NO MORE DEAF MUTES

Evening Star, Issue 19062, 3 October 1925, Page 23

NO MORE DEAF MUTES

Heaf mutes are extremely common. In France alone there are 35,000 cases. In the United States. Graham 8011, who invented the telephone in the hope of enabling his deaf-mute wife to hear, estimated their number at_ more than 90,000. In general, there is one deaf mute for 1,000 persons, and consequently more tnan a million now living. The deaf mute is not diseased or mentally weak. He is a normal person whose mental faculties are as well developed as ours. He is dumb because he cannot hear; ho does not know how to use his organs of speech, nor to imitate the vocal sounds of those who speak to him. Numerous observers, using various artifices, have succeeded in making deaf-mutes talk (writes Paul Becquevel, in ‘ Les Nouvelles Litteraires,’ Paris), but it was not until the eighteenth century that a general method of instruction, both rational and effccive, was devised. According to this method, by reading tho_ formation of words on the lips, it is possible to “ hear with the eyes,” and with practice to imitate those formations and so pronounce words. To-day the oral method of ” demutisation ” is wonderfully perfected. Throughout the world 4,000 instructors are teaching it to more than 35.000 deaf-mute pupils. To this method lias now boon added that of kinematograph projection discovered bv Maroy. The first chrono-photopraph of speech was taken in 1891 by Marichelle. The kinema has thus become one of the most valuable aids in instruction. Thanks to it, geography, history, the natural sciences, and knowledge in general are acquired with astonishing facility. To complete their education and give them the means of earning a living, deaf-mutes are taught a manual trade or a liberal profession, according to tlieir aptitude,

Science demands more. To eradicate this evil it must be attacked at its root. What is it that causes deafmutism? It is due to lesions, produced at birth or in early infancy, which have their seat in the ear near the labyrinths and acoustic passages. According to an investigation made by M. de Parrell of the most carefully recorded cases, wc find tjiat twp-ilurds are due to microbian diseases that attack the new-born infant. Hereditary syphilis is responsible for 25 per cent., cerobro-spinal meningitis for 20 per cent., otitis and pharyngitis of the nursing child for 12 per cent., after effects of scarlatina, typhoid, roseola, and grippe for 11 per cent. The remaining third is due to various causes, of which consanguinity and familial deafness account for 15 per cent., and injuries, tumors, and indeterminate accidents for 17 per cent. In the light of those facts we may forsee our racial future with confidence. The methodical organisation of hygiene and of social prophylaxis being perfected, cases of dear-mutism will become rarer, and science will some day,_ let us hope, finally conquer this evil that she has already so greatly alleviated.”