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On the eighth day of March, 1847, the following sentence, taken at random from Mr. Bowles's book, was read to Laura Bridgman: "The hills are rich with pine forests, and these grow thicker and the trees larger and of greater variety, as also the valleys wider and seem more fertile, as the road progresses into Oregon." 34 words. Time occupied 50 seconds. Laura then took her writing tablet and wrote it down from memory, as follows, in eight minutes and forty-five seconds: "the hills are rich with pine forts, and those grow thick, the trees are enlarged and of greater variety, and also the valleys widen, and seem more fertile and the road progresses into the Oregon."

The word "forts" for "forests" is evidently a slip of the pencil. The general correctness is remarkable, and the time occupied was about the same as that of the slowest pupil in the exercise at Hartford. At the same time another sentence of thirty words was read to her in 35 seconds, which she repeated in 30 seconds.

Oliver Caswell was born November 1, 1829. He lost his senses of sight and hearing when he was three years and five months old. He continued to speak for a short time, but at the end of six months lost all power of articulation. He entered the Blind Asylum September 30, 1841; he then used a few signs, but these were soon laid aside, and by the end of a year he had learned about a hundred nouns and some adjectives. His temperament was lymphatic, while Laura's was nervous; but he was a patient, persevering worker. He can now converse on all common topics, and in the language of familiar conversation he rarely requires the explanation of a single word, but does not hesitate to ask when a word is used which is new to him. He writes a good letter, though he is called in the Forty-Third Report of the New York Institute for Deaf Mutes (p. 32) "the dull Oliver Caswell." Both of these children were taught words by the manual alphabet.

In 1842, when Julia Brace was nearly thirty-five years old, she was taken to South Boston. "There was, however, about her inexpressive face and her attitude and demeanor an entire passivity, denoting habitual inattention to external objects. She was pleased to learn new words, but could not remember the words any length of time, the natural result of the long inactivity of her brain, and of her having passed the age when the perceptive faculties are vividly and almost spontaneously at work." (26) It was, however, perfectly obvious to her teachers that there was no natural incapacity for the use of language, and they fully believed that, had she been taught at an early age by the same method as Laura Bridgman, the same results would have followed.

ARTICULATION.

Hitherto we have aimed to show that, if the deaf mute is to be taught the English language, this can be better accomplished by the manual alphabet, and without the use of the pantomimic language of signs. Our next topic, Articulation, or teaching the deaf mute to speak and read on the lips, is separate and distinct.

When Mr. Gallaudet visited France articulation was taught in all the English and in many of the European schools, and although, before leaving home, lie had commenced to teach Alice Coggswell to articulate, and apparently with good success, he returned with all the prejudices against this system which Sicard had inherited from the Abbé de 1'Épée, and which seem to have originated with the latter in a personal dispute between himself and Heinicke, the German teacher of articulation.

It was therefore stated at the very founding of the American Asylum, that articulation would form no part of the course of instruction, and that the teachers would "not waste their labor and that of their pupils upon this comparatively useless branch of their education"; (27) and again, twelve years later, that "All efforts to accomplish articulation are now considered useless, and are wholly abandoned." (28)

(28) Twelfth Report American Asylum.

"Until 1844 no teacher of deaf mutes, excepting Mr. Gallaudet, had visited any part of Europe for the purpose of inquiring on the spot into the value and results of the method there pursued, and Mr. Gallaudet derived his knowledge of the German system from books only." (29) For a generation our institutions had been pursuing one system, without any accurate knowledge of other methods, until Mr. Mann, then Secretary of the Board of Education for the State of Massachusetts, visited the German institutions, and upon his return made a report of the system of educating the deaf mutes in Germany.

Mr. Mann's report caused so great "a clamor," that the American Asylum at once sent their Principal, Mr. Weld, and the New York Institution sent Professor Day, now of Yale College, formerly a teacher at the New York Institution, to examine into the German system, and visit the European schools. The spirit in which they made their examination is forcibly stated in a discourse delivered by Professor Wagner, Principal of the school at Gmünd, at a convention of teachers of deaf mutes. After commenting upon the report of Professor Day, he says: "He, Mr. Day, came among us deeply imbued with Chinese prejudices; with his watch in one hand and his purse in the other, he visited our schools, and observed narrowly and with distrust our mode of instruction and its results. What report of it has he made at home? He has ridiculed our work. He says: 'Your way is good for nothing, -- it costs too much money and time. Indeed, I have found it so miserable that a real feeling of delicacy forbids me from fully exposing it. Chinese!' he adds, 'let everything be as it has been. I would, however, advise you to begin the method of articulation with some classes of deaf mutes.' If," continues the Professor, "they should follow his counsel, they would lay the foundation of an entire change, which would soon be accomplished." (30)