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.

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    as yet no case of deaf-mute parents having deaf-mute children has been reported; while, on the other hand, there are several married deaf-mutes who have children in perfect possession of all their senses. Neither my wife nor myself were born deaf, neither of us has any deaf-mute relatives living or dead, and our child is blessed with perfect auditory and vocal organs, and the danger of deafness is no greater in her case than in that of any other children. If she ever becomes deaf, it will not be through heredity, but from scarlet fever or cerebro-spinal meningitis, those dreaded diseases from whose fatal effects children escape only by giving up one of their most important senses as a sort of propitiatory sacrifice to Death. ' 8. Other statistics serve to show that intermarriage of blood relations is the most frequent cause of deafness. Degrees of consanguinity as between cousins are productive of more ills that the flesh is heir to than any other known cause of heredity. The deaf-mutes of Oregon are said to owe their infirmity more to blood relationship than to accidental sickness, on account of the intermarriage of the first families there. As every breeder of horses knows, the highest and best qualities of racehorses are frequently obtained by what is called inbreeding, so the worst defects may also be transmitted from the same cause. ' H. 0. White, ' Principal of the Utah School for the Deaf 12. SARAH FULLER HOME. Sarah Puller, Supervising Principal. See report of Horace Mann School. SCHOOLS IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 1. CATHOLIC INSTITUTION (MALE), MONTREAL. _ J. B, Manseau, Principal. No reply to circular letter re- ceived to date, June 2, 1888.