Library Collections: Document: Full Text

APPENDIX A.

DIRECTOR'S REPORT ON LAURA BRIDGMAN.

TO THE TRUSTEES.

GENTLEMEN,

This interesting child has continued through the past year to make rapid progress in the acquisition of knowledge. She seems, indeed, to advance, in a geometrical ratio, for every step which she takes aids her in that which is to follow. She has now become so well acquainted with language that she can comprehend and use all the parts of speech; and, although her vocabulary is still very small, it is so perfectly familiar as to be to her exactly what speech is to others, -- the vehicle for thought. She labored, for a long time, under a difficulty like that experienced by persons learning a foreign language; she had to make an effort to recall the sign with which she was to associate an idea; but now, the association is not only spontaneous and immediate, but, as with others, apparently necessary. As, when we see an object, -- a house, or a dog, -- we invariably think of the words house, dog -- so every thing with which Laura comes in contact is instantly suggestive of its name in her finger language.

Moreover, every thought that flashes through our minds is so intimately associated with language as to seem inseparable from it; for, although it is true that we do not always embody the thought in language, yet we think of the words; and when we are intently engaged or interested, then we are apt to express the emotion by an audible sign, -- by words. A person looking earnestly for any thing that is lost, on suddenly finding it, will think of the words, "I've found it," or, "Here it is," or, "How glad I am!" and perhaps he will utter them aloud. So with Laura, I doubt not that every thought instantly and spontaneously suggests the finger language, -- the signs with which it is associated; for if she be intently engaged by herself, her fingers are moving, and, as it were, mechanically forming the letters, though so swift and fleeting are the motions that no eye can trace them. I have often arrested her when thus soliloquizing, and asked her to tell me distinctly what she had been saying to herself; and she has laughed, and sometimes said, "I cannot remember;" at other times, by a strong mental effort, she has recalled the fleeting thoughts, and repeat them slowly. Visiters -sic- are sometimes amazed that her teachers can read the words as she forms them on her fingers; for so swift and varied are the motions, that they can see them only as they see indistinctly the spokes of a wheel in rapid motion; but, as by increase of motion, these separate spokes disappear, or are seen but as one, so do the motions of Laura's fingers, when she is talking rapidly to herself, become confused and illegible even to those most conversant with them.

Another proof of the spontaneous connection between her thoughts and these arbitrary signs is the fact that, when asleep, and disturbed by dreams, her fingers are at work, and doubtless uttering her thoughts irregularly, as we murmur them indistinctly in broken slumbers.

Some philosophers have supposed that speech, or the utterance of thought by vocal signs, was a human invention, -- a selection by man's wisdom of this particular form of communicating thought, in preference to any other form, as that of motions of the hand, fingers, &c.; and they suppose that a community might be formed with a valuable language, and yet without an audible sound. The phenomena presented by deaf mutes, however, contradict this supposition, if I rightly understand them. So strong seems the tendency to utter vocal sounds, that Laura uses them for different persons of her acquaintance whom she meets, having a distinct sound for each one. When, after a short absence, she goes into the sitting-room, where there are a dozen blind girls, she embraces them by turns, uttering rapidly, and in a high key, the peculiar sound which designates each one; and so different are they, that any of the blind girls can tell whom she is with. Now, if she were talking about these very girls to a third person, she would make the sign for them on her fingers without hesitation; yet I am inclined to believe that the thought of their vocal sign occurs first, and is translated, as it were, into the finger language, because, when she is alone, she sometimes utters these sounds or names of persons. She said to me, in answer to a question, why she uttered a certain sound rather than spelled the name, "I think of Jennette's noise, -- many times, when I think how she give me good things ; I do not think to spell her name." At another time, hearing her, in the next room, make the peculiar sound for Jennette, I hastened to her, and asked her why she made it; she said, "Because I think how she do love me much, and I love her very much."

This is not inconsistent with the opinion which I advanced at first, that she associates her thought immediately with finger language; it only shows that the natural tendency of the human mind is to express thought by some kind of symbol; that audible signs by the vocal organs are the first which suggest themselves; but that, where this avenue is blocked up, the natural tendency or inclination will be gratified in some other way.