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According to the statistics furnished by the American Asylum in 1857, out of 1,076 pupils received in that institution 542 were born deaf, 483 lost their hearing by sickness, and 51 from unknown causes; 236 lost their hearing under two years of age, 107 between two and three, and 140 over three years of age.

According to statistics furnished by the New York Institution in 1865, out of 559 pupils in that institution from 1854 to 1864, 207 were born deaf, 217 lost their hearing by sickness, and 135 from unknown causes; 75 lost their hearing under two years of age, 74 between two and five, 40 at five and upwards, that is, 114, or three tenths of the whole number of pupils, must have spoken and preserved for a time some memory of language. This does not include those who have still some hearing, which would probably increase the number of this class to nearly one half. Yet Dr. Stone informs us that only about one twentieth of the pupils in the American Asylum can profitably be instructed in articulation. The smallness of this number can be accounted for by the wide-spread opinion that language cannot be preserved to a deaf child, and the consequent want of effort on the part of the parent to teach the child until it is old enough to be sent to Hartford. Meanwhile language is to a great extent forgotten, memory of sound lost, pantomime substituted for speech; the organs of articulation by disuse have lost somewhat of their flexibility, while the difficulty is greatly increased by the unwillingness of the child to make the necessary effort.

Dr. Kitto felt this reluctance. He says: "Although I have no recollection of physical pain in the act of speaking, I felt the strongest possible indisposition to use my vocal organs. I seemed to labor under a moral disability which cannot be described by comparison with any disinclination which the reader can be supposed to have experienced. The force of this tendency to dumbness was so great, that for many years I habitually expressed myself to others in writing. Signs as a means of intercourse I always abominated, and no one could annoy me more than by adopting this mode of communication. In fact, I came to be generally considered as both deaf and dumb. I now speak with considerable ease and freedom, and in personal intercourse never resort to any other than the oral mode of communication." (38)

My little daughter lost her hearing at five years of age; her articulation was very imperfect, much more so than that of most children. She knew most, but not all, of her letters. The severe attack of scarlet-fever which deprived her of all hearing left her for a year very feeble. Her vocal organs were weakened, her speech grew gradually more indistinct, and she became disinclined to talk. We were told by teachers of deaf mutes that nothing could be done to preserve her speech, and that our only course was to send her, as soon as she should be old enough, to one of the Institutions, and educate her as a deaf mute. But she could speak, and, encouraged by what we heard from Dr. Howe of the German system, we determined to use every effort to retain what language she then had, and, if possible, to add to it. Our task was arduous, and at times we were almost discouraged; but the results of four years of labor have assured us of success. Little Mabel has nearly as much language as children of her age, can speak so as to make herself understood, and can understand any one who will speak to her slowly and distinctly.

Our little one represents a large class that might be trained in the same way, and with like results. Other cases have lately come under our own observation, of pupils older and further advanced, who have been taught by this method. Of one of these, a young man of eighteen, we have spoken in our account of the Chelmsford school; of another, a young girl of fifteen, we would shrink from speaking had she not, by years of patient labor, learned to converse even with strangers with such ease, grace, and simplicity, that it seemed wrong, from motives of delicacy, to pass her without a word. We believe in each of these cases it was from Dr. Howe that the parents received encouragement to pursue a system which has resulted so successfully.

EARLY EDUCATION OF DEAF MUTES.

We have already referred to the difference between the ages of commencing the instruction of deaf mutes in European schools and in the American Asylum. In the former the average age of admission is seven, while in the American Asylum the Directors advise that "school education should not commence earlier than ten, or be deferred later than twelve years of age, and for many reasons the latter age is preferable." (39)

The objections urged by the Principal of the Hartford Asylum against receiving pupils under twelve years of age are that home influences are peculiarly important to the little child; that as but six years are allowed for instruction, greater progress can be made between the ages of ten or twelve and eighteen than at any other period, and that at an earlier age than twelve the pupils could not be taught a trade by which they might in after life gain their own support.