Their management is entirely committed to females, and the hours of school, of recreation, and of sleep are regulated to accord with their tender years. Nowhere are they associated with the pupils of more advanced age, until they are prepared to be transferred to the upper school.

About fifty of these little ones, from four to ten years of age, are here gathered, and are undoubtedly being prepared for much greater progress in intellectual culture than those who remain at home until the age at which it is customary to commence the education of deaf-mutes whose term of study is to be limited to five or six years.

In the upper school the pupils remain until they are sixteen years of age; hence a child who enters the infant department at five has eleven years of special instruction, and will undoubtedly be, cæteris paribus, much in advance of one who has only the advantage of being in school from its tenth to its sixteenth year.

That it is wise in all cases to remove the mute child so early from the associations of home I do not feel prepared to say, but a few years will suffice to determine from the results of this school, as well as of that in Massachusetts already referred to, whether a general system of infant schools for the deaf and dumb should be put in operation.

Of one thing in this connection there can be no doubt, namely, that a child born deaf labors under peculiar and great disabilities in acquiring an education. In view of this fact, common justice, not to speak of the appeal made to our sympathies by the affecting condition of the mute, would seem to demand that a period of tuition equally extended with that afforded to his more favored fellows, should be accorded to the deaf and dumb.

That such a length of time is secured for the mute when he is limited to five or six years for the acquirement of a new and complicated language, and for all the education he is ever to receive wherein he may have the assistance of competent teachers, no one will, I think, undertake to claim.

THE INSTITUTION AT LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.

In the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three, a gentleman of the name of Comer became interested in the deaf and dumb in reading a work on “the art of instructing the infant deaf and dumb, by John P. Arrowsmith," published in London in eighteen hundred and nineteen.

The author, who had a deaf brother, advocated the teaching of mutes in ordinary schools, and Mr. Comer undertook to put his theories in practice in Liverpool.

The attempt failed, as similar attempts put forth by visionary theorists on the continent of Europe in later years have done, but the result of Comer's efforts was the establishment in eighteen hundred and twenty-five, in Liverpool, of the institution now existing in that city, ably conducted by David Buxton, F. R. S. L., and in which I spent two days while in England.

The number of pupils in this institution is eighty-five, twenty of whom are day scholars, being residents of the city of Liverpool.

The idea having been suggested in our own country that a system of day schools for deaf-mutes would be productive of better results than the existing arrangement of boarding the pupils in the institution, I was interested to inquire of Mr. Buxton as to the operation of the law in his school admitting day scholars. He expressed an opinion decidedly unfavorable to the plan, saying that the day scholars made less progress than the others, and at the same time were much more difficult to govern, bringing with them, from their frequent contact with the streets of the city, much that was objectionable and oftentimes immoral.

In regard to the subject of articulation, the opinions of Mr. Buxton are enti

tled to be weighed very carefully, he having had several years' actual experience in this branch of instruction in the London school, (where it was formerly accorded a very important place in the course of study,) besides a long intimacy with deaf-mutes in his present position.

In his judgment, when pupils can be retained eight or nine years in school, and when funds suffice for the employment of a teacher for each ten or twelve, it is well to make considerable effort in the teaching of articulation, attempting it with all; but when the period of their residence in an institution is limited to five or six years, the time can be much more advantageously occupied in perfecting instruction in written language and the elements of general knowledge. Articulation was formerly taught in the Liverpool school to a greater extent than at present.

Now only the semi-deaf and the semi-mute are instructed in artificial speech and lip-reading.

Mr. Buxton mentioned that many cases had arisen in his experience where parents of his pupils particularly requested that their children should not be taught articulation.

The reason for this is found in the fact that the artificially acquired utterances of the deaf are generally monotonous and often times disagreeable; so unpleas ant, evidently, in certain cases as to lead parents of uneducated mutes to express the desire above referred to.

Mr. Buxton kindly presented me with copies of his interesting and valuable essays on the instruction of the deaf and dumb, and related topics to which I shall have occasion to refer hereafter.

THE INSTITUTION AT GLASGOW, SCOTLAND.

Knowing that the principal of this institution, Mr. Duncan Anderson, had in former years given much attention to the subject of articulation, and had prepared a valuable manual for use in this branch of deaf-mute instruction, I deemed myself fortunate in being able to spend a day in his society.

