UC-NRLF SO 273 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. RECEIVED BY EXCHANGE Class ninth year of a Deaf Child's Life. 60 2, i M 32_/ By met j. mott, pi). D. THE NINTH YEAR OF- A DEAF CHILD'S LIFE. A THESIS Accepted by the Faculty of the University of Minnesota for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. BY ALICE J. MOTT. PRESS OF The Faribault Republican. 1900. The Position of the Deaf in Society. Before discussing this position it is proper that I should de- fine the term Deaf, as I use it. It is a word liable to much confusion of meaning varying from its application to persons who have become hard of hearing with age, to those who have been totally deaf from infancy. With as much consistency as possible I apply it only to the hitter class. The possession of hearing for the first four or five years of life, long enough to admit of the acquirement of speech and language, vir- tually removes an individual from the ranks of deaf-muteism, be- yond recall. The following pages concern themselves only with the deaf who have never, within their own recollection, been anything but deaf. The mass of Adult Deaf that is of persons who were born deaf or became so in infancy form a people solitary, apart from the hearing world. This separation, however, I maintain is social and intellectual, not industrial and moral. The simple fact that the tenth United States Census* revealed the presence of but four deaf persons in our jails, prisons and alms- houses, while the eleventh Census! increases the number but to 114, seems ample evidence of the exceptional morality of the Deaf as a class. The Deaf constitute iVo per cent, of our population, and furnish but rVo per cent, of our criminals and paupers. Their industrial character follows as a warrantable assump- tion: If they were not usefully employed somewhere, they would find their way into the proverbial haunts of the idle and unprofitable. Unfortunately, Labor reports are silent upon the number of defectives of any class employed in the various industries, and we *Tenth Census Compendium Miscellaneous Statistics Defective Class- es. (F. Wines). fEleventh Census Compendium Part II. Miscellaneous Statistics. 4 have no data of the economic loss to the individual worker of his sense defect.* Certain officers of Schools for the Deaf have collected statistics for their own statcs.f To thirty letters of inquiry addressed to the Superintendents of the most important schools for the Deaf in America, I have received the almost invariable answer that all per- sons who have passed through their schools or even entered its doors, are not only capable of self-support but actually supporting themselves.J (Of how many public schools can the same be said?) *I give for what it is worth the opinion of a few individuals who have em- ployed the deaf at certain industries, viz : That of a foreman of a printing office who employed two deaf-mutes, of a lady who had two deaf servant girls, and' several persons who have employed deaf men-of-all work. According to this individual testimony (which of course is too special to have any general bearing) the deaf worker is as rapid, as deft and more ccncentrated than the ordinary hearing employee. It is the common testimony, also, that the deaf worker is very keen to dis- cover and demand his rights, and much less likely to accept infringement of them than the average servant. f Nebraska, for example. \ Answers to the question (by letter) "What proportion of the persons who have been educated at your school do you regard as self-supporting ?" " I consider every graduate of this school able to earn an independent sup- port." (The question was misunderstood : it did not only apply to graduates, but to all who had enjoyed state instruction. J. W. SWILER, Supt. Wisconsin School. " All of them, so far as I know. One young man was in his county poor- house some years ago, who, because of sickness, was unable to work. I think he has regained his health and is now supporting himself." THOS. L. MOSES, Principal of Tenn. School. (I did not receive answers to all of my letters of inquiry : probably some states keep no record. But there was not one exception to the general con- fidence that the deaf, whether well or illy educated, fall readily into persistent industrial habits, and have sufficient business sense to profit by their own labor). "I take it you mean how many are capable of self-support, as temporary causes might leave many out of employment who are fitted for it, and ready when the opportunity offers. I reply, All, except those who may be mentally deficient. I put in the self-supporting class those young women who may be working at home without wages." (Very justly), CHAS. W. ELY, Supt. of Md. School. "Less than 5 per cent, of those educated at this Institution have failed to be self-supporting." E. A. CURRIER, Principal of N. Y. Institution. The point is to be emphasized that they are also self-reliant, and aggressive in maintaining their rights. Unless we admit the peculiar mental structure of the Deaf, we must explain their exceptional habits of industry by their training and surroundings. The system of education in vogue for the Deaf in America is unparalleled by any provision made for ordinary " I cannot tell just what proportion, but it is very large." JOB WILLIAMS, Supt. Hartford Asylum. ' ' Practically all. We only know of three who are not self-supporting, and two of these three have other afflictions beside deafness." F. D. CLARKE, Supt. Michigan School. "A large number of our pupils are now self-supporting : I know of none of the intelligent ones who are not making a living." W. K. ARGA, Supt. Colorado Institution. " In the sense that a person is self-supporting when not supported by the county, all of our people are self-supporting." H. E. DAWES, Supt. Nebraska School. "I have never heard of any deaf mutes educated here being sent to an almshouse or county poor-house." A. ROGERS, Supt. Kentucky School. " 2806 pupils have been reported as going out from this school. Nearly all males, completing a full course, are capable of self-support at manual labor. Comparatively few of the young women are wage-earners, yet they are capable of making a full return for all that is expended upon them by their friends, through domestic or household service." J. C. GORDON, Illinois School. "As far as I have learned, the adult deaf of the state are self-supporting." E. R. TAYLOR, Supt. of the Maine School. " I should say that about 95 per cent, of our former pupils are self-support- ing. Indeed I do not know of any who are not earning their own living." WM. N. BURT, Principal W. Penn. School. "All, as far as I know." F. W. METCALF, Supt. Utah School. "All." W. WILKINSON, Supt. California School. youth.* Of the fifty-seven public schools for the Deaf (i. e. schools supported wholly or partially by the state) only four lack a trades department. Of the twenty-nine public day schools, only eighteen are provided with manual training, as it is much more difficult to control hours of labor there than in a Boarding school ; but of the fifteen private and denominational schools, eleven fur- nish manual training. Thus of the one hundred and one institu- tions for the Deaf in America, eighty-two make training of the hand, and actual preparation for a chosen life work, of equal im- portance with school work. The highest actual number of trades in one school taught is seventeen.f Some influence has resulted in giving the Deaf more indus- trial self-reliance than the Hearing, as a class. It is not too much to assume that the habits of industry, the regular hours, the cus- tom of prompt and exact obedience, the tendency to regard the world as a workshop and the person of government as absolutely respectable and authoritative to assume that all these predilec- tions of the Deaf have been contributed by his peculiarly appro- priate school-training. As regards the wholly uneducated Deaf, they have usually been deprived of school privileges for the economic reason. "I kept him at home to help on the farm," is the almost invariable excuse assigned by the guardian of a neglected deaf child for the neglect. Thus, by severe training if not natural aptitude, the uneducated deaf mute becomes industrious beyond the fashion of boys and girls. Besides, these sense-defectives, as they possess fewer incen- *American Annals for the Deaf, Washington, D. C. (Gibson Bros.) Jan- uary, 1899 Tables prepared by E. A. Fay. fSt. Joseph's Institute, N. Y. The various industries taught In all the schools are thus enumerated by Mr. Fay Annals Jan. 1899 p. 69. "Art, Baking, Barbering, Basket-making, Blacksmithing, Bookbinding, Bricklaying, Broom-making, Cabinet-making, Calcimining, Carpentry, Chalk- engraving, Cementing, Cooking, Clay modeling, Coopery, China-painting, Draw- ing, Dress-making, Embroidery, Engineering, Fancy-work, Farming, Floricul- ture, Gardening, Glazing, Harness repairing, Housework, Horticulture, Ironing, Knitting, Manual-training, Mattress-making, Millinery, Painting, Paper-hang- ing, Plastering, Plate-engraving, Photography, Printing, Sewing, Shoemaking, Sloyd, Stone-laying, Tailoring, Typewriting, Venetian, Iron work, Weaving, Wood-carving, Wood-engraving, Wood-turning and Wood- working." tives to toil, so also meet fewer distractions, since their avenues of enjoyment are limited : hence habits of industry, once inculcated, persist longer than in the normal "labor unit." I suppose no one will question the social isolation of the deaf individual in a hearing community, although his solitude must be studied to be appreciated. The little deaf child who, before his entrance into school, has never exchanged thought with a living soul, never heard a word, knows not that a single person or thing ever had a name, is not, I imagine, a peculiarly lonely being, be- cause childhood is occupied with observation and action rather than reflection, and conversation is not a requisite of healthful ac- tivity, especially to one who never conversed. But the graduate of a school for the Deaf, accustomed for a term of years to the intimate companionship of room-mate and work-fellow, as well as teacher and guide, is an exile from all real companionship as completely as a wanderer in foreign lands, among strange peoples, with alien thoughts and interests, equipped only with a limited guide-book language. A person who has lost his hearing is thousands of miles away in thought, even, from the household in which he moves.* How much more completely is he separated when he has never caught the fashions of thought, feeling and speech prevalent in the hear- ing world, never really learned the alphabet of its confidences. The isolation of the congenitally deaf in a talking world, a world teeming with chatter, folly, philosophy, satire and senti- ment, is all the greater that they can not appreciate their solitude. Our standards of conduct they have learned through visible social sanctions ; our ideals of character, our common delicacies of * 'Century Magazine, January, 1897 : "I found that people who came full of interest and with many things to tell me seemed to freeze up and close the fountains of their expression as soon as I presented them with a pencil and tablet." R. W. Dodds, Dundee, Scotland, in Am. Annals, February, 1899: "By depriving the deaf of finger-spelling and obliging them to mix with hearing people instead of the deaf, we subject them to the bitterest isolation. A young lady of my acquaintance, whose speech is excellent, felt such a sense of isola- tion that, at the age of sixteen, she learned to spell, that she might associate with the deaf. I have been repeatedly assured by the parents of a deaf speak- ing girl that she was rapidly entering a state of melancholy but was saved from it by mixing with the deaf. * * * * The deaf among the deaf can never realize the isolation felt by the deaf in the society of hearing people, no matter how good the speech and lip-reading may be." 8 sentiment and thought, the worked out abstractions which are the current coin of intellectual exchange, all the products of social con- vention and attrition, crystallized only in Belles Lettres, constitute a sealed book to them. They see things only through the eyes of their deaf comrades, that is, they view this audible world as a silent spectacle, concern- ing only themselves who are outsiders. Only the exceptionally gifted can employ the solvent of gen- eral literature.