Deaf-mutism / by Holger Mygind.

  • Mygind Holger, 1855-1928.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Deaf-mutism / by Holger Mygind. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    p. 25]. In Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Lemcke found that in 405 marriages in which deaf-mute children were produced, 32 of the parents (in each case the male) were addicted to drink, i.e., 8 per cent, of all the cases [210, p. 127], and with the same frequency among the parents of congenital deaf-mutes as in those of deaf-mutes with acquired deafness. This rate closely resembles that found for the 514 marriages in which the 553 Danish deaf-mutes were born, there being 49 cases, i.e., 9-5 per cent., in which the parents were addicted to drink (in almost all instances the father). In Denmark, the frequency with which alco- hoHsm was found varied slightly for the parents of congenital deaf-mutes and those with acquired deaf- ness, the rates being respectively ii-i and 87. Although the abuse of alcohol is extremely com- mon, and although we have no information as to its frequency on the whole, still the reports from Meck- lenburg-Schwerin and Denmark seem to indicate that alcohoHsm in the parents plays some part in the etiology of deaf-mutism. It is at present impossible to form any accurate opinion as to whether alcoholism makes itself felt by weakening the parents' consti- tution or whether it is an expression of a nervous disposition. Theoretical considerations are most in favour of the latter supposition—it was, at least, not possible to prove, by investigations undertaken in a certain part of Denmark, any particular frequency of any abnormality in the children of parents addicted to the abuse of alcohol. It may be mentioned in connection with the above that conception in an intoxicated state has been supposed to play some part among the remote causes
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