Diseases and injuries of the ear / by Wm. B. Dalby.

  • Dalby, William B. (William Bartlett), Sir, 1840-1918.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases and injuries of the ear / by Wm. B. Dalby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    297/352 (page 261)
    when he is asked which he recommends he may be able to give an opinion on the subject. With regard to the plan usually pursued in England I have nothing to say, as the working of it may be seen by paying a visit to any deaf and dumb institu- tion ; but of the other, as it is not so familiar to every one, and as it is most desirable that all medical men should understand it, I cannot do better than quote from a speech which I delivered at Leeds in 1871 for the purpose of introducing the system into this country. The so-called German system of education joi mutes may be briefly described as one where deaf and dumb children are taught to understand and employ language by observation and imitation of the articu- lation of others, the finger alphabet and all artificial signs being rigidly excluded. For this, as for any other system, it is of course necessary that the child's intellectual faculties be not more than usually deficient, and obviously where there is a cleft palate or other malformations of the organs of speech (which appears to exist in the proportion of one in one hundred mutes) it is not applicable. The age at which education commences is about seven years, and eight years are expended before the child can read from the lips of ordinary persons, and speak so as to be easily understood by them. Although artificial signs are excluded in the education, it is per- mitted, and indeed necessary at the very commence- ment, to attract the child's notice by pointing to the teacher's lips, and to various objects, in order to excite