acknowledged on all hands that the malady consists in a defect in the organ of hearing. As a general rule, where the affection is congenital, no structural disease of the internal ear can be recognized, either during the life or after the death of the patient, and we must conclude that the functional defect originates in a paralysis, or some other disease, of the auditory nerve, or of the portion of the brain from which that nerve arises. The affection does not appear to be hereditary; but still congenital deafness often arises from causes which operate upon the parents, such, for instance, as the dampness of the dwelling. A remarkable peculiarity of the deaf and dumb, which lessens, in some degree, the painful inconvenience of their affection, is the acuteness of general sensation which they display. So sensible are they to many sounds, that it is next to impossible for a person who has not studied their state to believe that they do not hear them. They feel the motion of the wheel when they approach a mill, the rolling of a carriage in the street, the rumbling of thunder, the whistling of the wind, or the grating of any thing hard in a mortar. Some even perceive the creaking of a door, the crowing of a cock, the barking of a dog, the striking of a church-clock, the scraping of a fiddle, &c. The feelings which these noises produce in them are very various, according to the peculiar constitution of the individual; in some it is as if the earth trembled beneath their feet; others are sensible of a shock throughout the entire frame; others again have a peculiar sensation in the epigastric region; while some state that noise affects them by producing a feeling of cold in the forehead. Kruse, a deaf and dumb writer, states that music caused a peculiar sensation in his throat, which was communicated, as it were, by a vibratory motion to the brain; that it gave him, moreover, a kind of shock, now in one leg, and now in the other, sometimes in his abdomen, and at others in his head, which was very agreeable, and rendered him disposed to laugh. According to his feelings, the different musical sounds are analogous to different colours. The blast of a trumpet gives him the idea of something yellow, the sound of a drum, of something red, the organ of green, &c. There are several instances on record of deaf and dumb persons being able to understand others in the dark, by placing their fingers on the lips of the speaker, and thus feeling what is said. Some of the stories related of the exploits performed by the deaf and dumb, by means of the exquisite delicacy of their general sensation, rather pass the bounds of credibility, and remind us strongly of magnetic marvels. The following case, for instance, is very startling.

Dr. J. H. Rahn, Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the Zürcher Carolinum, gives the ensuing statement, which was communicated to him by a friend. A young lady, aged 26, deaf and dumb from birth, had so exercised her general sensation, that she could tell, when her eyes were bandaged, the sex of any person standing near her, and name any one of her ac

quaintance who touched her. When the doctor's informant was first introduced to her, her eyes were bandaged, and he was told to lay his index-finger softly on her left cheek. She afterwards immediately recognized him amongst thirteen other strangers, merely from his having thus touched her.

Though the general sensation is extraordinarily developed in the deaf and dumb, the senses which remain to them are not more acute than in other persons. Itard assures us that he has never remarked that their vision is peculiarly powerful, or that their senses of smell and taste are more delicate than usual.

The moral and mental state of the deaf and dumb, when they have been submitted to no course of education, is a melancholy blank.

They are living automata, statues as it were, in which we have to wake one sense after the other and teach their use. They are capable only of bodily motion, and before we have opened the prison in which their reason is immured, they do not even possess the instinct which serves the mere brute as a guiding light. All impressions which they receive are merely momentary; all images in their minds are superficial and transitory; they gaze fixedly at every thing but understand nothing; they glide about amongst apparitions, of the origin and nature of which they are utterly ignorant. Eternal silence prevails around them, and every where accompanies them; they cannot know that other men understand better than they do; having, of course, not the faintest notion of sound, they regard others as being in precisely the same situation as themselves. Such is their mental state; and with regard to their moral being, they are equally to be pitied. Ever subject to accidental impressions, and to passionate emotions which often seem to rise spontaneously, they know nothing of laws and duties, of right or wrong; good and evil, virtue and vice, do not exist for them: merely physical impulses quench in them every spark of moral feeling. To themselves, they are the centre to which every thing refers: without the slightest foresight or self-control, they rush to the gratification of every wild passion, and are only checked by exhaustion or overpowering resistance. Their ordinary mood is generally apathetic, melancholy, or suspicious.

