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.

    52/324 (page 40)
    These remarks plainly express the author's opinion that unfavourable social and hygienic conditions are of importance as remote causes of both congenital and acquired deafness which leads to deaf-mutism. We cannot at present decide which of the two forms is most affected by these causes, as none of the in- vestigations which treat of the subject distinguish between acquired and congenital deafness. It may be mentioned in connection with the above, that Wilde found deaf-mutism to be more common in Ireland among the rural than among the urban population [72, p. 474]. Later authors have come to the same conclusion, but a satisfactory explana- tion has not been discovered.* There is, however, reason to doubt the correctness of this apparently well-founded supposition. All the statistics which serve as a basis for this hypothesis have calculated the relation of the deaf-mute popula- tion to the population living in the towns and rural districts. It is, however, an accepted fact that in most countries there is a strong tendency in the population to emigrate from the rural districts to the towns, and especially to the large towns. The con- sequence is that the deaf-mute rate is put at too high a figure when the deaf-mutes born in the rural districts are calculated in relation to the existing population, viz., the population remaining in the rural districts. On the other hand, the urban deaf- mute rate will be too low if it is calculated according * Schmaltz endeavours to explain the circumstance by the greater ease with which medical aid is obtained in towns than in rural districts, the conse- quence being that ear-disease and epidemic disease do not injure the organs of town children as much as those of country children [i6i, p. 71].