The sign language of the deaf and dumb / by J. Birkbeck Nevins.

  • Nevins, J. Birkbeck (John Birkbeck), 1818-1903.
Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sign language of the deaf and dumb / by J. Birkbeck Nevins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    40 257 THE SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE DEAF AND DUMB. By J. BIRKBECK NEYINS, M.D.Lond. The Means of Communication with the Deaf and Dumb are Various. 1st. Such signs as the dumb may make from infancy to indicate hunger, pain, anger, pleasure, &c., which become intelligible to those intimately associated with them, though they may be unintelligible to strangers, and cannot possibly be called a “ sign language.” 2nd. Facial expressions, accompanied or not accom- panied by speech, such as anger or pity, on the part of i hearing people ; which expressions become intelligible in a fe degree to the deaf and dumb, although without any sound being heard. But such facial, or even oral movements, ft- could not be called an “ oral” language. 3rd. A system of signs constructed upon some intelli- I. gent principle, which may be taught to a number of deaf b and dumb as well as to hearing persons ; and if such signs k should have any easily intelligible meaning in themselves, . they might then, in a perfectly legitimate sense, be called a “ sign language.” Such a system of signs would evi- f dently be a great advance upon the limited number above 1. suggested, and it is such a system that is and has been i in actual existence for about a hundred years (consti- r luting the so-called “ sign language of the deaf and dumb,”) which it is the object of this paper to illustrate m^nd explain. 4th. There is yet another method of communicating l! with the deaf and dumb, viz., by teaching them to watch the R