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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![Cardanus, naturalist, mathematician and physician, who hved in Pavia and Bologna from 1501 to 1576, was the first to set forth distinctly the modern and correct opinion, that deafness is the principal and primary phenomenon in deaf-mutism. He expresses himself as follows in his treatise de utilitate ex adversis capienda, lib. II., cap. 7, de surditate : There are three classes of deaf: Some are born deaf—of these it is not our intention to speak ; they are also dumb, for as we learn to speak by hearing, those who cannot hear cannot speak \nam cum discarnus audiendo loqui, qui audire non possimt, nec loqni]. Others become deaf after birth but before they learn to speak; they are dumb from the same cause as those above men- tioned, and are therefore included and treated of in the same class. Cardanus ends by declaring that deaf-mutes ought, like the blind, to be taught to read and write, although a matter of difficulty; but difficulties are useful, and still more honourable, although we may not attain our aim, for it is not everyone who reaches Corinth [11, p. 73, and following] . A contemporary of Cardanus was the celebrated Benedictine monk, Pedro de Ponce, surnamed Venerabilis, who lived in Sagahun, in Spain. It is to him that the honour is due of having first proved practically that dumbness in deaf-mutism is a secon- 'dary condition resulting from deafness, and that it can be removed by a special system of education. Franciscus Valesius, Philip the Second's physi- cian, relates the following of the famous monk. After having compared the power of speech and writing, and having come to the conclusion that it is not](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21709968_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
