchildren will be, and the curse
will appear for generations in the fam
ily internationally. On the whole, was
not the original calamity, that Gal
laudet and his friends sought to allie
viate. less bad than the cure, which is
tending to indefinitely multiply the
speeches. victims?
It is interesting to observe that the
telephone is merely sort of copy of
the human ear, and works on the same
general principles. Prof. Bells in
strument has diaphragm, like the
drum of the ear, in contact with which
Is q carbon pencil. The sound waves
made by the voice agitate the dia-
phragm and are transmitted by the
carbon pencil to the wire that conveys
the message. The place of the carbon
pencil in the ear is taken by a little
cartilaginous projection that is in con-
tact with the drum. This transmits
the sound waves to the brain through
the nerves OF sensation, which take
the place of the wires in the telephone,
and thus it is one 'hears." If the
drum Is broken. or too thickened to
vibrate readily, or if any other essen
tial parts are defective, the person is
deaf. His telephone is ''busted," so to
speak.
To return to the deaf mutes of the |
future, it may be said that they will be
worse off than the speechless cave
men of old. since the latter could at |
any rate hear. Taking broad view
Of the case, one can hardly deny that |
the prospect ahead of the civilized |
person who has the ill luck to live |
1900 years hence is far from pleas
ant He is likely to be deaf and
dumb, will doubtless be entirely |
bald-headed, and only the most pow
erful concave lenses will give sight to
his myopic eyes. OF teeth he is apt to
have few or none, since those useful
instruments are being supplied to each
succeeding generation of poorer ma
terial by the arch-cOntractor, Nature,
and much below the grade the original
specifications attached to the human
plan called for. So the dental sur
geons say. at least About that time all
the available coal in the world will have
been completely given out and there will
be nothing left for the inhabitants to
do but to huddle around the equator
until the final freeze-out. This is not
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