Why am I standing before you to-night? Why am I reading this paper on the 'deaf and dumb' before your honourable Society? Not as a schoolmaster wishing—to bring before your notice some special method of teaching that he himself invented; not as a medical man wishing to advocate some special treatment of ear diseases; not because, in fact, I have any claim to speak in my own person as a professional practitioner, either scholastic or medical, but solely because that has happened to me which might happen to anyone here present; illness came upon my only child—its life was spared, but its hearing lost.
Great, indeed, were the difficulties we experienced in deciding on the best way of educating our child, meagre, indeed, the help we could obtain in our own country. I am desirous that others should have the benefit of our experience, so that no one need go through the terrible uncertainty and anxiety we had to endure. Our child was three months old when a severe attack of fever took away her hearing. For a year or two we kept hoping on. I even refused to enter the child in the census as 'deaf and dumb.' I would not 'brand' it as long as there was any doubt; such was my foolish pride, such is the foolish pride, alas! of very many; and it is mentioned here in order to show that this, amongst other causes, makes the census returns of the 'deaf and dumb' below the real number. As soon as our child's loss of hearing was beyond question, we brought her here to London for the best medical, surgical, and educational advice. We hoped, indeed we never doubted, that we should have received the best advice about the education of our child from those of the medical profession whom we consulted. But such was not the case. Sad and disappointed, we turned to those who had devoted their lives to the education of the deaf. Here at least we expected to be assured beyond doubt of the best method on which to instruct her; but again we were doomed to utter disappointment. We found different systems at work, and the advocates of each said very hard and bitter things of one another. Here it will be well to explain the technical terms that will be used in this paper. For want of this it is sometimes difficult to understand the meaning of much that is written and spoken on this subject, as different terms are used by various writers and speakers to express the same things, and the same terms to express different things.
'Deaf and Dumb.' Those wholly uneducated, or who cannot hear or speak, though educated or partially so.
'Deaf.' Those who cannot hear or speak before they have been educated; or who, having been educated, are still without hearing, but can speak.
'German' System. That which is based on articulation and lip-reading.
'French' System. That which is based on a system of signs.
'Signs.' All, except
'Natural Signs.' Which I define as such as hearing persons use and can understand; e.g. 'come,' beckoning with the hand; 'go,' motioning away with the hand; which are really actions, not signs.
You may wonder why we did not test for ourselves the results obtained by the various methods in this country. We would willingly have done so, but the 'German' system had not been long enough at work to prove the value of its teaching to pupils in general after leaving school, and we were assured by the 'French' system teachers—the 'old' system, as it is so often erroneously called by Englishmen, simply because in this country it has been the longer established—that, however good the 'German' might appear in school, the speech and lip-reading; there learnt were of no value in after life.
We could not disprove this assertion. Nay, we were inclined to believe it, for, we said to ourselves, as so many do now, 'If it be the better method, surely it would have been adopted by such a practical nation as our own long ago.' Of this I must speak hereafter.
It will be seen that, to persons considering this subject for the first time, as we were, it was impossible to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion—one that would leave no doubt on their minds—without going into the world to find out the truth. So, without loss of time, in August, 1872, our child being three years old, we left her with my wife's family, and commenced investigation for ourselves. We visited some of the principal schools in each of the following countries, in the order named:—England, United States, Canada, Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Saxony, Bohemia, Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland, Savoy and France.
The subject before you naturally divides itself into three heads—Medical, Historical and Educational.
Time will not allow me to-night to enter upon the medical and historical aspects of the case, interesting as they are, even more so, probably, to the general public, than the educational view of the subject. This paper, however, must be confined to this latter portion of the question, viz., education.
Education.—Chiefly as bearing on the results of the different methods of education on the pupils in after life.