* The majority are on terms of freedom and com- raderie only with the Deaf. This social isolation must have far reaching results in intellectual separation from the Hearing. I am of the opinion that the mental processes might be as accurate without the sense of hearing as with it. The race grows more "eye-minded" with advancing civilization, and all educative influences with which we are acquainted (perhaps not even except- ing music) could be, I believe, presented in visible form. This does not alter the all significant fact that they are not thus presented. Not a deaf man in a deaf world, but a deaf man in a hearing world, is to be considered. The education of the Deaf in the language of this actual world, begins and ends with school life.f Ten years may be long enough *An unimpeachable authority upon Deaf education expresses himself thus clearly : "I do not think that the deaf of the class you refer to" (congenitally and totally deaf) " ever appreciate the 'beauties of literature,' Too much of the ' beauty of literature ' requires a clear conception of the spoken word, and I feel safe in saying that I believe the only deaf who do take in its full power and beauty are those who recall clearly the spoken word." (The writer of this letter is perhaps as well acquainted with the mental standing of the deaf as a hearing man could possibly be.) At this point, also, I would bring in my own experience. I once asked sev- eral adult students in the Minnesota Institution how many knew the meaning of poetry. All anwered that they knew, and denned it immediately: "Poetry is printing which begins every line with a capital." I asked them if writing or speaking could be poetry. They thought not, but one member of the class knew better, and corrected them. He had learned some poetry once, and proceeded seriously to write it, amid the solemn admira- tion of his classmates : "Remember me when far, far off, Where the woodchucks die of the whooping cough." f As a matter of fact it is seldom possible to give the absolutely deaf more than a rudimentary education in the eight or ten years of school life. The curriculum attempted by all the best schools, which fits for the Na- tional Deaf Mute College, includes only the elements of Arithmetic, Geography, History and Science, with sufficient English to enable the student to read his text books, and express himself correctly. 9 to inculcate order, industry and honesty, but are painfully short, when we think of crowding into them the culture of a lifetime, the social discipline of nursery, playground, school room, church, Sun- day-school, college, drawing-room, lecture-hall, in short, all the friction of inner deaf man with inner hearing world, for with few exceptions, all later association of deaf with hearing will be either bussiness association or perfunctory. That many phases of life must be left untouched in this educational scheme, even under the best pedagogical system ever devised, is too obvious to require demonstration, and also that the mental outlook of the subject must be by this very limitation poorer and narrower than it might other- wise have been.* Added to the lack of general association with one's kind is the second deprivation of the deaf the lack of a higly conventional- ized language in which to clothe their thoughts. English, German or French, must always remain "foreign" to the deaf man, taught onty in the few short hours of school in the few short years of youth. His natural language of signs is capable of great richness and delicacy, but in its present half-tabooed position among the intel- ligent deaf and in all schools, it never attains the artificial and symbolic element necessary to express abstractions, hence can not serve as the vehicle for profound thought. * As a single instance of the mental limitation consequent directly upon lack of conversation and general society, I adduce the undeveloped state of the sense of humor, one of the first marks of a rounded intelligence. I do not deny the deaf their full love of fun. (Eschke, ) the German Oralist, called them "natural comedians"; but a little experience of my first year in teaching drawing to the deaf, conveyed to me as clearly as later association has done; that the deaf cannot possibly have any conception of our modern humor, depending as it does so largely upon delicacies of language. They have a humor of their own, (i. e. the humor of signs), which is Greek to us as ours is Sanskrit to them. I one day painstakingly spelled some verbal witticism to a class of deaf children. They eyed me wonderingly: "Is it true?" "No," I was obliged to confess. "Are you trying to be funny? " I modestly disclaimed any such intention. "Then you are a liar." I now retracted, and said that I was trying to be funny. This relieved the tension all over the room." "She is funny, funny." All laughed heartily, but I learned later that any avowed attempt at a joke is similarly received, so that it was no compliment to my wit. In endeavoring to teach the "Third Class" (pupils ranging from fourteen to twenty years of age) the unfamiliar terms, "Cube, Sphere, Circle and Square," I was not surprised at great difficulty, but I was surprised when the following accidental combination evoked not a smile from an occupant of the school room excepting the teacher: "Clubs, Split, Cackle, Squawk." 10 All limitations of the Adult Deaf seem to be explainable by these two causes, and their peculiarities to be only limitations, though it would be difficult indeed to prove that the cutting off of one of the three great avenues of impression should in itself result in no mental divergence from the normal. We find here a chapter in human development of the action and reaction of constitution and accident, which still awaits its reader. Its study might throw light upon some vexed problems as to the basis of knowledge and the foundations of morality, by noting the divergence from normal standards of intelligence and ethics in a more or less isolated human being. Feeling that only in detail and by slow degrees can the subject be approached, I have chosen for investigation but a tiny space in this field of inquiry, collected a few facts in regard to this period, and present them for what they are, merely a beginning in an interesting research, as far as I know, yet, wholly unworked. I have chosen for my study, the ninth year of a Deaf Child's life, a period of especial significance in being his first year in school, and the line of demarcation from a languageless existence to that of a growing vocabulary both Sign and English. Experience with three successive classes of deaf children at this stage in the years 1893 and 4 1896 and 7 has furnished my material for generalization. Experiments and tests have been taken with the present first year class in the Minnesota School for the Deaf, i. e., those who entered school in Sept. 1898. In absence of direct communication at the outset of the school year, when the children lack even a sign language, all facts then noted are indirect in their bearing. I should state at the outset one assumption I have felt war- ranted in making: namely, that any evidence of reasoning and ab- straction discovered during the first year in the education of a young child, is also evidence that he had the power of reasoning before school was entered ; since it is utterly impossible that men- tal faculties could be created or greatly developed in a few short months ot language drill. It goes without saying that any expression of reflection could 11 only arise after some weeks, at least, of residence, among school- mates and teachers, using and encouraging every possible means of communication. So, of course, it can never be quite disproved that any particular conception of the child's may not have been borrowed in toto from an older person; but this could not stand as a general assumption as in the case of any other child; and the habit of seizing on abstractions and making them one's own, lies very near the process of abstraction. The Eight-Year-Old Deaf Child. A DEAF CHILD'S NINTH YEAR, OR THE FIRST YEAR IN A DEAF CHILD'S SCHOOL LIFE. By the regulations of the Minnesota Institute for Defectives, a deaf child is admitted to the School when eight years of age. As a matter of fact, a few are admitted under this age, and Why an important many do not avail themselves of the privilege un- a s e - til much older. It is fairly the opinion of the school authorities that the best results accrue from the ten years' course when taken between the ages of eight to ten and eighteen to twenty. But, from my own experience of primary work with the Deaf, I regard it as far less injurious to defer putting a deaf child in school until the age of twelve than to subject him to the routine of the school-room at six or seven.* * Because, as will appear in the account of First Year School Work, lack of interest, in a school for the Deaf, is fatal to progress. The child can not learn unless he is paying strict attention. An ordinary child may hear a little, when he is not listening ; a deaf child sees nothing when be is not looking. No one can pay strict voluntary attention to that in which he is not interested. The period of novelty must be utilized to give the first impetus in teaching the deaf ; if the deaf chilld is too young to learn to read and write in that first period of novelty, if his first ardor cools before he has got hold of his tool, the loss is never made good. I have in mind, at present, four bright deaf children who were lost to good scholarship the first and third years of my primary teaching, by entering school a year too early. It is exceedingly injurious for a deaf child to work with a class in advance of himself, especially at first. He invariably learns to "copy" after one or two failures, and it is easier to close the box of Pandora than to eradicate the habit of "copying." Little children pick up their knowledge objectively, quite uncon- scious of the avenues through which it comes, and steal without knowing it. 13 I entered upon the inquiry here recorded without any hobby to ride, and no particular bias, except a general unfounded preju- dice against "infant education." I have made no attempt to reach hard and fast conclusions, or to uphold any side of any question which may arise ; but I cannot avoid mentioning the one convic- tion to which my inquiry has brought me namely, that the mind of a child suffers no deterioration from lying fallow for its first eight years. The popular enthusiasm for the education of babies, which has enlisted in the Kindergarten the best teaching talent of America, (much to the detriment, I must think of primary and intermediate schools) is founded upon the principle that, educa- tionally speaking, the first years of life are most important : or, in other words, that infant development, mental and moral, is less in- dependent less instinctive more conditioned upon the conscious efforts of instructor than the mind of the youth. Against this commonly accepted principle I am hardly Quixotic enough to tilt: I simply note that, however rusty be the unused faculties of the adult deaf, I have collected no evidence that the untaught deaf child of eight, though ignorant beyond conception, is less capable of imbibing knowledge or adopting codes of conduct than the ordinary eight-year-old product of schoolroom, Sunday School and Kindergarten.* I have chosen for the special subjects of this essay, ten deaf children who entered school last fall; eight of them were eight years of age; one was nine, at the time of entering, and the last ten. They are all totally deaf and have been so from infancy. I should have been glad to consider a large number, but the ten se- lected include nearly all the class which entered in September, 1898, at the proper age; and in all perceptible ways these ten ap- * The class entering Sept.. 1899, averages older than any class I have hitherto taught, and emphasizes the view just stated. The regular members range from eight to fifteen years of age and average eleven years. No loss of mental ability is apparent from the delay in beginning routine school work, rather, I call it an exceptionally superior class. Now in the eleventh week of school, (Dec. i,), the class has learned ninety (90) words, to read, write and spell and to use in simple sentences. 14 peared to me and to their teacher to be strictly average deaf child- ren.