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As soon as a child has learned the use of a noun, as apple, and of one or two signs of qualities, as sour and sweet, he begins to use them; he holds up the fruit, and lisps out, apple -- sour or apple -- sweet; he has not been taught a verb, and yet he uses one; he asserts the one apple to be sweet, the other to be sour; he in reality says, mentally, "apple is sweet apple," or "apple is sour apple;" and in a little while he catches by the ear, an audible sign,-- the word, is, and puts it in where he before used only a sign, or meant to use one. Just so with the deaf-mute; when he has learned a noun and an adjective he uses them by the help of a verb, or some mark of assertion, and you have only to give him some sign, which he will adopt just as readily as the speaking child, by mere imitation, and without any process of ratiocination. We give too narrow a definition when we say a verb is a word, &c. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the long, detailed, and very ingenious process laid down in some books for teaching verbs and other parts of speech to the deaf mutes, are worse than useless; they have excited much attention, and justly received much admiration for their ingenuity, but it is of the kind we should bestow on mechanical contrivances for imitating the human voice; and it would seem to be about as wise to teach a child to talk by directing him to contract this muscle, to relax that, and to place his lips in such and such a posture, as to teach a deaf-mute the use of the different parts of speech in the manner detailed by Sicard.

But it would swell this report to a volume, should I pursue the same train of remarks with regard to the different parts of speech. Indeed I should hardly have hazarded it here had it not been for assertions, emanating from respectable sources, that this child must have some vision, or hearing, or some remembrance of oral language, since she has easily attained the use of the most difficult parts of speech, which cost so much labor to those merely deaf and dumb. It is needless to repeat what is so well known to hundreds, that she is totally deaf and blind, and has been so from her tender infancy.

It will be observed by those who have had the patience to read the above remarks, that to the child with all his senses, the acquisition of a language, which has already been perfected by the labor of many successive generations, is an easy and pleasant task, and accomplished without any teacher; that for the deaf-mute the difficulty is increased a thousand fold; that for the deaf, dumb, and blind, it is immeasurably greater still; and that for poor Laura Bridgman it is even more increased by the fact that she has not that acuteness of smell and taste, which usually aid those in her situation, and that she relies upon touch alone. Nevertheless she goes on, joyously using her single small talent, patiently piling up her little heap of knowledge, and rejoicing as much over it as if it were a pyramid.

Before proceeding farther, it may be well to explain what was said in a former report about Laura's making a peculiar sound, whenever she meets any person, which she calls that person's noise; and about which many inquiries have been made; especially as an important physiological inference may be drawn from it. When she meets me, one of the pupils, or any intimate friend, she instantly makes a noise with the vocal organs; -- for one a chuckle, for another a cluck, for a third a nasal sound, for a fourth a guttural, &c. These are to her evidently signs, or names affixed to each person. These are known by those very intimate with her; when they speak to her of such and such an one, she makes his "noise;" and these noises or names have become so intimately associated with the persons, that sometimes, when she is sitting by herself, and the thought of a friend comes up in her mind, she utters his "noise," as she calls it, that is, what is to her his name. Now as she cannot hear a sound, as she never attempts, like deaf and dumb persons to attract the attention of others by making a noise, it follows that, impelled by the natural tendency of the human mind to attach signs to every thought, she selects the natural vehicle for the expression of it, and exercises the vocal organs, but without any definite view of producing an effect. This would seem to prove, if indeed any proof be wanting, that men did not select vocal sounds for a colloquial medium, from among other possible media, but that it is the natural one.

It may be remarked, in this connexion, that she laughs aloud, and more naturally than most deaf persons, and that she is almost constantly doing so. This is not checked at all, although it is not always an agreeable sound, because there is some danger that her pulmonary organs may suffer for want of that natural and healthy exercise which other persons have from speaking aloud. (1) In romping and frolicking she becomes quite noisy, and thus obtains some exercise for her lungs.