Facts and opinions relating to the deaf from America.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts and opinions relating to the deaf from America. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    90/212 (page 78)
    liave perfect hearing and excellent general health may have several deaf-mute children, as we have found to be often the case. ' The explanation would be that catarrh, which in the parents may have shown itself in some other mucous surface, has in the children passed to the auditory apparatus. ' This would be similar to what observers have reported in regard to scrofula, a disease which is undoubtedly inheritable, and of which the indications may be noticed in a considerable proportion of deaf-mutes. ' On the other hand, where deafness is caused by an acute disease, as brain fever, scarlet fever, or cerebro-spinal meningitis, it does not seem probable that there would be a tendency to transmit deafness to the children. ' The whole subject is one in which the general public, as well as specialists, have an interest; and it deserves, and is likely to receive, careful investigation. ' While Dr. Bell deserves great credit for his patient gather- ing of statistics of deafness, as well as for his ingenious analysis and interpretation of his own figures, and while later observers have contributed additional information, the subject awaits treatment at the hands of some member of the medical faculty who unites high professional skill to familiarity with the mass of recorded facts. ' Weston Jenkins, S^tperintendenV 50. UTAH SCHOOL, SALT LAKE CITY. H. 0. White, Principal. No reply to circular letter received up to date, June 2, 1888. For Mr. White's views upon this subject see article quoted by the Principal of the Cathedral tSchool, Cincinnati, p. 83.