* I say nearly the whole entering class, and proceed to explain why any exceptions have been made. If any child, even though born quite deaf, shows peculiar aptitude for speech, he is placed in an oral class upon entering: in this class, signs are wholly es- chewed and he is taught entirely by speech and writing, Thus the difficulties in the way of communication, great enough in any case, are so enhanced as to make it really unfeasible to include these subjects in the tests. Besides, my experience in the past has touched only manual | classes and my opinions in regard to oral classes would be founded upon hearsay. Four children eight years of age were placed in an oral class this year and thus lost to me. Again, every class of deaf children contains, upon entering, a certain proportion of subjects of feeble intellect. The disease which caused deafness may have affected the mind ; moreover, * I have purposely delayed putting my manuscript into print in order to compare the class entering Sept. 1898 with that which entered Sept. 1899, and in all essential particulars I have subjected the latter to the tests which I em- ployed with the former. It will be seen that the results with both classes are very closely alike ; a fact which substantiatss my assumption that in limiting at- tention to the average members of a first year class of eight-year-old children totally deaf from infancy, admitted under certain conditions to a particular school, a very homogeneous group is obtained, yielding more general data, I should suppose, than the examination of several hundred children, taken indif- ferently from all school grades, social classes and natural conditions. The very fact of deafness renders the group a homogeneous one, while the sense of hearing introduces heterogeneity into experience of a normal child. f The ranks of educators of the Deaf are divided by a chasm too deep for respect or courtesy to pass, into Oralists and Manualists. The former believe that the Deaf should be taught speech and lip reading, by speech and lip read- ing and writing alone, and claim that the admission of signs into a school ham- pers true progress and retards the acquirement of speech. The Manualists admit the claim, and find in the "law of parsimony" their justification. Since signs are always preferred by the Deaf as easier and more interesting, says the Manualist, they are the natural vehicle of communication with the Deaf. Besides, while the Oralists condemn the Manualists for what they do, the latter condemn the former for their lack of fruit. Not what we could teach the Deaf, if they would only stop signing, but what we do teach them, taking them as they are, is the criterion of success. Most of the State Institutions use the "Combined System" which strives to reconcile two mutually exclusive methods. By this system all are given an op- portunity to learn speech, but not denied instruction altogether, if unable to profit by the Oral Method. 15 parents of dumb children send them to a school for the deaf in preference to an asylum for imbeciles, cherishing the hope that the children are not diM but only deaf. These are weeded out in the course of a year or two, but it will be seen that a first year class nearly always contains a modicum of mental abnormality, not to be found in an eight-year-old class of hearing children, of two years standing in school. Since I excluded from my examination the four speaking children, supposed to be the brightest of the new pupils, I have also ignored two very dull children, who would probably, if not deaf, have been placed in an institution for the feeble-minded. Perhaps I may mention here some of the marks by which an experienced primary teacher distinguishes a deaf child of good intellect before any communication Deaf Children, has been established. Physical features, like the conformation of the head and face, the gait and carriage, count for much, but may be over-rated; physical defects, like any impairment of the sight or crippling of the hands, really retard mental development with the deaf far more than with the hearing, by blocking another avenue of ex- perience.* The facial expression is significant, but likely to mislead those unacquainted with the deaf. A quick, bird-like motion of the head and lively glancing of the eyes from one object to another give a false impression of vivacious intelligence; hence a stranger is nearly always mistaken in an es- timate of the brighter members of a class. In my experience, the more stolid and unimpassive faces usually betoken the better minds among the untaught, though this may not be true of the educated Deaf. I think this impassiveness is the attitude of a self-contained and thoughtful nature, too proud to display a lively interest in matters beyond its comprehension, while the monkey- like inquisitiveness of a lighter mind, more unconsciously dis- played, give the face an expression of keenness iind intelligence. * Since all information must be conveyed through the eye and all expres- sion pass through the hand, the crippling of either organ is serious in the ex- treme. Defective eyesight retards observation and renders all impressions vague and confused. Difficulty in writing prevents the pupil from acquir- ing the habit of industry, the main dependence of the teacher. 16 So, as a rule, it is not the children who will eventually get the most out of their school career who take most kindly to school life at first. The deeper natures are less easily transplanted, and extreme home sickness may he either an indication of superior home surroundings, or of an affectionate and thoughtful child.* It must never be assumed that a child is ' 'stupid " or " ugly " because he refuses to work at his school tasks the first week. Very bright children, afterwards docile and orderly, have been known to lie on their oars for a month before they could prevail upon themselves to accept the new ordering of their lives. For reasons apparent, I also omit from consideration the new pupils of advanced age; these afford an exceedingly interesting study, but outside the scope of this paper. I have aimed to centre my attention upon average deaf chil- dren, eight years of age, and to compare them with the average eight-year old hearing child, in all respects in which data of nor- mal children were available. Some tests of the comparative efficacy of deaf and hearing children have been added. * The forms which homesickness takes with the Deaf are numerous. (Al- most every deaf boy would run away the first night if he could find his way to the railroad ; but he will not leave his hat; and the easiest way of keeping the flock of new children together is to hang their hats in some inaccessible but visible place.) A little girl who was heart-broken when left by her parents, upon their re-appearance the next week refused to recognize them, declaring in signs that she did not know them A boy who afterward appeared to have the usual number of bones, spent most of the first three weeks bent double, glancing neither to the right nor left but running in and out of his stocking a pin which he had providentially brought from home. Another kept his head enveloped in a large red handkerchief for two weeks, never removing it except to eat. The desire to yield is evidently strong long before it can be accomplished. But when one of these stubborn cases first takes his pencil to frame a single letter he gives up once for all. Most children give up the battle after the first night. Several cases are on record, in our own school, of children who came out first in the contest, and had to be taken home. But these were not brought to school until fourteen or fifteen years old. One large boy maintained the attitude of a caged lion for four months, one year (until sent home) and for five months, the next year; he absolutely refused to touch a pencil and ate and slept only under protest. Then he suc- cumbed and became a bright and interested student. German children are more stubborn in their homesickness than those of any other nationality. 17 My object has been to find tests of physical and mental pow- ers, applicable both to hearing and to deaf, to the normal child and to the child cut off forever from all auditory impressions. The tests chosen have been few and comparison, simple, since only such could be thoroughly applied, but seemed to me significant as well as representative. They have fallen into three groups : 1st. Purely physical tests of bodily strength and agility. 2d. Tests of manual dexterity, involving some sight dis- crimination. 3d. Tests of memory and observation. Memory and observation seemed the only mental powers capable of exact comparison between the two classes of children : as regards the faculties of imagination and reason, difficulties of communication with both deaf and hearing would render such a test impossible : but that reason and imagination concern them- selves wholly with matter of observation and memory, I suppose no one at this age of philosophy will question: hence the com- parison may not be so one-sided as at first appears. As above stated, I examined all the 8-year-old deaf children I could find. I had more difficulty, as well as more latitude of choice in re- gard to the normal children examined. Fearing that too limited a number might not give the HearlngSubjects. hearing children a fair showing, I took pains to choose the best specimens I could find. The ten hearing boys included in the athletic tests were chosen upon their reputation among their play-fellows, as being " awful strong " and " fine shoot- ers." Eight of the same boys were chosen for the tests in manual dexterity ; for the two dropped were substituted two rather supe- rior boys, eight and nine years of age, working in the fifth grade in school. These two (designated as 9 and 10) it will be seen have somewhat raised the hearing averages. The tests in observation and memory were taken with these twelve also in two school-rooms containing mostly eight-year-old children ; one of these school-rooms contained a majority of Irish 18 and French children; the second, mostly American and Scandi- navians. " 9 " and " 10" were substituted for the poorest subjects tested in the first mentioned school-room. I may add that the second school was named by the Superintendent of the city schools as the best eight-year-old class in the city. I feel assured of having given the hearing class all fair benefits in the tests. If anything, the odds have been against the Deaf, simply as Deaf, as I think will be perceived from the following statement. The thirty children examined in school-room number two were all city children, surrounded by varied social influences from their birth. Among them were three children of practising physicians, three of school teachers, four of lawyers, two of college professors, four of successful and wealthy merchants and two of ministers of the gospel. From reference to the " family conditions " of the deaf children it will be perceived that the parents of seven are given as "poor" (fathers of three being well-to-do farmers) while four of the ten children are county charges. Fathers of four are poor farmers, the remaining three being offsprings of farm la- borers. Nine of the ten are of foreign parentage ; all are country children. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF TEN DEAF CHILDREN WHO ENTERED SCHOOL SEPT., 1898. The physical examination of children I-X, I subjoin in full, although I am not aware that it yielded results of particular value. Physical Examlna- mi. T.-U T T n i tion of 10 Deaf Inese children, as nearly as I could judge, subjects, seemed ordinarily robust and wholesome speci- mens, without any marked peculiarities and no more divergence from the normal standard than any particular set of youngsters would show from an unrealized average. As the average age of the ten was 8.5 at the time the examination was taken, I have compared them with eight and nine-year-old children wherever tables of measurement for normal children have been available. 20 3 1 1 9 *l 40 per ct. Lutheran. 30 per ct. Catholic. d d 70 per ct. Farmers. 30 per ct. Farm Ibrs. 0) ^.^ ^ C/5 .0 a) S 0) d o ^66 g (U a g co d d PL, d u o U d >, ,_; 0) 0) i^H $-1 C d W o ^ Ctf Q f^* d fc PM u U H *rt o U fail (2S Blood re- lationship of Parents M Is s Financial condition of Parents Religion of Parents. M 1 O c/) ^fe S c - No. of Brothers & Sisters. Source of Support. 21 ~ R a *. ^ rt ^J C ^-c-2 3 i *i ill H Rs O 43 P o rt > m o rt Cfl G 10 C/} C 1 CJ o -* C p 3ll c c c nj rt rt J 4) l-i 43 o S 4; O g 43 O g O 1 U | c 2 w i-i 4) o u, rt iL rt "rt J3 en g 4, Ov * rt 1 sS| i? 3 III "3 43 43 13 .g Is CO CO | .2 b ^ pq ri c rt 3 rt C rt Ja bo c u - U 43 * CO 9 rt Americ Americ Americ 5 10 mon -*- r^ O"" en '55 43 O c rt - . o 43 o u rt VO co rt 1 i If 2 o H i 43 ~ c 4) 4) u rt u rt rt ^3 en 10 CO rt 43 If If O s 43 C <3 O c e G C/5 rt rt rt X3 0) o 6 rt CJ ex i co s i 6 4) 1 1 e m M O o c rt 43 43 : ' * CO 13 1 a 09 1 5 H | s 1 - co Female. merican i a -. _rt fcj 2 13 I months. 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M U .S * III IS S rt i (U 8 n rt . s (3 T3 g g S) u"-" QJ 0) ^ 8 o 1 CC 0) ffl S w 8 o J>? 2 "rt CUX! u in 1 o 8 d o fc 8 | Enlarged Tonsils. 1 fe if 1 1 S- . t/j 8 8 d c'8 . >, * g i 8 "rt 353 i ^ o Q CM u a , Q a d D Q Ui ^ +- 1 1 > g 1 - 1 Sg-f "w M > be S ?* a S o it P 1 lil 1 8 1 0) aj OJ . in rn on 00 m in in in M ro in **< t-> in M in s^ in VO O Ov & m ^ i3 M vO M M 4- Tf vO a\ o CO M 5 81 Si I . 