The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-10

the blind whose parents were so rela- ted twenty-five per cent. were congen- itally blind, while among the blind whose parents were not cousins. the proportions congenitally blind was Snly s.s per cent.
 Occupations.
 Or the blind at least ten years of age. twenty. per cent were engaged in some gainful occupation. as com pared with 5o.2 per cent. among the general population. The partially blind. as would be expected, show larger proportion gainfully employed than do the totally blind. The per c. ntase ~ persons engaged in profes- sionai pursuits, trade and transporta- ton, and In manufacturing and me chanical industries Is larger among the totally blind than among the general population. In these three classes ot occupations the totally blind show higher percentage engaged than do the partially blind. Of the partially blind gainfully employedr the majority were engaged in agricultural pursuits, the percentage SO engaged being consid- erably higher than In the general pop ulation.
 The Deaf.
 The report on the deaf gives not only the date concerning color, sex, race, nativity, marital condition, school attendance, and occupations, but also much information in regard to deaf ness as a defect and to the ability or the deaf to communicate.
 In collecting the figures for this report the census enuuf<rators were Instructed to return tho name, sex age. and post office address of every person who could not understand loud- ly shouted conversation. The object .f .tr .l~a~ f,f eliminate from tho report all who were simply hard of hearing By correspondence with the persons re- turned by the enumerators and with the special schools for the deaf. It was discovered that many had been erroneously classified as deaf All though some of these cases were eiim- mated. 1t seemed best to Include those who wrote that, in spite of the emu merator's statement to the contrary, they could hear loudly shouted con versation, because in such eases the defect in hearing undoubtedly ap- preached closely total deafness. Such persons have been, classified separate iy as the partially deaf" class which includes by no means all the partially deaf in the United States. as every effort was made to eliminate those who were merely ''hard of hear ing"
 One iu Every $50 Persons Deaf.
 According to this method of classi- fication. the total number of deaf was finally determined to be Ss.2s7. or one in every $50 of the general popula ton. There were 3T.a2e totally deaf and 51.se1 partially deaf. Among the total number of deaf 2.Ti2 were also blind and 24.s69 dumb
 How these figures compare with those obtained at earlier censuses IS a dificult question to determine. as the method of collecting and classifying the statistics has been so frequently changed that the results are not per- fectlv comparable. Tn the census of 1890 the whole number of deaf per sons returned was i21.17s or 1885 per million of population; whereas the present census the whole number was Se,287. or 1,i75 per million of popula- tion Probably no accurate conciu- sions regarding the comparative pre- valence of deafness can be drawn from these figures. as the returns for 1890 are undoubtedly excessive while those of 1900 are deficient.
 Deafness upon the whole is more common in the northern part of the United States than in the southern. The North Atlantic and North Central divisions show q larger ratio per million than the South Atlantic and
  tio of all is found in the New Eng land States
 More Deaf Males Than Females.
 Of the total number of deaf, 46,S15. or 52. s. per cent, were males, and 42.- S72, or 47.5 per cent, were females. Since in the general population only b11 per cent were males and AS. 9 per cent were females, 1t would seem 1 that there is some truth in the hy- l pothesis that males are more exposed | to accidents than females. or more l susceptible to the diseases which pro- | duce deafness.
 l Negroes constitute 11.6 per cent of | the general population and only 5. 2 l uer cent of the deaf That the negro ] the whites is probably due in part l to less complete returns from the ne- l gro deaf. The proportion of negroes 1 Is larger among those becoming deai l in childhood and also among the to- | tally deaf than 1t Is in the aggregate deaf population.
 l The age when deafness occurred is l definitely stated for S1 ,590 persons and of these 5e per cent became deal l before the age of 20 years. AS per cent 1 before tho age of 10 years, 40 per cent ! before the age of 5 years. and IS pei cent were born deaf.
 of the totally deaf. s1 per cent were l so from ehtldnoOd tunder ZU years ol | age), and 3s per cent from birth. Nor than one-half of the totally deaf lost all power of hearing before they were 2 years old.
 Of the partially deaf about one- | third became deaf before they wer, | 20 years old, one-third between 2( and 70. and one-third after reaching
 70.
 Ability t0 Speak.
 of the s9.2s7 persons returned al deaf. 55.501 were able to speak well l 9,417 were able to speak imperfectly and 24,369 could not speak at all Practically all of those who speak imperfectly or not at all lost theiI hearing in childhood (under 20 years of age) On the other hand the ma jcrity of deaf who speak we'll lost their hearing in adult life Of the deaf and dumb, more than 96 per cent I were reported as totally deaf It will | thus be seen that the ability to speak is dependent largely upon two factors --the period of life when deafness oc- | cured and the degree of deafness. Deafness interferes rather with the | acquisition of speech than with It's | retention after 1t has once been ac-