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The Blind And The Deaf, 1900

Creator: Alexander Graham Bell (author)
Date: 1906
Publisher: Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Source: Available at selected libraries

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The present classification has been effected through the cooperation of a committee of experts -- Dr. Z. T. Sowers, general physician. Dr. Charles W. Richardson, aurist, and the late Dr. Swan M. Burnett, oculist, all of Washington, District of Columbia.

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Diseases that produce the same effect upon the ear are grouped together. For example, scarlet fever, measles, disease of ear, etc., operate to produce an abscess in the middle ear. They are therefore grouped together, and the deafness is assigned to a "suppurative condition of the middle ear."

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The assigned causes of deafness are also considered in connection with hereditary influences shown by the consanguinity of the parents or the possession of deaf relatives. Deaf relatives are classified into four groups: a, deaf brothers, sisters, or ancestors (relatives in the direct line); b, collateral relatives (uncles, aunts, cousins, and other relatives not a, c, or d); c, deaf children (sons or daughters); and d, deaf husbands or wives.

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The present report also differs from former reports in its treatment of occupations. In order that the occupations of the deaf may be compared with the occupations of normal persons, the same classification has been adopted as that employed in the Twelfth Census for the general population of the country.

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The occupations of the deaf are also considered in connection with sex, race, and education, so that the occupations of the whites can be compared with those of the colored, and the occupations of the educated deaf contrasted with those of the uneducated. In relation to the educated deaf, the kind of school attended is noted, so that the occupations of those who have been educated in special schools for the deaf may be compared with the occupations of those who have been educated in the ordinary public schools of the country, or who have not been educated at all.

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Another difference relates to the classification of the deaf themselves.

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In the earlier Census reports the attempt was made to enumerate the "deaf and dumb" alone, excluding all of the deaf who could speak. In the Tenth Census all persons who lost hearing before they reached the age of 16 years were classed as "deaf and dumb," whether they could speak or not; and in the Eleventh

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Census the deaf were divided into two broad classes based upon their ability to speak, viz, "the deaf and dumb" and "the deaf but not dumb."

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In the present report the age or period. of life when deafness occurred is adopted as the basis of classification; and the deaf are divided into two broad classes quite independently of their ability to speak -- "the deaf from childhood" and "the deaf from adult life."

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The ability to speak is an acquired condition, and not, therefore, suitable as a basis for classification. Speech is usually acquired through hearing and imitation, but it may also be acquired (independently of hearing) through special instruction; and, as a matter of fact, many deaf mutes are now taught to speak in a more or less intelligible manner. These cases make their appearance in the census returns as "deaf but not dumb," thus apparently reducing the numbers of the class "deaf and dumb," to which they originally belonged.

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It is very desirable that the classification of the deaf should be based upon a natural condition which can not be changed. The age or period of life when deafness occurred is a condition of this kind, and the deaf and dumb, whether they have been taught to speak or not, belong naturally to the class "deaf from child- hood," and are thus differentiated from that large class of speaking persons who lost hearing in adult life.

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Another noteworthy difference between this and former reports consists in the copious use 6f graphical diagrams upon a small scale, illustrating the tables. The smallness of the scale employed reduces to insignificance minor details, in which only small numbers are involved, thus bringing out clearly in relief the really salient features of the tables. The diagrams give a sort of bird's-eye view of the general features of the tables, and when closer inspection is desired the tables themselves give the details.

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All the information tabulated by the Census Bureau concerning the deaf will be found fully elaborated in the general tables. All other tables used in this report have been compiled from these. Tables 1 to 10 of the general tables are summary tables, giving a survey of the whole scope of the investigation.

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COMPARISON WITH FORMER CENSUSES.

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In taking the earlier censuses (1830 to 1870) the enumerators were instructed to return only those who were actually deaf and dumb; but in 1880 it was recognized that many of the so-called deaf and dumb could speak -- imperfectly perhaps, but still sufficiently to enable them to escape enumeration as persons totally deprived of the power of utterance. It was thus seen that the plan of limiting the returns to those who were unable to articulate failed to secure a full census of the class intended to be enumerated; and in taking the census of 1880 the plan was adopted of considering all persons who lost hearing in childhood as belonging naturally to the class " deaf and dumb," whether, as a matter of fact, they were able to speak or not.

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