00 m vd M x m 00 $ 8 vo M Z-SS C N 00 G 1 00 m fi M d a m vd vO 00 m in in in tf) 00 1 2 ^ ^ I 1 05 - VO N m M m R g. VO - m * , V -* [easurements of Bod (In Centimetres.) I JSf 'S i t^ B jg be 1 it of Prominens Ver Height of Acromion . OS c GO "o 60 it of Tip of Middle f 1 JZ M '53 Extended Arms. & .5P & E V 28 1 VO t^ > > < 2 N M m 00 CO in in M M M 00 , ro H H oo ro m M UK OO - 2- M m M in M CO m CO H vO m 00 - H H * M 00 ro m M m 00 - M m oo H M M m oo i 0) 2 .9 "5 ft 1 0) U O s S 2 ffi "s BB a 43 a ef U a a (-1 4) H 5 " I 8 * 3 1 -3 t /1> TL ^H -I ^. S i ? 43 1> > ^ S" i - ! s s o a o s 29 There was no particular indication of such a fact this year, but as a rule, the children in my classes have had very poor teeth. This pertains not so much to the eight-year-old children as to those entering older; I think it may be laid down as a general rule, although by no means invariable, that the children who enter at the prescribed age are more likely to be of normal mental and physical condition than those who straggle in later ; this I should connect with the greater mentality of the parents. The more in- telligent parents are more anxious to improve every opportunity to educate their children. Very rapid and irregular pulse, with a corresponding heartbeat, characterized all ten of these children. I could account for this only upon the supposition that the children are always more or less nervous in the presence of a physician, al- though they do not show it, and that the effort at self-control may possibly augment the rate of circulation. The higher grade deaf all through life are exceedingly stoical. It seems to be a matter of necessity as well as of principle with them to conceal all disagreeable feelings, to the very limit of en- durance. In case of illness, the children have to be prevailed upon, by threats and entreaties, to divulge their symptoms. A little boy who broke out in the school-room with scarlet fever, was asked if his head ached? "Oh yes, for three days; but I was patient." H The School physicians lay it down as a general rule that our deaf children are more liable to catarrh and all throat diseases than the normal child. This is not, of course, any accompaniment of deafness, but the diseased conditions which have caused deafness have also often caused tendency to inflammation of the mucous mem- branes. It is to be perceived that all of the subjects examined are right-handed; however, for the first week, probably from bashful- * I quote (without permission) a letter I recently received from a deaf lady: "Mr. J. has been examining the records and finds hardly any twelve-year- old boys : they are all either more or less. I will send the ones you want this afternoon. I should go with them only I had the misfortune to fall and break my leg yesterday. But they can go alone. Which ones shall I send ?" ?x HC A I UNIVERSITY 1 30 ness, the children are all left-handed. I took great credit to my- self for having corrected this tendency with my first class. With my second class I took no notice of the bad habit, but, as before, had an exclusively right-handed class by the third week. SUMMARY OF PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS. The physical examination yields the fact that so far as ex- aminations of normal children eight years old have been tabulated, the ten deaf children are physically normal in all respects except deafness. There is not the slightest evidence that their sense de- fect has interfered in any way with their general health, growth, size, or bodily development. The Feeble-minded develop much slower than normal youth, even when they follow the ordinary lines of development. Many an imbecile of twenty has the ap- pearance of a child often. The Blind are often small for their years (from lack of exercise). The Deaf are fully up to the nor- mal average and are rather over than under sized. The only physical blemishes to which they seem particularly liable are poor teeth and tendency to catarrh. HOME CONDITIONS. Six of the ten were born deaf; the others became so under the ages of thirteen months, two from grip, and one from scarlet fever. In no case is any blood relationship between parents* reported. * A certain percentage of the defectives in all our institutions are the off- spring of deaf parents and a certain percentage come from parents who are blood relatives. It was once assumed that this would be true only of the con- genitally deaf, but it transpires that the tendency to become deaf through acci- dent is also congenital, that is, runs in families. The United States census contains no figures upon the causes of deafness, and only the isolated effort of a few private individuals have been directed to- ward collecting exact data upon this head. The general impression prevails that blood relationship of parents has a more deleterious effect upon the off- spring than the actual existence of the defect in the parent. Opinions like those expressed in the appended cutting are commonly met with. " Intermarriage of blood relations, from the Royal Family to the humblest individuals, has of late years been a matter of considerable interest. With re- gard to deaf mutes, statistics show, for the most part, that as the degree of re- lation is between the parents, the more numerous are the deaf mute children born. For example, one marriage between an aunt and nephew produced 31 The ten children have ten deaf brothers and sisters, that is there are twenty deaf children in the families from which these came. This is rather remarkable considering that the subjects were chosen without reference to cause or circumstances of deafness. But nine out of the ten deaf brothers and sisters pertain to the con- genitally deaf cases. One family shows five such children ; an- other three, with a fourth too young for his hearing to be made sure of. The nativity of parents is somewhat interesting, 50 per cent being Scandinavian.* This simply means, that the Scandina- vians prevail over other foreigners in Minnesota. Illinois shows a preponderance of German deaf, Massachusetts and Connecticut of Irish and Italian. There seems no doubt, how r ever, that the foreigners who deign to find homes among us are more subject to sense defects as well as other afflictions than persons of American parentage. The preponderance of boys over girls in this year's entering class is one maintained through all classes and is present in all institutions for defectives, boys being more liable to sense defects than girls.f eleven deaf-mutes; twenty-six marriages between first cousins produced thirty- eight deaf-mutes; marriages between blood relatives produced seventy-two deaf- mutes. These are important facts, which leave no doubt as to the influence of the intermarriage of blood relations in causing deaf-mutism. Ex. The total number of deaf pupils in our Institution whose parents are relat- ed is thirty. Total number of blind pupils in school whose parents are related, thirteen. Total number of deaf pupils both of whose parents are deaf, five. Total number of deaf pupils one of whose parents is deaf, three. Of the total number of pupils in our school, 25 per cent, is the product of the intermarriage of relatives, and 5 per cent, is descended from parents one or both of whom are deaf. Goodson Gazette, Virginia." This seems to me an excessive statement. Our own Institution certainly furnishes no parallel. The application blanks show 8 per cent, of the children offspring of related parents ; only about 2 per cent, offspring of deaf parents. * Five-ninths of the Class, entering '99, are Scandinavian. f Fifty-one per cent of our population are males, and more than fifty-five per cent of our sense-defectives (Blind 55 -f- per cent, Deaf 55 -(- per cent, and Feeble- Minded 55 -|- per cent). On the other hand the Insane show a slight preponderance of the female sex over its due proportion; there are somewhat less than 51 per cent of the Insane cases who are males. (United States Census Crime, Pauperism and Benevolence.) Our own Institution has 242 inmates; 102 are girls, 140 are boys. 32 Attention has already been called to the facts that the child- ren all have residence in country districts and that their parents are all engaged in agricultural pursuits ; that nearly all are in hum- ble circumstances and 30 per cent, in extreme poverty ; not one is of deaf parentage. The parents of all are church members except one father who " does not wish his child to attend any orthodox church," though the mother is a Lutheran. The children appear to have undergone few of the ordinary diseases of childhood, owing to their isolated home life. However, some one usually contrives to introduce measles, whooping-cough and chicken-pox during the first year, if not some more serious complaint, and the health record of the second year deaf is very different from that of the first, as well as their im- munities. In reply to the query: "What useful work, if any, has the child performed at home ? " the answers upon application blanks are various. As a rule the occupations mentioned are those which the child would engage in for recreation : nearly all " tend baby," and " tend chickens." One girl u likes to wash dishes and iron." Two " make garden ;" one boy " makes all his own playthings and harnesses and unharnesses the horse;" rather good for an eight- year-old. SUMMARY OF EXAMINATION INTO PREVIOUS HISTORY AND HOME CONDITIONS. The examination into the home conditions and previous his- tory of the ten average deaf children shows that they came almost exclusively from poor homes; that most of them are of foreign parentage though native Americans themselves ; That the ten have ten deaf brothers and sisters ; That all were born deaf or became so in infancy; That their parents are not deaf nor related to each other by blood in a single instance ; That they are all the offspring of religious parents; That the children are sound, healthy, cheerful, and whole- some; and would compare well physically with any school child- ren of their age. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF NINE DEAF CHILDREN WHO ENTERED SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER, 1899. 34 3 S i en ,- d 3 tS 2 en 2 n j_, ^ \ Scandi navian. Farmer III Countr "5 CD 55 H !i 1-1 *t fn -^ 'G CD u CD o ^o3 L 2 s ^ CD ^ S^ 1 g rt ac ^o^ c 1 CD ja "5 G O g o 525 1 U fe > U U h4 -*'*>* "In 1 rt 5 VH CO CD CD "rt .S en 3 S G en 1_i S 'd a tx % G O > | CD ^ u rt CQ 55 ^ & . V-i o cj ^j 1 ( H S CD G O en C H-l Farme 'CD Td u Catholi CD 1 CD | 11 > -H G o's " H |l i 55 Nor- wegian. Farmer. ' G -J CD ^ Country. Lutheran I O CD fc Scarlet Fever. u o >, >^, % &c fl 'rt "^ ^- CD i C CD O -4- *^ u CD CD 'C "xs l> 6 G G o -^ a x c5 a 43 g J|.s 3 H 245 ^ CD rt Pn |d-S i CJ G J 55 3 ffi ( ^ G & ^&i Five brothers sisters. if II CO ^ ^5 6 CD -a d 1 Luthera O fc CD fc HH Ili One sister ^ rt If Farmer. l|| Country. Lutheran CD CD Scarlet Fever. .i, j-i 6 cj t-H jS w ; Ho"" U H| XI en Farme s o CD 'd Countr Catholi CD fc CD | G | ^ C3 - G , O ^ rt t 1 CD a o Germa II "CD 'd Countr Luther 0) 55 CD G "3 U en , 4 1 MH CD Q M-t o Deafness. Deaf Relativ Nationality Parents. Occupation Parents. Condition o Life. Residence. Religion. Blood Relationship Parents. Deafness o Parents. Cause of Deafness. 35 t N 0) !: .si fl B "- 1 o 1? .si sS SB = e D B T oo t^ *o ^R i/^ M 10 ^O \r\ N y w t^> 4} 3 oo' 1 ,aja> 00 gfr ^ o ^- ro d _; *1 vd 1 M IO d vd M N C? ^ M t*^ IO N X CO . JS 10 00 ro CO M | ^ M N IN CO (U t i u oS 00 i i h- 1 00 fe" * a o ^ d o 0) 5 ^X ?, ^ > 0) * IO ^ N M 00 * 4 M 1 CO d 10 VO Normal. 10 N f 1 t I 00 . 4 V?? ro 10 IO o S ^ "o N q c o M > 0\ PH" JS oo *3 00 oo 00 IO ro B ^ M "J N 0) " CO JS Ov $ IO ro 13 "o M ^ IH **" o M M 13 M ^ 10 00 13 ^ * M M ro IO V 10 IO " a^ 13 M oo o^S 10 ro 10 10 ro a 00 N 7> 10 ro r~ ^ M 10 13 13 OJ M 00 ^ CO ) M ^ ro IO 6 CO M M i? ro 10 1_ 10 10 o N 3 V 03 l| -2* 03 he M d en 1 1 .SP '5 ffi Circumference of Head. .BP *0 rt a O i i 0) c 2 '6 1 u 1 e 5 Extended Arms. *9 years old, n^ Comparison with Hearing Eight- Year-Old Children. I have compared deaf children eight years of age with as many hearing children of the same age as my time allowed. The comparisons have been confined to the most obvious phases of child life, as the simpler the tests, the clearer the results. I have chosen average deaf children from the first year's class, and in order to give the Deaf no undue advantage in the compari- son, I have taken the best hearing subjects I could find. I think I have found at least average hearing children. I found the average weight of the deaf children 54.35 pounds, or 24.7 kilograms. J. A. Gilbert (Scripture Studies at Yale, 1892-3) gives the average weight of New Haven children, eight years of age, as 53 Ibs. ; of children nine years of age, as 60.48 Ibs.