Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Deaf-mutism / by Holger Mygind. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![[3, sect, i., p. 437]. Aristotle seems to have arrived at this result upon the premise that deaf-mutes were not able to speak. This explanation is corroborated by the reply in his j7po/3X///iara to the question why the deaf always speak through the nose. He says the reason is that they are almost deaf-mutes (eVeot); the latter breathe through the nose, since the pas- sage through the mouth is blocked up by their not using their tongue for speaking [5, Problem XL., sect. 2, p. 8g8]. It has been supposed that Aristotle was acquainted with the causal connection between deafness and dumbness, because he, in his work, irepl 'Cwiov i(TTopiaQ [4, p. 536] , has said : oaoi Se KUKjioL yiyvovTcu ek yEVETi]Q wavTEQ koX ei'eo'l yiyvovTai (which sentence reminds us of the above quotation from Hippocrates, and must be translated in the same manner). Aristotle has, however, only intended to convey that deafness and dumbness accompany each other. He states (Problem XXXHI., i) that both lungs and ears are in connection with the brain, which is evident, as deafness and dumbness accom- pany each other, and diseases of the ear act recipro- cally with those of the lungs. [5, p. 899]. It is, therefore, the more remarkable that Alexander of Aphrodisias, a medical author not particularl}^ well known, who lived in the third century after Christ, seems to have understood the relationship between deafness and dumbness. He rejects Aris- totle's doctrine of a connection between the nerves of the ear and the organs of speech, and states in his 7rpo/3\///xara I., 138, that it is the want of hearing which deprives the deaf-mute of the power of speech [9. P- 47]•](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21709968_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
