The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-09

SOME OF THE CAUSES GIVEN
EXCELLENT WORK DONE IN THE
SCHOOLS.

Washington, July S-About one person
in every 1900 was blind, and one in every
$50 persons was deaf in the United States
in 1900 according to a special census re-
port on the blind and deaf bulletin just
Issued by the census bureau. The inquiry
was conducted under the direction of DR.
Alexander Graham Bell, who determined
the scope of the investigation and wrote
the text OF the report on the deaf.
The total number of blind in the United
States in 1900 was 64.763, of whom $500
were totally blind and 29,11S partially
blind.
These figures. however, the report says,
cannot be only considered as the min
imum, as an unknown proportion of the
blind were not located by the enumerat-
ors. OF the total blind S7,054 were males
and 21709 females. The blindness Is
chiefly a defect of adult life, almost s.
per cent of the blind becoming so after
20 years of age. About one-tenth of the
total number of blind were born so. The
number of blind per 1900 OF population
among the whites, and greater among the
foreign7born whites than among the ma
tive whites.
Parents Were Cousins.
In about per cent of the cases of
blind were cousins. OF the blind whose
parents who were so related % per cent
were congenitally blind, while among the
blind whose parents were not cousins the
proportion congenitally blind was 6S per
cent. OF the blind 10 per cent were en-
gagged in some gainful occupation.
The percentage of persons engaged in
professional pursuits, trade and trans
portation, and in manufacturing and me-
ehanieal industries, are larger among the
totally blind than among the general
population.
Deafness, Common in the North.
Deafness on the whole, the report SAYS,
is more common in the northern part of
the United States than in the southern,
and there are more deaf males than fe-
males. Total number of deaf in the
United States is given as $3.50 of whom
81. 426 were totally deaf and 81, Sol partially
deaf. From the latter classes are elm
mated those merely hard of hearing"
The census report of 1890 gave the num-
Der of persons as deaf as 121,17S, and the
opinion is accepted that the returns of
1890 are undoubtedly excessive, while
those OF 1900 are deficient. OF the totally
deaf SO per cent were males. Negroes
constitute 11.6 per cent of the general
population and only SO per cent of the
deaf. That the negroes seem less SuS-
ceptible to deafness than the whites, the
report says, is particularly due in part
TO less complete reports from the negro
deaf
Schools Doing Good Work.
OF the totally deaf 81 per cent were so
from childhood (under 20 years of age).
and So per cent from birth OF the 80. 92S
persons returned as deaf 55,501 were able
10 speak well, 9,417 imperfectly, and the
remainder not at all The report presents
figures to show that the schools for the
deaf are doing excellent work in teach
ing articulate speech. When the subject
of deafness is considered from the point
of view of consequently, it would seem
heredity has played an important part in
producing -congenital deafness OF these
$50 Per cent were gainfully employed, as
compared with 500 per cent among the
male population. OF the deaf who were
ganfully employed S97 per cent were
found in occupations in which perfect or
even partial hearing is not essential.