Diseases and injuries of the ear / by Wm. B. Dalby.

  • William Bartlett Dalby
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases and injuries of the ear / by Wm. B. Dalby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    310/352 (page 274)
    In the early part of the education this method, undoubtedly, is more slow than the other in the faci- lity which it gives for conversing, either by the child or to the child; but this, I submit, ought to possess very little weight when compared with the results attained at the end of the course of instruction. The condition that the child is placed in with re- gard to its importance as a member of society when it leaves school, and the careers of usefulness that are then open to it, should, to my mind, be the chief points which ought to be kept in view when compar- ing the respective merits of the two systems. Of what importance is it if, at ten years of age, a child can talk well with its fellows —well with those who have learned its language —if, at fifteen years it still only possesses the power of communication with a few, while its companion (brother or sister, it maybe) of the same age, who has been taught on the other plan, converses by means of and understands the language of the many ? Looked at in this light, the position of the two children hardly admits of com- parison. With regard to the ultimate chances of success with any child of ordinary intellectual powers, M. Saegert, the Inspector-General of the Education of Deaf Mutes in Prussia, in his report of 1856, says, c Ninety-nine per cent, of deaf mutes have the organs of speech normal; they will speak if they have good sight and touch; the greater or less probability of success depends solely (uniquement) on the greater or less capacity of the master/ When this was written, in 1871, the oral method