Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-04-18
7eeAR6sAoee or s0EAF-NUTES

4naARRsAoEno OF 0EAF.MUTES
wm Our Desoendants he Deaf Danh.
/ Bald, Blind and coothlsss
What may be called the .Deaf-Mute
Problem" is giving considerable a&itA-
ton just at present to the scientific
mind in New England And no wonder
since it has been recently shown thai
during the last thirty years. while tha
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
larly afiicted. The latter marry
among themselves in turn. prod ucing
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 tive
with which the animal man is designed
by nature to be equipped ds se sIapsa
The first recorded fntermarriage OF
deaf-mntes in America was that OF q
Massachusetts couple in 1919. From
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 go 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 mournfulia
state of affairs should have been
brought about by one of the most bene-
kindness and charitya SHa - '7a
Until within quite a few years deaf
mutes were kept so entirely secluded,
by reason of their help1essness, that
marriages among them were unknown.
But at length benevolent science ex-
tended a friendly hand, taught them a
languages 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
lily 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
speechless victims? $40 g.
1t is interesting to observe that the
telephone is merely a sort of copy of
the human ear, and works on the same
general principles. Prof. Bells in
strument has a diaphragm. like the
drum of the ear, in contact with which
is a 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. ta1a sa @-G eltae
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 i'll luck to live |
8, 900 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 ms
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 1
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 |
q pessimistic view. It is simply in |
tended to show how fortunate any one 1
should consider himself to |
be that he is born in the nineteenth
century. when people can stillghear,
and see, and talk, and chew, and es.
cape the necessity of wearing wig
Boston Cor Chicago Tribune. ey
u Truth About the Mind-Cure.
Now, in view of what has been done
in curing disease by the aid of mental |
Al