In a long and full conversation on the subject, he gave me an account of his early labors in imparting the power of speech to the deaf, stating that he had often succeeded even with congenital mutes; but the experience of nearly half a century of personal deaf-mute instruction had led him to abandon all efforts at articulation, save with those to whom I have applied the terms semi-deaf and semi-mute. The reasons for this course are clearly and forcibly stated in the following extracts from a letter written by Mr. Anderson in reply to a gentleman who had a short time before sought his views on the same subject:

"Articulation was at one time taught in this institution to such of the pupils as had suitable voice; but the practice has for many years been discontinued. The proportion of pupils who were taught articulation never exceeded ten per cent. of the whole number in the institution. The practice of teaching articulation was given up in consequence of the undue time and labor it entailed, and which could be more profitably employed in cultivating the intellect of the pupils. Although, as a general rule, I would discourage the teaching of articulation in the case of all children who have been born deaf, I am disposed to make an exception in favor of those who have become deaf in early life, some of whom, in this institution, have learnt to speak distinctly, and to understand expressions from the lips of others than their teachers. On looking back upon an experience of forty-one years as a teacher of the deaf and dumb, I am free to confess that the few successful instances of articulation by deaf-mutes which I have witnessed in this and other countries were very inadequate to the time and pains bestowed upon them."

I was much interested in examining a fine new building, now nearly completed, located in the suburbs of Glasgow, intended for the occupancy of this institu

tion. The internal arrangements were designed by Mr. Anderson, and meet in a most complete manner the wants of his establishment, while the external design bears a striking resemblance, in style and finish, to the plans you have adopted for the central or chapel building of our institution.

I was able to note many valuable suggestions that may assist us in the extension of our buildings, but I will not occupy time or space in their description here.

The system of instruction in the Glasgow school is similar to that of the English schools, and does not, differ essentially from that pursued in America. From Mr. Anderson I received donations of valuable books and pictures most useful in the school-room, besides one or two rare old works for our library, for all which he has our sincere thanks.

THE INSTITUTION AT BELFAST, IRELAND.

In this establishment the blind and deaf are associated in one building, as was formerly the case in our institution. The opinion of the principal, Rev. John Kinghan, is, however, that no advantage is derived from the union of the two classes in one institution; on the contrary, he would much prefer, did the funds of the society suffice, to separate the blind from the deaf.

Mr. Kinghan is as decided in his testimony against articulation as any instructor I have met in the United Kingdom. He deems it, to use his own words, "worse than useless in a vast majority of cases," including the semi-deaf and semi-mute.

In this institution the single hand alphabet is decidedly gaining ascendency over the double, and is alone published in the reports. Of these Mr. Kinghan furnished me a nearly complete file, some of which contain valuable statistics relating to the deaf and dumb of Ireland, and others furnishing interesting accounts of the success in life of graduates of the institution.

THE INSTITUTIONS AT DUBLIN, IRELAND.

This city contains two large establishments for the instruction of the deaf and dumb; one sustained by the National Association for the education of the deaf and dumb children of the poor in Ireland, established in 1816, originally designed to meet the wants of the whole country, and receiving children irrespective of their religious faith

But in 1846 a "Society for Founding and Maintaining the Catholic Institution for the Deaf and Dumb" was organized, and directly opened a school, which has since become large and flourishing. I was able to pay but a short visit to. each of these institutions-the one under the direction of Mr. Edward J. Chidley, formerly an instructor in the London Asylum; the other superintended by Rev. Patrick D. McDonnell, a member of the Society of Christian Brothers.

The testimony at both these places was decided against articulation, though in the Catholic institution it was negative rather than positive, articulation never having been attempted there.

Mr. Chidley, however, had taught articulation, and had arrived at substantially the same conclusion as those teachers whose opinions I have already cited in this report.

In the Catholic institution a modification of the French manual alphabet has been used from the beginning, the double having never found its way into the school.

THE INSTITUTION AT GENEVA, SWITZERLAND.

I found a small school at this place, under the direction of Mr. Isaac Chomel, a deaf mute, who was a contemporary of the venerable Laurent Clerc in the Paris institution. The number of pupils is sixteen, and the system pursued is similar to that of Paris many years ago. Mr. Chomel thought articulation was

of no advantage whatever to the deaf and dumb, and said many graduates of articulating schools had applied to him for instruction in the manual alphabet, deeming its acquisition of more practical benefit to them than all they had been able to master of artificial speech and lip-reading..

After my departure from Geneva, I learned that a school recently established on the "artificial" basis was in operation there, but could not return to examine it. Having completed the description of those institutions which may properly be said to base their course of instruction on the natural method, I am constrained, before proceeding to the next class, to speak of a school founded, and for many years conducted, by a gentleman of considerable ability, whose ideas and practices are so unique as to prevent the classification of his establishment under either of the three titles I have chosen. Doing little with articulation, and yet questioning the unlimited use of the sign language by and with the deaf-mutes,

THE INSTITUTION AT NANCY, FRANCE,

Under the lead of its director, M. Piroux, stands as the exponent of a system of dactylology, the success of which, I regret to say, I was unable to test by practical observation, the summer vacation having scattered the pupils but two days before my arrival.

