THE INGENUITY OF THE AFFLICTED.

Otago Witness, Issue 953, 25 April 1889, Page 32

THE INGENUITY OF THE AFFLICTED.

Few examples of human ingenuity are | more interesting than the devices which have been emploj ed by cripples to enable them to pursue some calling, and there are few subjects more interesting and curious than the means by which the deaf have heard what j was passing around them, and the dumb ; have made themselves understood. Passing over the well-known case of Miss Biffin, who, though born without hands or arms, attained considerable eminence as a | miniature painter, it may be noted that there are abundant instances recorded of persons who could not only write, but paint tolerably well, with their toes. There was, for instance, at Ooggeshall, in Essex, a man named Carter who was so thoroughly paralysed that he had quite lost the use of his hands, and was obliged to be on his back. He partly supported himself by his drawings, which he did with his mouth ; and he could copy an old woodcut or plate so closely thai it was difficult to distinguish it from the original. fc>ir Charles Bell, too, tells us of a Russian beggar, born without hands, who frequented the high road to Moscow, and committed many murders before he was discovered and executed. His method of work was peculiar. He used to throw himself against a person who was giving him alms, and having stunned him, proceeded to s # eize him with his teeth and so drag him into' the wood. There are therefore many occupations which can be followed even if a person have no hands. To prove that the tongue is not absolutely necessary for speech would be an easy matter, since there are many authentic cases^ of persons who, having lost their tongues owing to some accident or operation, have yet managed to speak distinctly. But to convey thoughts without speech, to speak without words, is quite another matter. Perhaps the most curious example of this form of ingenuity — either in fact or fiction — is the means by which the paralytic old Noirtier, in " Monte Cristo," was able to speak to anybody who understood his system. He, it will be remembered, had sight and hearing left to him, and he expressed approbation by closing his eyes, his refusal to any proposal by winking them several times; and if he had some desire or ieeling to express he raised them to heaven. By this code, together with the aid of a dictionary, so arranged that he could see a page as a finger

was rapidly rtin down it, he Contrived to hold converse on any subject. After- sudh examples of devices to supply the places of missing senses or members of the body as those we have mentioned; it 'would be indeed surprising if there were no natural way of overcoming' the many disadvantages incidental to deafness. - But as a . matter of fact there is a mfethod, and a very | simple method, by which many deaf people can hear, and ■ that, too, without artificial, instruments. In "King John," Hubert Says: ' " • t saw a smith stand with his hammer, fchds, The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth, swallowing a tailor's news. Scott, too, has passages to the same effect,, and we often hear of a particular person " swallowing, it all in "—i.e., listening with his mouth wide open. Now, there is a sound physiological reason for opening the mouth under, such circumstances. There are two opposite. openings in the ear—namely, the external opening, whioh is known to all of us, and the internal opening, called the eustachian tube, which passes from the internal auditory organs to the back, of. the mouth, < just where the nostrils open into it. It therefore follows that a person who opens his mouth has a better chance of hearing than if he keeps it shut, •In short, the inner opening is an auxiliary to the outer j one. There is at least one case in which the latter opening alone has had to do service, as • the following advertisement from a copy of the Daily Post of some 30 years ago will plainly show :—": — " Missing, on Sunday afternoon, a young man of weak intellect. The lobes of his ears are closed, but when spoken to he opens his , mouth and is then able to hear." It is clear, then, that the accidental destruction of one or more parts does not ' necessarily destroy the sense of hearing, provided that the injury does not reach the most essential part of mechanism, the brain. It is probable that some deaf people might be able to hear through the mouth, more especially if they avail themselves of an expedient accidentally discovered by one of their fellow-sufferers. The gentleman in question, who was stone deaf, went to chapel, and during the delivery of the sermon he, from mere listlessness, put the rim of his hat between his t&eth. To his great surprise and delight, he could the:u hear distinctly. The explanation of this discovery is that the hat acted as a conductor of sound. It is a wellknown practice with engineers to avail themselves of a device based on the same principle. When they suspect a leakage or other mischief inside the cylinder of a steam engine, they take a small piece of, iron, place it between the teeth, and pressing it firmly against the outside of the cylinder, stop the ears with the hands, when all that passes inside the cylinder becomes distinctly audible.

Master Mace, the author of "Music's Monument," availed himself of this plan^for hearing after he had become deaf. He says that, having invented a " lute which was absolutely the lustiest or loudest lute that I ever yet heard," he was able to hear ifc "in a very good measure, yet not so loud as to distinguish everything I play without the aid.of my teeth, by which, when I play close to the edge of it (the lute), I hear all I play distinctly." Deaf people might with advantage try the plans here mentioned, if other means are not available.

Numerous other examples of the ingenuity of the* afflicted might be cited. Before artificial limbs were as cheap as they are now, it was common, for example, to see legless men getting along tolerably well by the aid of a couple of pieces of wood, one in either hand, with which they lifted their whole bodies completely from the ground, and so swung themselves along! Then the ingenuity of the blind would afford scope for a volume. But the object of this article is to point out only a few of the more remarkable instances "of ingenuity in directions not so well known.