* Dr. Gilbert in the same article quotes the weights of Bostonf and Milwaukee^ children as 52.98 Ibs. and 52.34 Ibs. for eight- year-olds ; 58.15 Ibs. and 57.95 Ibs. for nine-year-olds. As I pre- sume all children less than nine to have been ranked as eight-years old in these tables, I find the deaf average fairly up to the hearing. I should say that these weights were taken when the children arrived in the fall ; they will be taken again in June, and an astonishing advance may be predicted, but this would be the case with any child at Boarding School. *Class of '99, weight 59.88 fts. Although more than half of the chil- dren examined this year are girls (f ) and fa of last year boys, yet, '99 averages a little higher all through the physical measurements than '98. This is doubtless due to the fact that the home conditions of this year's class are exceptionally good. Only three come from homes of poverty. f Investigated by Dr. Bowditch. ^Investigated by Dr. Peckham. 37 As regards height, I find the deaf average 48.75 inches.* or 123 centimetres. The eight-year-old children of New Haven average 48.65 inches in height. Those of Boston, 47.67 inches. Those of Milwaukee, 47.82 inches. The nine-year-old children of New Haven average 51.2 inches. Those of Boston, 49.53 inches. Those of Milwaukee, 49.9 inches. I find the head circumference of the deaf children to average 51.8 centimetres or 20f inches.")" I measured all the eight and nine year old heads in Faribault to the number of nearly 100, and find the average circumference also 51.8 centimetres. Dr. Arthur Macdonald, specialist in the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C., has examined the school children of Washing- ton in these respects.J He finds the average height of boys from 81 to 9? years of age, 49.74 inches; girls, 49.13. (Deaf boys, 49.88; deaf girls, 49.24. i. e. deaf children 8-9i years old). He finds the average weight of Washington boys from 82 to 9 years of age, 56.16 pounds ; girls, 53.67. (Deaf boys, 59 Ibs.; deaf girls, 54.3).|| He finds the average head circumference of Washington 8-year- old boys, 20! inches; girls, 201 . Deaf boys, 20A ; girls, 201! He finds the average right hand grasp of Washington boys eight and nine years of age, 11.7 kilograms; Washington girls are not given. The Deaf boys have a grasp of 13.7 k. g. Boys and girls to- gether, 11.2 kilograms.** *This year, 52.2 inches. fThis year, 51.65 centimetres a trifle less than last year. \ "Experimental Study of Children" A. Mcdonald. (Washington Government Printing Office, 1899.) This year, boys 51.4, girls 49.3. U This year, boys 66.7, girls 54.2. ^[This year, boys 21.03, girls 20.34. **This year, boys I2-J-, and boys and girls 10.8. 38 Dr. Macdonald has collected the results of some European in- vestigations. These show no material divergence from his figures. Scandinavian children are as a rule larger and stronger than German, Russian or Belgian, but slightly inferior to American children. Some additional figures were taken by Dr. Landsberger from examination of Polish children. He finds the chest circumference of 8-year-old children to be 58 centimetres. (The average chest circumference of the Deaf children is 67.05 c. m.)* Neck circumference of Polish children 26 c. m. (Neck circumference of Deaf children 26.2 c. m.)t Length of body of Polish children 117.3 c. m. (Length of body of Deaf children 123.)t Arm reach of Polish children 116.9 c. m. (Arm reach of Deaf children 124.63.) SPECIAL NERVE TESTS. I have been unable to get the normal figures in some of these special sense tests, and feel that any figures I might obtain from the limited number of hearing children within reach would be untrustworthy. No apparatus is employed beyond the reach of any country school teacher, and the experiments are stated in exact figures. (I really extended all of these tests to the hearing 8-year-old children in several school rooms, and found the deaf ahead in all respects ; but further experiment might reverse the relation, and I prefer not to make any statement of the comparison.) The Deaf children who entered '99 as well as '98 are included in the sense tests, making 19 children. *This year, 65,25. fThis year, 26.5. ^This year, 130.5. This year, 127.7. . 39 RHYTHM. My experiments on this point consisted in setting a time by tapping on the floor with a stick and asking the children to march to that time. The tapping ceased as soon as the marching began. With only one exception, (the little Irish girl designated as num- ber one) all succeeded in getting the step (of course I could only judge empirically) and marched well together, as well as separately. I then set a measure for each, and asked him to tap after me in the same time (for instance, two slow taps, i. e. each followed b} T a long interval, then two quick taps, then an interval, then three quick taps). At first the children had great difficulty in following the meas- ure. I discovered that this was caused by their watching my mo- tions, and trying to reproduce every slight visible flourish. When I called them very close, had them shut their eyes, and then tap- ped on the floor hard enough for them to feel a slight shock, they had not the slightest difficulty in following my little time schemes, with the one exception aforementioned of No. One of '98: she seemed quite lacking in the time sense. When tested on her sense of direction, she lost herself entirely and could not regain her bearings by running across familiar stationary objects in the school room. She only found the object she sought by falling over it, and then did not recognize it by touch. I came to the conclusion that she was peculiarly lacking in nerve co-ordination or rythm, as many persons are musics-deaf when not otherwise deaf, i. e. dull to time and pitch though not to volume of sound. Number one is fairly bright, but what is called "light-headed." By reference to the record of individual reaction times it will be seen that hers are considerably longer than those of any other child. Probably children are not purposely inattentive and " light headed." The Deaf are good dancers and exceedingly fond of dancing, skating and other exercises depending upon rhythmic motion for their charm. The boys in the carpenter shop and the girls in the sewing- room, according to empirical observations, expend their strength in regular rhythmic impulses. 40 The girls learn to sign hymns in perfect concert, and the older pupils become very expert in handling clubs and dumb-bells. From these facts it would appear, that Rythm is apprehended by touch as accurately, if not as readily, as by feeling and hearing combined, also that the pleasure derived therefrom is keen enough to inspire prolonged and ardent effort ; whether it be as keen as that enjoyed by normal organizations, it would be impossible to determine'/ I suppose there is no reason to doubt that the vital forces of the Deaf are set to rhythmic issues as are those of the normal man, and no more reason to wonder at this fact than at the rhythmic behaviour of tides, stocks, population, wheat, cattle and religion. At the same time, as has been already noted, their walk is un- steady, and their pulse irregular. SUMMARY. I found the Deaf at the time of entering school quite as apt in marching to a rhythmic measure as little hearing children ; many children cannot march to music. I found some of the Blind who made fair progress in studying music (though in a mechanical way) quite unable to keep step to a measure. Only one of the nineteen deaf children was unable to comprehend and adopt a rhythmic motion. The Deaf experience the ordinary pleasure in this. Little deaf children beguile their idle and restless minutes quite as hearing children do, in tapping or kicking or rattling pen- cils in a kind of measure. NERVE REACTIONS. My only experiments in nerve reaction were, 1st, the simple reaction time to sight (instead of hearing) of finger movement; 2d, choice reaction time to touch between the thumb, index, middle and little finger. 41 I. The average simple reaction time as reported by Dr. Gil- bert with New Haven children, eight years of age, is .269 sec. (two hundred and sixty-nine thousandths of a second); For those nine years-old .287 sec. (two hundred and eighty- seven thousandths of a second); The average time of the deaf children, is .253 sec. (two hun- dred and fifty-three thousandths of a second); II. The average reaction time with discrimination and choice for New Haven children eight years of age is .488 sec. (four hun- dred and eighty-eight thousandths of a second) ; For those nine years-old, .475 (four hundred and seventy-five thousandths of a second); For the deaf children .315 (three hundred and fifteen thous- andths of a second). I do not suppose that the actual reaction time can be less for a deaf than a hearing child. Dr. Gilbert's tables were derived from examining one hundred subjects. It is very possible that with all the difficulties in the way of communication, I managed to convey to a few deaf children's minds a clearer idea of what was wanted of them than a stranger could impart to a hundred hearing children. The difficulties of conveying any exact idea to a child of eight through artificial lan- guage alone, is, I am sure, really far greater than most adults are aware of. The experiments made under Dr. Scripture's directions at Yale indicate that not only is the simple reaction time nearly nor- mal, in a man on the verge of delirium tremens, and in a woman in a highly hysterical condition, but that the simple and even the choice reaction time of a dog is about that of a man.* It seems a warrantable influence that the retardation of reac- tion in children, increasing in inverse ratio to their ages, is, at least, partly due to lack of comprehension. It will be seen that the simple reaction time is little less with the deaf than the hearing (only sixteen and thirty-four thouandths of a second), while the choice reaction time is one hundred and *(I do not know whether the dog is compared with a man of his own age or not. It seems hardly scientific to compare a dog of ten with a man of forty.) 42 sixty and one hundred and seventy-three thousandths less than that given as normal. It is possible that the making the simple reaction one from sight instead of hearing may have also increased the minimum time. Of course, the hearing apparatus could not be concerned in the simple reaction : the eyes need not be so, but probably would be in a novice. SUMMARY. So far as observations have been extended, the nerve reaction time is perfectly normal in deaf children, that is, a trifle shorter than those recorded for hearing children of the same age. The little extra rapidity of reaction is probably due to the greater ease of explanation to a few subjects. TESTS OF VISION. The ordinary tests of vision were quite impracticable with these children in their languageless state. I accordingly arranged a test of my own, which is imperfect in the lack of a normal standard. I had some of the words with which the children are familiar printed in l 'Pica Roman" type and pasted each word on a separate card. I found that this print could be read by most of the deaf chil- dren at a distance of 6.4 feet. This was the average : The ex- tremes of divergence were 7.5 feet and 5 feet. (One child num- ber five of '98 is a little nearsighted. He could read only at two feet and his figure is omitted from the average.) Prof. Swift (State Normal School, Stevens Point, Wis.,) gives as normal vision, ability to read type nine millimeters (9 m. m.) square at a distance of twenty feet. But Prof. Swift found that only 50 per cent, of the subjects he has examined (students of all ages) have normal vision or vision better than normal. Normality 43 of vision is oftener found in primary schools than in advanced grades. I applied this test to my subjects, and found all but one of the Class of '98 normal plus. Three read the print, 9 in. m. square at a distance of 27 feet; the one whose vision was sub-normal read it at 18 feet. The average was 24 feet. The average of the Class of '99 was 27 feet; five reached 30 feet ; only one fell to 21 feet. No one will marvel at this perfection in eyes which have not been injured by early application. Script of the same size, being more familiar, was read a little farther away. PERCEPTION OF COLOR. For this test I chose Bradley's Kindergarten in weaving mats packages, numbered 1019 (6?) 