In a long conversation, M. Piroux unfolded to me his views, arguing forcibly that, while all available means are admissible in the instruction of deaf-mutes, the true centre-vertebra, hinge, the marrow, essence, and sap-is dactylology; that in this we have a means of communication with the instructed deaf and dumb embodying a greater proportion of the desirable elements of precision, perspicuity, comprehensiveness, and rapidity, than in any other medium as yet discovered.

M. Piroux has written much on the subject under examination in this report, and kindly presented me with copies of his works. From one of them I quote a few extracts as giving an interesting analysis of certain processes entering into the work of deaf-mute instruction:

"As if man were speech and nothing but speech, as if without hearing any of the sounds that set the human heart vibrating, he could give utterance to his ideas in sound, attempts were made; in the first instance, to bestow speech on deaf-mutes, or rather to give them a spoken language, whose artificial mechanism was, from want of unity, incapable of expressing thought and sentiment. In this respect the fact is that, for deaf mutes, spoken language will never be more than a simple accessory, interdicted even to the majority. Too much draped from view, it cannot serve as a basis for their instruction, still less for their education. Its utmost value is that of an amusement for the drawing-room. Let us, nevertheless, admit that it was necessary to make first attempts in this direction when endeavoring to remedy an infirmity which all ages had pronounced

incurable.

"Though man has never been defined an animal that writes, the next attempt was to begin with teaching the deaf-mute written language, the immediate portraiture of speech and the mediate painting of thought. Since the eye sees it and the hand traces it, why, it was asked, should it not serve also as the picture of signs which, in the case of deaf-mutes, engage the same organs? Far from feeling terror at the distance which separates the two languages constructed, one for civilized societies, the other for individuals whose minds cannot see but in the full blaze of noonday, certain people assumed the part of deaf-mutes and assimilated to their own natures that confused mass of movements executed in all possible directions, giving nought but the color of instinct to the surface of things tangible and spiritual. These worthies even went so far as to maintain that there is no

Examen Comparatif de Toutes les Méthodes Inventées pour l'Instruction des Sourds Muets: Nancy, 1862.

more connection between thought and speech than between thought and writing, nor yet more than between thought and some signs which but too much resemble the weeds of uncultivated grounds.

"Nevertheless it was by the aid of these signs that attempts were made to teach deaf mutes to read or translate our language. To facilitate the desired success, letters, words, and sentences which were or were not represented with the manual alphabet were traced and copied.

"For much too long a period of time we bartered methodical signs for words. But by dint of living together out of doors and in class, the pupils and masters gradually created signs which, ceasing to be absolutely individual or accidental, became common or essential, and which served to regulate relations, maintain order, and even furnished a vehicle for connected discourse. This was the source of one of the earliest serious improvements effected in the instruction of the deaf and dumb. It might be said that intellectual life was beginning to free itself from physical life by the omnipotence of organized society, and by means of a language passing progressively from the natural to the positive state."

The writer then goes on to unfold his peculiar views in regard to dactylology; but the limits I assign myself in this report will not allow of further citations from his works. I am inclined, however, to attach importance to his sugges tions with reference to the great use of the manual alphabet, and to commend his writings to the perusal of all interested in deaf-mutes and their instruction.

CLASS II.

Of institutions in which the artificial method forms the basis of instruction, and where the use of signs, save to a most limited degree, is condemned as hurtful to the deaf and dumb, I have seen one each, in the countries of France, Austria, Saxony, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, and the cities of Frankfort and Lubeck.

THE INSTITUTION AT SAINT HYPOLITE DU-FORT, FRANCE.

This, the only institution exclusively for protestants in France, is located in the department of the Gard, in an ancient town, formerly a stronghold of the non-conformists in times of religious persecution.

I found the school comparatively small in numbers, having only forty-five pupils, and was led to travel many miles out of my way by diligence to visit it, mainly from the fact that it alone of the many deaf-mute institutions in France pursues the artificial method. Here the manual alphabet is unknown by the pupils; articulation is taught to all, and is attempted to be made the medium of communication between pupils and teachers after the first two or three years of instruction.

The director, M. Martin, and his wife, both of whom engage in teaching, afforded me every facility for the examination of their pupils, and were by no means extreme in their views. They admitted that schools conducted on the natural method had done a great work, and were even willing to allow that as a means of affording instruction, this method is superior to the artificial; but they held to the view that the power of communicating freely in speech with their fellowmen, which was acquired by mutes under the latter system, was so great a boon as to justify a lower standard in the intellectual training of the deaf and dumb. Later in my conversation with them, they admitted that only about one-half of the deaf and dumb could fairly be said to succeed in articulation, but I forbore to draw, in their presence, the conclusions which this concession involves.

I conversed orally with the pupils, and with the best articulators had little difficulty in making myself understood. The utterances of some were to me unintelligible, but those of others very distinct; and I remember that one in particular, who was said to have been born deaf, spoke well, and read from my lips with ease.