The book of deaf-mute signs & two alphabets.

Date:
[1900?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of deaf-mute signs & two alphabets. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/8 page 3
    INTERESTING FACTS. We notice two deaf persons in the street, talking eagerly in the sign and finger language. We think at first they are quarrelling; a little observa¬ tion convinces us that they are on the most friendly terms. We go our way thoughtful. What does this deafness mean ? Fancy life without audible speech, life without music, life without any of the ex¬ pressive noises that make it pregnant with meaning. Imagine the stillness of dead night prolonged into the liv¬ ing day—motion, everywhere motion, but not a breath of sound. This is deafness in its totality ; this is what deafness means. The marriage of relatives is one cause of deafness. The propor¬ tion of born deaf among Jews is four times that among Christians. A Paris doctor has been preparing statistics in regard to sex in deafness. Out of 3,000 cases which have come under his notice he finds that the male sex is more subject to ear diseases than the female, there having been 1,790 of the former to 1,120 of the latter. Among those in whom only one ear was affected there were 478 men and 311 women. Deafness was equal on both sides in 238 men and 162 women. Hartmann thinks the born deaf about equal in number to the accidentally deaf; E. Schmaiz gives 68 of the former to every 32 of the latter. The number of the latter, however, must decrease as medical science advances. Scarlet fever is a common cause of deaf¬ ness ; but this unhappy effect is commonly due to unskilful treatment. Parents and teachers should very dangerous. Lovers, too, one’s ears; a young lady not box the ears of children : it is should beware of kissing the dear was rendered deaf in one ear by a kiss rupturing the drum. The habitual use of pungent odours, such as smelling salts, should also be avoided. They weaken the olfactory nerves, which are in close sympathy with the auditory sysb Diseases of the nerves, the brain and ears, an nose; shocks, fits, damp, are among the other caus r 'w the tlf'WRi^RY f deafuess;1-' Gc neral Collections F —..-.a— 1 TW «T-rj ^ 95?
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