The hygiene of the throat and ear : a popular guide to the causes, prevention, and curability of their diseases / by Gordon Holmes.

  • Holmes, Gordon (William Gordon), 1845-
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hygiene of the throat and ear : a popular guide to the causes, prevention, and curability of their diseases / by Gordon Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    81/96 (page 69)
    TlUC TIlllOAT ANn EAIl. and may be oiumcratcd as follows:—(1) lieariuy i)copl(i havo more or loss of an objection to deaf-mutes; (2) deaf-mutes are usually educated and maintained apart in special schools, insti- tutions, etc., and tiius seldom meet persons except of tlieir own kind; (3) understanding usually only gesture language, they can have little or no friendly intercourse with hearing people ; (4) for tliese reasons also families containing deaf-mutes are likely to become known to each other through the tendency of such members to be acc]uainted and to associate. The means for preocntion of the methodical increase of this class for deaf-mutes are hence very plain: (1) Let them be distributed through, and brought up as far as possible with the cliildren of ortlinary schools ; and (2) let them be taught to imderstand Iiearing people by lip-reading, and to converse with them in oral language. Ey the universal application of these remedies, then, the tendency to the hereditary production of deaf-mutes would be reduced to a minimum.* b. Those who are Isorn deaf in families previously not distinguished for the production of such offspring, derive theii- malformation from some constitutional vice or defect of their parents. Scrofula is the most active agent in engendering such cases. But there is another potent cause in parents who may be individually healthy, but who in conjunction are practically of defective constitution, viz., consanguinity. Thus, statistics again show that in deaf-mutes of this class, 1 in 10 is the offspring of marriage between cousins. Here also, therefore, the causes being to a great extent known, there is a clear indi- cation for the prevention of deaf-mutism. We have now to speak of persons who form a third species of deaf-mutes, those, namely, who have become deaf by disease within the first few years of life. Tliis variety constitutes * In connection with these remarks see the Athenaiuna, January 3, 1885, for an account of Professor Graham Bell's IMemoir on the Forma- tion of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race.