1019 (B) 1019 (R) 1019 (0) 1019 (P). (Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass). These papers are so universally known and used as almost to constitute a common color standard. I selected the four lightest tints from each package, the colors being orange, blue, green, vio- let and red. I gave each child one strip of each of the twenty mats, with the simple direction to "sort them." After a minute or two, I saw that the lighter shades of orange and red, also those of blue and purple, were being confused, so I removed the orange and purple, leaving only red, blue and green. Of the nineteen children, two mixed the colors, hopelessly. The others immediately separated the colors and placed them in the order of intensity save for the following errors: three misplaced one pink (placed a lighter after a darker pink instead of before); four misplaced a green ; two misplaced two colors, i. e. ; one in each of pink and blue ; nine arranged the colors without error. Being uncertain as to how far lack of comprehension might be responsible for mistakes, I arranged one set in proper order, and told the childen to "copy." This they all did without error. Then the papers were shuffled and re-sorted, without error, except by one.* *(He could copy the scheme but could not carry it in his mind. It is per- haps interesting to note that this and one other, the dullest in '98 and '99, were the least sensitive to all nerve impressions). 44 COLOR OBSERVATION. Miss Ada Carman examined 1507 school children (of Saginaw, Michigan), ranging from 10 to 18 years of age.* She reports that 25 per cent, of these did not know the color of their own hair and 50 per cent, did not know the color of their own eyes. It seems to me that the requirements of statements must have been very severe, or the children were possessed with the "don't-know " fiend, so annoying to public school teachers. The first year deaf do not learn to write the names of colors until late in the year, and the children who entered this fall have not yet learned the signs of colors, so they were passed over. But I put these two questions: "What color of hair have you?" and " what color of eyes have you?" to six classes of one, two and three years' standing in school. Of the 75 children questioned, only 6 had failed to notice the color of their own hair and eyes, and to carry a good concept of these features, though they could not always describe them in orthodox phrase. A boy with yellow-gray eyes, called them "almost yellow." One with blue gray eyes, said they were "blue mixed." A third with green-gray eyes, described them as " bright, with little greens." Sandy hair was denominated as "some yellow-white-brown." I accepted all these definitions as correct, that is, good evi- dence of self-observation. SENSE OF TASTE. In this test, again, I am without normal data; but I tested the four gustatory perceptions, sweet, salt, sour and bitter, in the fol- lowing manner : I. I allowed a level teaspoonful of sugar to dissolve in half a gill of water. II. A level teaspoonful of salt in half a gill of water. * MacDonald's Compilation, (p 1114). 45 III. I dropped phosphoric acid (iV) into half a gill of water, until "sour" could be perceived ; and IV. Nux Vomica (iV) into half a gill of water, until " bitter" could be perceived. Both classes, '98 and '99, were tested on this. I. With very slight divergence, 30 drops of the sweet mix- ture, dropped into half a gill of water, gave the taste of sweet. The extremes were 27 drops and 35 drops. 30 was the average. II. Not one of the children could detect "salt" when two drops of the salt mixture were diluted with two teaspoonfuls of water; most of the nineteen recognized "salt" from three drops; all were sure of it, at four drops. III. The sign "sour lemon" was invariably given upon tast- ing 40 drops of phosphoric acid (A) in 4 gill of water. All of the girls but one detected this at 35 drops; four of them were sure of "sour 1 ' at 30 drops. IV. The bitter test had to be abandoned because the children have no sign for u bitter," and apparently no comprehension of the taste. ATHLETIC TESTS. A physical comparison of deaf and hearing children would be meaningless without some test of their comparative available ac- tivity. As no formula of ordinary child capability have been made, and as apparatus was lacking for muscular tests, I fell back upon contests between my ten deaf boys and picked hearing boys of the same age. The tests were, I am aware, somewhat unscientific, but per- haps, serve the purpose of general comparison better than as though I had been confined to the use of apparatus without the spirit of contest. Owing also to the loose nature of the tests, I am obliged to state results generally, rather than in exact terms. I do not feel, 46 however, that this vagueness vitiates the results, for repeated trials yielded the same general outcome, and I may say for them, that they have considerably altered my own previous opinions, formed without due foundation. I had imagined from the robust appearance of deaf boys, that they would prove more than a match, physically, for hearing hoys of the same age, whereas I had not the least expectation that the latter would be worsted in memory tests, particularly word memo- ry. The tests in manual dexterity eventuated in accordance with my expectations. I first tested accuracy of taste and sense of direction, before beginning the athletic contests, which included running, jumping, pushing, pulling, throwing a weight, and throwing at a mark. The tests were conducted as follows : The twenty boys were blindfolded and held their own noses ; each received upon his tongue in succession, a piece of soft white bread, part of the white and the yolk of an egg, a piece of cold po- tato, a piece of cheese and a piece of fresh fish. The score stood as follows : Two failures on the part of the deaf to distinguish white of egg, and one, yolk. Three failures on the part of the hearing to distinguish white of egg, one, yolk and one, potato. 2. Next the children were taken to a dark cellar full of pit- falls (these were guarded, but they did not know it). Each saw an egg placed in a jar at as great a distance from his position as the limits of the room allowed. He was then blind- folded and turned around several times to confuse him ; then he set out in search of his egg. Every one found his egg, and only five, two deaf and three hearing, showed any uncertainty as to their direction. Two, both deaf, walked directly toward the object, and found it without making a false step. These results surprised me, somewhat, as I had expected the deaf to be more confused than the hearing. 3. The running test followed, in which the deaf were hope- lessly out-distanced. It may be that no amount of training could 47 make really good runners of the deaf, but in these boys I particu- larly noticed the lack of racing feeling, if I ma} 7 so speak. The boys traversed a bridge 150 feet long, picked up an orange, (this to ensure fairness at the turning point) and returned to the start. The deaf made a good showing until they reached the oranges, but always slacked up then, and returned at a jog trot; while the hearing boys, urged on by the shouts of their comrades, redoubled their efforts on the home trip. Separate races yielded the same result as the race en masse ; the hearing were always a little in advance and sometimes a long way. Only one of the races was won by a deaf boy, i. e. : The fastest deaf runner defeated the fastest hearing runner. 4. A "tug of war" resulted in a decided triumph of the ten deaf boys over the ten hearing ; the same result attended the push- ing contest ; in other words, the deaf boys were heavier than the hearing boys of the same age, and stronger than the hearing boys of the same weight. These pulling and pushing tests were taken en masse and seriatim with the same unvarying outcome ; that is, the deaf boys pulled a long rope with the hearing boys struggling at the outer end of it quite across the room, and pushed the same line of hearing boys to the opposite side of the room, as many times as the feats were attempted. The individual deaf boys handled their individual opponents (when matched by weight and height) as easily. 5. The boys then threw a weight as far as possible (the dis- tance thrown being the desideratum); there was no apparent dif- ference in the success of the deaf and the hearing ; rather, height and weight proved the touchstones. When all took their places on their own markers, the tallest of the twenty boys, (a hearing boy) occupied the farthest point, next five nine-year olds (two deaf and three hearing) stood, al- most in a line, at right angles to the line traversed by the weight; next, four deaf boys ; then two hearing; then three hearing and two deaf; last, two deaf and one hearing, all standing nearly in the order of height, like a flight of stairs. 6. Throwing at a mark was an easy victory for the hearing 48 boys : Three of the nine struck the target, while not one of the deaf came near it, except the boy who won the race. This boy, by the by, has the inestimable advantage to a deaf child of a deaf brother and a deaf sister. As he has had playfel- lows all his life on terms of equality with himself, he is by this much more like a hearing child. (That is, knows better how to play.) 7. The jumping contest (standing long jump) was about even : The farthest point was reached by the tallest hearing boy, but after him came three deaf boys before a second hearing boy inter- vened on the line of markers. SUMMARY. The games instituted to judge of the available physical activ- ity of the Deaf and Hearing at eight years of age consisted of 1. Running. 2. Jumping. 3. Pushing. 4. Pulling. 5. Throwing a weight. 6. Throwing at a mark. The Hearing were far superior in tests 1 and 6. The Deaf showed marked superiority in 3 and 4. The two sets were about equal in 2 and 5. The exercises which called for mere strength showed the Deaf to be stronger. Those which called for strength and agility, showed a gain on the part of the Hearing. Those which called for skill developed in childish sports show- ed great superiority on the part of the Hearing. The results of this contest between deaf and hearing children led me to duplicate the tests with a group of picked deaf boys, twelve years of age, and an equal number of hearing boys of the same age. 49 My object in the second test was to note the advantage of play-fellowship in developing the latent capabilities of the deaf, but no such advantage became apparent, the results being substan- tially the same as with the younger children. The pulling, pushing, running and throwing contests resulted almost precisely as they had done previously : the deaf had gained somewhat in running, though still easily beaten : the hearing had gained in pushing and pulling, but were still out pushed and out- pulled. Schoolboy games of skill had given the hearing twelve-year- olds an added accuracy of aim in shooting marbles, throwing and catching a ball, etc., while the fifth year deaf boys were not much superior to the new comers. The sense of direction was still further tested by requiring each boy to walk to a given spot, blindfolded, and to carry a small block on his head. When the block slipped to one side a trifle, the bearer turned in that direction, as though the slight extra impulse led him to walk in a circle. As before, the deaf boys kept their sense of direction as well as the hearing, but did not steady their weight as well. Three dropped off the block and one could not take three steps without losing it, though we gave him three trials. It is proverbial that the deaf walk unsteadily after dark, but it would seem that the unsteadiness is not necessarily accompanied by any failure of the sense of locality. I may, perhaps, properly mention, here, two or three observa- tions upon matters not included in the program of sports, which seemed to me not without significance. They pertain equally to children of both ages. First. In order to ensure equality of conditions, I prescribed a certain position to be assumed by all alike in each test. All of the hearing boys (except the one selected to recommend a position) immediately objected to it as "no good," and required repeated reminders before deigning to assume it. The deaf, without exception, merely from the first general di- rection, took the attitude with scrupulous accuracy. Second. The spirit of combat, the interest in the game, as a game, was much greater on the part of the hearing; their deter- 50 mination to win was much stronger; their dissatisfaction over de- feat more evident. The deaf always asked me if they had "done it right," and rested satisfied with my assurance that they had, not troubling themselves with the fact that their competitors had done better. Finally, as the children departed from the scene of their con- tests, each deaf boy shook hands, wished me "good afternoon, "and thanked me for a "pleasant time;" shyness or thoughtlessness caused the hearing boys to dispense with these courtesies. If Lam at liberty to draw any generalizations from these tests, they are as follows : . Whereas, hearing children through constant attention to boy- ish sports have strongly developed the spirit of rivalry, so impor- tant all through life, their eternal practice in playing has also given them a skill in judging distances and direction, an accuracy of aim, steadiness of hand and a strength and agility of limb, which no amount of set instruction in gymnastics could ever convey. The deaf, on the other hand, inferior in all these respects, have more self-control, more discipline, more concentration of purpose. They do not play as well as hearing children, but work better, and require less incentive to effort, other than the wish of a superior. Their sense of duty, obedience and courtesy, becomes early and strongly developed. I think the younger children in a deaf institution do little real, earnest playing, possibly because their well ordered lives, full day, and industrial training, leave them more inclined for rest than recreation in their leisure moments. I think no one will question that this is to be regretted, and the practical outcome of this paper will be that at least one teach- er of little deaf children will make a determined effort to turn their attention to actual school-boy sports, something more artificial than mere rough-and-tumble.