The diseases of the ear, their diagnosis and treatment : a text-book of aural surgery in the form of academical lectures / by Anton von Tröltsch ; translated from the German and edited by D.B. St. John Roosa ... from the second and last German edition.

  • Tröltsch, Anton Friedrich, Freiherr von, 1829-1890.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the ear, their diagnosis and treatment : a text-book of aural surgery in the form of academical lectures / by Anton von Tröltsch ; translated from the German and edited by D.B. St. John Roosa ... from the second and last German edition. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    DEAF-MUTEISM. SlT not, .the “pificance and the expression of the words? \ ® . . lld» who on]y perceives distinctly, that which those mound lum speak, under especially favorable circumstances, _ erefore, only at times,—to whom, therefore, the opportuni- ty is wanting in great part, if not entirely, of gradually and by . 1“Self learning the meaning of the words, will soon take no interest m what is spoken, will cling preeminently to the mean- ing of signs and gestures, and will still less himself make effort to speak, that is to reproduce, and imitate speech, because t le language of others, which alone gives inducement to speak, does not properly exist for such a child. In this way, hearing is less and less practised and learned. The child gives more and more the impression of a completely deaf being, with whom to speak would be folly. The motive to speak is also wanting, and thus the child, who was, properly speaking, only hard of hearing, grows more and more deaf and dumb. But the same child, had he been spoken to, as in the grown person, slowly and distinctly and near his ear, and if the objects designated by language had been brought before his eye, would have learned gradually to hear, as also to under- stand what that which he heard meant; would have taken an interest in language and in trying to imitate what he heard, that is to speak himself: by such a treatment, he would simply have remained hard of hearing, and would have been able to express himself tolerably well. So, again, if a child, who already s]3eaks, becomes hard of hearing to a high degree at an early age. Just so in the case of a grown person, a diffi- culty in hearing his own voice exercises a bad influence on his modulation and the regulation of expression. On the contrary, a child who is not a ready speaker because of a diffi- culty of hearing those around him and his own voice, generally loses the capacity of distinct utterance, and gradually the power of language itself, unless he is compelled, with pedantic severi- ty, to the constant exercise of what remains of his faculty of hearing, and, in the case of necessity, the additional help of an ear-trumpet be employed, and at the same time, a methodical instruction introduced in distinct speaking and loud reading. You will now understand how we are able by means of great personal attention and methodical instruction in speaking and vocalizing to cure certain forms of deaf-muteness, or more