Deafness practically illustrated / [James Yearsley].

  • James Yearsley
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Deafness practically illustrated / [James Yearsley]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    those which are sufficiently audible when the attention is active. Thus persons who give way to this easily acquired habit are often asked a question several times over, which they hear perfectly from the first, or might have heard if they pleased, without returning any answer, so that many really deaf persons are thought to be merely sluggish, rude, or idle, and are thus ac- cused of inattention when they really do not hear; because, ordinarily, persons are quite unable to distin- guish between the obtuseness of attention and the real obtuseness of hearing which often accompanies and produces it. A deaf person should never suffer himself to lapse into inattention because of his inability to hear every word which may be uttered around him. It is much better to lose a few words, and misapprehend the mean- ing of others, than to give up the whole either from idleness or in despair. It has often been said that deaf- ness is favourable to profound thought and meditation; and that deaf people generally think more deeply than others, on account of their infirmity. Without doubt, when the sense of hearing is enfeebled or extinguished, the power of thought does “shine inward and illumine” in an increased degree; but the deaf should neverthe- less be especially cautious how they suffer themselves to sink into a state of abstraction, and, above all, should avoid the tendency to reverise in society. Many deaf persons, when passing through the streets, labour to shut out the sounds as much as possible, imagining that thereby they encourage reflection, but I do not hesitate to say that such a habit is highly injurious to the failing sense. ‘They should rather try to catch the natural sounds of everything, instead of blunting them-
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