* * The only real game which I have noticed as invented by the younger deaf boys is conducted as follows: Some plucky boy, the champion of his size, throws himself flat on the ground and challenges his playfellows to crush him ("flatten" him). One after another the other boys stretch themselves on his length as long as the pile will stand. The real game arranges for monitors to guard the pile and hold it in position until it extends above the head of the tallest ; but as an actual fact, a squabble always breaks out in the writhing mass, before it reach- 51 That their awkwardness in sport results from lack of practice rather than natural inaptitude, is evidenced by the skill in gym- nastics and athletic sports attained by the older deaf boys, when they religiously set themselves at practice. The deaf football team and the baseball nine have defeated the Faribault High School ditto and the athletes of Seabury Divinity School. The students of the National Deaf-mute College at Washing- ton have won the championship of the Maryland and District of Columbia College football league for the past two years, with but sixty students to draw from. SUMMARY. The athletic sports extended to twelve-year-old boys, both deaf and hearing, resulted very much as did those with the younger children : The deaf still excelled in pushing and pulling, i. e. ex- penditure of mere brute strength, but had gained little skill in the output of their animal spirits. The ordinary twelve-year-old boy is absorbed in play, gives the best hours of the twenty-four to the exercise of his senses and his muscles in competitive games, and has gained a specialized use of his limbs. es these dimensions. That this sport has never yet proved fatal to the under- pinning is a matter of marvel to every adult who has ever witnessed it. It has never, that I am aware, reached a legitimate climax, for some grown person is sure to discover its progress, rush in, overturn the struggling, howl- ing heap, and drag out the exhausted hero from beneath. But before he has regained his natural color he is ready to renew his challenge. From witnessing this exercise, and similar sports among hearing boys, I am quite convinced that little boys enjoy being hurt and recognize no fun which does not involve the certainty of pain. Older boys enjoy the risk of pain, and the disinclination to take this risk in sport is, I think, a sign of maturity. (I suppose Athletes would call it a sign of decrepitude). A heroic game among the blind is for two boys to provide themselves with a quantity of stones, stand a short distance apart and call to each other ; then each hurls a stone in the direction of his adversary's voice. The one who first draws blood is the victor, or, it may be the one who first hits the other, or hits him a certain number of times. Terms differ. 52 Lack of practice is the primary cause of the inferiority of the deaf, but lack of competitive ambition is also chargeable with their clumsiness. The deaf child's life is more industrial than the normal child's ; he does not know how to play and likes to work. He is kept steadily at work and in hours of leisure is inclined to rest. Yet this lack of practice has not resulted in a weakening of the tissues nor a stunting of the size. The strength of the deaf boy at twelve years of age is simply waiting to be used. And if ambition and competition are aroused in the older boys (by teachers who have been themselves college athletes) these still are capable of learning how to play. DEFTNESS. The tests in manual dexterity were sufficiently simple to ad- mit of exact marking. Test number I consisted of stringing a set of Kindergarten beads in a prescribed order of the six colors. The beads were placed belter skelter in a small tin box from which each was taken separately. The average time occupied by the deaf eight-year-old children for this test was 3.4 minutes ; that of the hearing, 7.1 minutes. The same test extended to the seven deaf boys twelve years of age, showed the average time occupied 2.2 minutes. Seven hearing boys selected as most promising by their teach- er from a sixth grade school-room occupied an average time of 2.1 minutes. Test number II consisted in piling a set of fifty-five dominoes in five columns, eleven in each, and returning them in order to the box. The average time occupied by the deaf (eight-year-olds) was 4.3 minutes; by the hearing, 6.9 minutes. The same test extended to the twelve-year-olds gave an aver- age of 3.4 minutes to the deaf and the same (3.4) to the hearing. 53 - It will be seen that although both deaf and hearing have gained in dexterity in four years of school life, the hearing have gained far more than the deaf. This is somewhat surprising, since the deaf use their fingers almost constantly about their school work : at the same time all of the hearing boys had actually handled dominoes in games, while most of the deaf had done so very rarely if at all. Test number III consisted in sorting in order of size a set of very small buttons, very nearly the same in diameter, no two be- ing precisely the same. The average time occupied by the younger deaf children for this test was 25 seconds, and by the hearing, 30 seconds : more- over, three hearing children out of ten failed to place the buttons in the proper order. The deaf made no mistakes as to size. This test was not given to the older children. In addition, the boys twelve years of age were required to turn the pages of a blank book and write their own initials upon each page : the average time occupied by the deaf was 44.2 seconds ; by the hearing 46.4 seconds. The fourth test for the older boys was sewing ten buttons on a strip of cloth, two stitches to a button. The average time occupied by the deaf was 5.3 minutes ; by the hearing, 7.3 minutes. Lest it be imagined that the chances here would be in favor of Institution-bred children, I may state that not one of the deaf boys chosen had ever sewed on a button before, while three of the hear- ing boys claimed to have done a large share of their family sewing. SUMMARY. The tests in Manual Dexterity were, all in all, and separately, in favor of the deaf. The little deaf children were ahead of the little hearing children in every instance in point of rapidity, and excelled them as much in point of accuracy. In the tests with the twelve-year-old children, the deaf were 54 still generally ahead (actually so in every instance but one) but the discrepancy was not nearly as marked as with the younger children. Whereas the hearing boys of twelve were quicker than those of eight, they were also more accurate; the deaf boys of twelve were also quicker than the younger ones, but could hardly be more accurate. In fact, no human efforts can excel the careful and painstaking attention to detail of these little untaught deaf children. Their constant fidelity to the one means of information open to them is pathetic in its patient unchildishness. I should not say that they lose this attentiveness as they grow older, but gain rather in concentration than observation. OBSERVATION AND MEMORY. Finally, I took tests in observation and memory. The results showed that the trial was too simple to show the comparative ability of deaf and hearing, since the memory of the former should have been strained to the breaking point. Test No. I consisted in placing ten small objects upon a table, leading each child past separately, telling him to note all the ob- jects, then sending him to another room to write the names of all the objects he remembered. The average number of objects noted by the deaf was 9.07 ; that is, each child remembered every object, except that one forgot one and another two. The average number written by the hearing was five and nine- tenths. Test No. II was more difficult in that the ten objects were hung on a bangle board, exposed about a quarter of a minute to the whole school, then covered. In this test the deaf children reached an average of 9.99; the hearing, an average of 6.6; (nine and nine-tenths; six and six- tenths). I gave the same test to two oral classes, the first year and the second year, both containing sixteen children of the required ages. 55 The average number of words handed in was 8.6 (eight and six- tenths).* Test number III consisted of three short and arbitrary collec- tions of letters presented to the children, then removed and called for the next day. The average attained by the deaf was ten (10); that by the hearing, 4.2. Of course, all words learned by the deaf are, in fact, arbitrary collections of letters, since they never learn the laws by which sounds are combined into speech and represented in spelling. But this arbitrary letter memory could hardly be extensively de- veloped during the first year of school life; hence the peculiar sig- nificance of these memory tests. The twelve year old boys had ten words uncovered before them, were allowed to study them one minute, then the words were erased and reproduced. This exercise was presented to a fifth year deaf class and a fifth year hearing class, also a sixth year hearing class. This gave ten deaf children of the proper age and seventy- eight hearing children ; twelve years of age. The words were : " Rhinoceros. Schoolhouse. Running. Anxious. Miserable. Angel. Happy. Fog. Bridge. Snow-bank." *(It is not to be understood that the lower average attained by the oral pu- pils reflects either upon their natural intellect nor upon the methods employed in their instruction ; but, no doubt, their efforts, both at home and at school, to read the lips of their hearing associates has subtracted just so much from their observation of things about them. At any rate they are not to be regarded as normal deaf children.} 56 The average written by the deaf was ten (10); by the hearing, 8.7. Not quite 50 per cent, of the hearing obtained ten. Not one of these tests had ever been tried before with either deaf or hearing classes. I also signed ten words in rapid succession (detached words) and asked the first year class to sign them after me. The average correctness was ten on a scale of ten. When the same words were spoken to a hearing class, the aver- age number reproduced was 6.4 (six and four-tenths.) 57 i w > bo Tf M co en O O Q) C) tx ON o ^ < CO t^ ^* vo m o ON in * M CO in co 2 - S c^ 2 ^ O Tj- ^ co O Oi m 10 Tt- s a o ^ vo w o 00 m co 8 a Q vo vo < ^ 10 m CO t^ O ^ o __ en 3 ? VO CO N vO vO S 5 O . M o __ X 1 M S* m o H O -, O ff. - I SB 1 H ^ *^ o " ^ vo 2 o M tuO * . A^ ^ CO Q d E - CO co 2 Q} o W CO o vo Q M ^ o M in f r. "? 1 -n 00 VO n M P0 g H "*" S o < en M m ^j- 10 0\ % X vo o ,_. ro w ffi ^ o N Q W t 1 CU O O 9 9 y -|- -|- -)- _j- en en -J- -|- * -j- c M M Tj- Tf | | ro ro o t^ > CN N ro ro N < ^- in t> M od < TJ- vd d d in cu cu m m o M o m 4- od M O in VO in M m d d cu cu en en vo VO en' M N O O M 'DJ * <* 3 d d ^ m m ro Tf cu cu en en \T) Q\ M 00 H ro ro ~j in O O ^ * cs *\- ro in ro en en O - M M I-H t ( ^ paidnooQ sajnuij^ a' 1 'AI'I sjsax > > 60 TEST V FOR HEARING TWELVE- YEAR-OLDS. The words given were : 1. Rhinoceros ; 2. Angel ; 3. School- house ; 4. Happy ; 5. Running ; 6. Fog ; 7. Anxious ; 8. Bridge ; 9. miserable ; 10. Snow-bank. Out of the 78 pupils of the fifth and sixth grades, tested, 33 (not quite 50 per cent) remembered the ten words. 