Tenth annual report of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, for the year ending June 30, 1867.
- Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (Washington, D.C.)
- Date:
- 1867
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Tenth annual report of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, for the year ending June 30, 1867. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![THE ARTIFICIAL AIETHOD REVIEWED. In no school have I found the theory on which this method was originally based maintained at the present time. Three teachers only, of all with whom I have consulted, claim success in arti- ficial speech as attainable to the mass of deaf-mutes; and these, admitting that experience has not yet sustained their view, ascribe the failure to the want of talent, patience, and industry on the part of instructors, thus assuming to sit in judg- ment on the great body of German teachers whose zeal, ability, and infinite good temper have received the applause of even their most decided opponents. But a single instructor, Mr. Hirsch, of the scores whose opinions I have sought, assumes to be able in the instruction of deaf-mutes to dispense with the language of signs. I have already quoted him as saying in a public address : “The act of seeing or comprehending and of speaking must he the exclusive principle of instruction, and neither the palpable alphabet nor the language of signs can have any connection with it.” And yet his utter inconsistency with himself is exhibited in the very next paragraph, where he says : “It is true that the language of natural signs is the first means employed by the teacher to enter into relations with the pupils;” adding the very indefinite statement, “ but he does not make use of it for any length of time, and it is abandoned as soon as it can he superseded hy speech. (The underscoring is mine.) How soon this supersession of signs by speech is possible with a considerable portion of the deaf and dumb may be gathered by a perusal of the following extracts from the valuable work of Canon de Haerne, to which I have already referred : “ In order to have a clear conception of the course at present pursued in the German institutions, it is important to study at the outset what has been ad- vanced on the subject in conferences of teachers of deaf-mutes, especially in those at Winnenden, in Wurtemburg, in 1855, and at Zurich, in Switzerland, in 1857, as well as in the two conferences held at Esslingen, in Wurtembure:, in 1846 and 1864. “ The principle of articulation, as the basis of instruction of deaf-mutes, was admitted in these conferences, at which the most distinguished teachers of Ger- many and Switzerland were present. At these conferences the speakers gave expression to most interesting considerations, setting forth the fundamental idea of the German school, and making known the special methods appertaining to it. In the third sitting of the first conference, that of Winnenden, the following question was discussed : What are the necessary measures to be adopted in the case of deaf-mutes, inapt at articulation but capable of general instruction ] M. Wagner, director of the institution at Gmund, proposed to place them in a special class ; and M. Stucki, inspector of the canton of Berne, declaring that these pupils are not always the weakest in point of intelligence, warmly supported the motion. The assembly consequently pronounced in favor of “ the erection of special divisions for the reception of children capable of instruction but unable to learn articulation, in order to be there trained, as much as possible, by signs and wi'itten language, to lip-reading and manual labor. M. Henne, of Gmund, who was present at the conference, has developed, in the Orpn of the Deaf and Dumb Institutions of Germany, the thought that had inspired this resolution, having first submitted his writings to the judgment of other teachers equally competent. He refers to four headings, the causes of the incapacity of certain deaf-mutes for articulation. Either, says he, the deaf-mute’s weakness of intel- lect is such that the vocal organs which have remained inactive refuse to per- form the exercises necessary to enunciation ; or these organs are so defective m a child otherwise capable, that we must foresee that it can never attain that clearness of pronunciation which is indispensable in oral communications with](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22345772_0054.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