33 remembered ten. 16 " nine. 16 " eight. 8 " seven. 3 " six. 1 " five. 1 " four. Average 8.7+. The words were exposed to view one minute by the teacher, then erased and written immediately upon slips of paper. (All of these slips are, of course, preserved.) SUMMARY. In the tests in observation and memory, both of objects and of words, both with eight-year-old and twelve-year-old children, but one result is apparent, the unquestionable superiority of the deaf. The excellent spelling of the deaf as compared with that of the hearing is also significant. We now perceive in what direction the education of the deaf has been going on, while hearing boys are learning to run, throw, jump and climb. The former have been learning to work in harness while the latter have been learn- ing independence of the whole adult world. School Work of the First Year. The first year's school work is primarily and all through, lan- guage drill. All exercises upon any subject have the invariable end in view of inculcating the English language. The difficulties are mountainous. I. In the first place the idea is to be instilled into the blank little minds that words represent things. The newcomers are utterly languageless. The natural sign language with which alone they are equipped is meagre beyond belief, consisting mostly in pointing, counting on the fingers and a few descriptive signs made by outlining objects in air. I have only found two or three instances of artificial signs used in a general sense by little deaf children. However, I imagine there is a field for study in the original languages of the untaught deaf. It is probably shyness and be- wilderment which checks the use of these individual schemes in a strange place.* But at any rate it is only natural and descriptive gestures and these apparently quite unfamiliar, which can be used with a be- ginning deaf class, and the idea of written language is something utterly unknown to the children. II. After they imbibe the idea that words, written and spelled, * Letters of inquiry sent to the parents of the class entering this fall and personal inquiries where these were possible, elicited the information that many such signs are used at home, signs really artificial, not imitative or descriptive. The parents of children who enter under the age of ten make meagre re- ports of original signs, but the children from ten to fourteen have originated a good many, and those who enter as adults seem to have really framed for them- selves and their family, a rude sign language. The application blank of a boy of eighteen answers the query: "How do you communicate with him?" "By signs. He thought them himself." And this boy really expresses ideas of some degree of abstraction by his own improvised signs. 62 stand for things, attention is devoted for some weeks to teaching a certain number of words. This is slow work, at first, but is so facilitated by practice and growing interest, that the number which could be taught a bright child in the first year or two (while the zest of learning is still keen) is, I think, almost unlimited. But the great bugbear of the deaf-mute, viz., language con- struction, confronts him immediately, and very little time is devot- ed to the actual memorizing of words. After a little, the words come of themselves, and arrange themselves in the most unintel- ligible combinations to be conceived.* When about twenty names of objects (always things which can be produced and handled) have been taught, the children are taught their own names and those of their class-mates. (During the year the children actually learn out of school hours the names of nearly every one about the Institution. The excitement of wandering about the house and grounds, asking each passerby if he has a name and what it is, furnishes ample social dissipation for the first year children. It is their first story book, as captivating as Robinson Crusoe. III. Sentence building is then begun in its simplest form, the combination of a proper name and an intransitive verb. The verb must be one which can represent an actual action performed be- fore the pupil's eyes. Incredible as it may appear, there are but about thirty good intransitive verbs in the English language suitable for use in a small room, and some of these must be used fictitiously (such as " skate, " " fly, " " swim, " &c.) * The following letter was written by a girl in her fifth year at a certain School ; not the Minnescta school, though, we could doubtles parallel it. " My dear Mother : I like sews something cloths. I have went to store. I like see the store. Hughes gives to me and reads paper. I will to thank you and the reads paper. I am glad to letter. A. L. gives to me and nuts. I like to A. L. My teacher's names is Miss W. Please give to me write letter the Marys. I like to school. You have to very well. Last Sunday I reads the books. I am very tired. Please give to me and stamps sister Marys. Do you like the school ? You have the works. You sews the something cloths. You are well. I read the books. I like to school. I see the store. I have to beautiful. I walked see the tree." 63 IV. Common nouns preceded by the article are now com- bined with -the verb, and original composition, i. e., written descrip- tion of actually witnessed occurrences, now takes the place it is to keep all through the entire school course, that is, it forms the prin- cipal exercise of each school session. In the latter years this composition may deal with last sum- mer's experiences; during the first year it must deal with im- mediate and present experiences. A deaf child is not considered to have learned any word or sentence form until he has learned to write it. This is his real language exercise. V. The transitive verb follows with its object. An ordinary class learns to use three sentence forms by Christmas. In the latter half of the school year, new sentence forms are almost as eagerly and easily imbibed as new words, but the great- est care must be exercised to limit the number presented. Usually about sixty transitive verbs are taught during the year. VI. In January, the use of numeral and descriptive adjec- tives is introduced, and forty or more of these are found available for school work. VII. In March, Prepositional phrases make their appearance and a dozen or more prepositions furnish material for school work up to the last of April when the Pronouns " He, " " His, " " Him, " "She," "her," "it," "its," "They," " their," " them," " I," " my," "me, " " We, " " our, " " You, " " your, " are taught in their gram- matical connection. "I," "my," and "me," have been used earlier. Questions corresponding to these sentence forms are also introduced. In all, about three hundred and fifty words are used in the school work of the first year, not merely learned, but actually med, as a child uses spoken words. Grammatical symbols are introduced the latter part of the term for each part of speech and a common exercise is to give the pupils a sentence form to be filled out with appropriate words. These grammatical categories are real bonds of association in the mind of the deaf child, probably the only child who ever learns a language on grammatical principles. When I asked a fifth year child for her vocabulary, the first 64 sheets handed in bore the words I taught her four years ago, in groups, of transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, prepositions, &c. I found a comparison of the work done in the first year of a hearing class impossible to compare with the work just outlined. The hearing child having a language already at command can turn his attention to the matter of thought rather than the vehicle. His first year is devoted to learning to read rather than learning to write. The number of words which hearing children, five and six years of age, learn to know, by sight, the first year, varies exceed- ingly with the teacher. No teacher of whom I made inquiries had previously kept any account. One primary teacher thought that her pupils learned about a thousand. Another ascertained, by actual count, that hers had learned two hundred and thirty (230), (that is, learned to read but not learned to write). Sentence forms and meanings of words are of course already learned before school is entered. It seems as though the mere learning to read would be a trifling task compared with the work accomplished in the deaf child's first year ; but it is to be consider- ed that the latter is two or three years older ; and that his interest and effort are concentrated upon his school work in a manner un- parallelled in a public school, where a child has a thousand dis- tractions of paramount interest to his lesson. As is to be expected, the deaf form a characteristic handwrit- ing much earlier than the hearing, though the latter enter school two years younger. I subjoin a few specimens of hand-writing for comparison. These, by the way, are the only specimens of handiwork I found it possible to compare. Specimens of Handwriting. I asked deaf children eight months in school to write some- thing as well as they could. This is a fair specimen of the result : 66 The following is an average specimen of the handwriting of the eight-year-old deaf children, who entered school September 1899: SVJUTuL. 67 The words on the preceding page were written at the begin- ning of their eleventh (llth) week in school. These are not copied sentences, but regular school exercises in composition, written directly from the action performed or the picture of an action. Naturally, in such an exercise, the mind is more intent upon the order of the words than upon the form of the letters. Although I also obtained specimens of handwriting from hear- ing schools I do not insert them here, for the reason that such specimens are so easy of access as not to be required. I am sure that anyone who will take the trouble to compare hearing children with deaf children in the matter of handwriting will readily yield the superiority of the latter and read with a new accent the claims of kindergartners as to the "educative" "in- fluence of finger-plays in developing strength and flexibility in the tiny lax fingers."* It is difficult to see why deaf children should learn to write easier and sooner than the hearing. I have been asked if I thought ordinary children would write as well, if they did not enter school before they were ten years old. My own theory is that the deaf learn to write easily and well, because writing for them is not an end but a means. The writers of these little specimens have never had a "writing lesson." Only in trying to do something which arouses an intellectual interest, as a final cause, can the physical capabilities be properly developed. The first year deaf children engage in the ordinary Kinder- garten occupations, i. e., "weave," "prick," etc., not only with pre- cision and neatness, but also with taste and fancy, far beyond what I have witnessed with the hearing, but I made no actual compari- sons. Perhaps I should mention one " knack " which the deaf easily acquire, although it is as much a matter of acquirement with them as with others. This is illustrative drawing. The use made of drawing by the teacher in conveying ideas suggests to the child a means of making himself understood, and he gets to use the art something after the fashion of savage picture- writing. Features important to the matter in hand are exaggerat- ed to enhance their effect. *(Preface to Emlie Poulsson's "Finger-Plays," 25th thousand, Boston, Lothrop Publishing Company.) 68 * g -3 -s 3-3' 3.3 ^ g O Pg a, ^ r- O -S ^ O ^3 ^ *-" r;^ .. g si CiD Jj t>0 c "m CD .S p ^3 * o S >> S | c3 CD c3 r T p O CD lii-i o SH d O g ^ CD O ^ C^ 53 CD -4-3 r?-< ^3 ?H 2 r-H ^ ^H! O CD ^ X . I -1* ^ *s ^ s o .S CD CD ^ w '02 . O ^ ^ OQ 02 H ^ .^P CD ^ ^ w SLjg-ra ^ =3 en ^ '> ^ m S T3 "111! O fe CD CD ^ O ^ G M ^ i CD -S ^ ^1-3 z; CD >> 00 W CQ !> 02 69 I give here an extract from a paper on the Education of the Deaf which I prepared for a different purpose several years ago. It illustrates, perhaps, as well as anything I can write, the very be- ginnings of scholastic endeavor. It will be seen that the aim all through is to allow life to impinge upon the learner as much as possible, and to find written expression for real experiences. It is the very acme of the inductive method, not chosen from principle but because it is the only way of conveying information and keeping interest always alive. " Fifteen homesick frightened little ones are before us, without the knowledge of a single word, moreover without an idea that any object in the universe ever had a name. In the absence of mental furniture, they are far more unreachable than a savage from the wild. We show them a toy cat, we draw a picture of a cat, we write the word "