Eschke remarks that "the deaf and dumb have neither pity nor compassion." These feelings would seem to be principally excited by sounds of distress or cries for relief, which for them have no existence. They have great delight in torturing animals. Children, however, they like, and have a sort of pity for the sick, whose afflictions they regard as punishments imposed by God. They display great levity and fickleness, and a manifest tendency to falsehood and deceit. When they have been educated to a certain extent, they frequently feel a strong curiosity to know the meaning of words, but still will not ask it. They are prone to interfere in other people's business; are fond of scandal and of causing disagreements; and, after having brought about a quarrel between two persons, will pretend to side with both. They are most easily roused to rage. Obstinacy, fondness for play, and a violent inclination to women, are amongst their prominent characteristics. They have often a whim to hide, if possible, from strangers their deafness, because they are ashamed of it. They like to try to find out the meaning, if there be any thing like one,

in proper names, in order to laugh about it, for a good fit of laughter is their highest happiness. Torture cannot be more fearful to the criminal than is darkness to the deaf and dumb. They are very timid, and the idea of death terrifies them. Nevertheless they like war, take interest in political events, and wish that their enemies might perish in the most horrible sufferings. In their natural state they have great respect for nobility and riches, are fond of flattering great people by gestures of servile submission, which, however, are so gross and clumsy, as to be only ridiculous. In their religion they are very intolerant, and would like every person to be compelled to adopt their own belief.

The deaf and dumb are met with in all countries, but especially in mountainous districts; they are no where more numerous than in Sardinia, in the Black Forest, in Savoy, and in Switzerland. In Saxony, 1 out of every 1486 inhabitants is deaf and dumb; in Prussia, 1 out of 1401; in Brunswick, 1 out of 2026; in Weimar, 1 out of 715; in Austria, 1 out of 1290, (the average proportion throughout Germany); in Italy, 1 out of 1301; in Holland, 1 out of 2204; in Denmark, 1 out of 1943; in France, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Russia in Europe, Sweden and Norway, and Great Britain, 1 out of 1301, (which is the average for all Europe); but in Switzerland, the most mountainous country in Europe, the proportion is 1 in 275 of the population, that is to say, eight times more than in Holland, the flattest country in Europe. In the United States, the proportion is 1 in 2085. In the town of Calcutta, it is 1 in 1284, (which, to judge by all the data at present in existence, is about the average proportion for the entire earth). The number and extent of asylums for the deaf and dumb vary extremely in different countries. In Saxony, about 71 deaf and dumb persons out of every 100 are educated in institutions especially adapted for their reception; in Prussia, about 35 in 100; in Weimar, about 10 per cent.; in Germany, generally, 26 per cent.; in Italy, 12 per cent.; in Holland and Denmark all; in France, 24 per cent. ; in Spain, 1 per cent.; in Portugal, 2 per cent. ; in Hungary, 3 per cent.; in Poland, 9 per cent. ; in Russia in Europe, 1 per cent. ; in Sweden and Norway, 6 per cent.; in Great Britain, 32 per cent.; in Switzerland, 6 per cent; in Europe generally, 10 per cent.; in the United States, 53 per cent. ; in Calcutta, 13 per cent.; in the world generally, 5 per cent.*

There are more deaf and dumb of the male than of the female sex, although in the entire population females every where preponderate. In Saxony, the proportion of males to females thus affected is as 100 to 74; in Sardinia, it is as 100 to 69. As a

• These are, of course, only approximative calculations. VOL. I.—NO. VI.—OCTOBER, 1839.

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general rule, there will be four deaf and dumb males to three deaf and dumb females.

Innumerable remedies have been recommended for the relief and cure of congenital deafness; and some have been, in a few cases, accidentally successful, and have obtained temporary notoriety; but there are, unfortunately, none which merit general confidence. Varroine, physician to Lucien Buonaparte, cured a deaf and dumb girl, by applying moxa at the back of the neck and under the chin; but this is the only case on record where this remedy was of service, though Itard and others have fre quently tried it. In the "Annals of German Mineral Springs," for 1827, a case is related, by Peez, of a deaf and dumb child of seven years of age being cured by drinking the waters at Wisbaden; but it is a solitary one. Deleau, at Paris, within the last fifteen years, has resorted, in numerous cases, to catheterism of the Eustachian tube, and is said in some to have afforded relief; indeed his success, at one time, appeared to be such that a portion of the prix Monthyon was awarded to him for his discoveries, and a sum of 3000 francs annually allowed him for three years by the Academy of Sciences, to enable him to prosecute his researches on four young patients. Itard, however, has tried various injections of the Eustachian tube, in nearly 200 cases, but never with real permanent benefit. At the commencement of this century, galvanism was cried up as a certain cure for deafness: Wolke, who was its enthusiastic advocate, who publicly called upon all the monarchs of Europe to establish galvanic institutions for the deaf, and who laid an especial proposition on the subject before the Emperor Alexander, stated that, at an institution at Jever, in the north of Germany, this remedy has been effectual in not less than thirty-eight cases of congenital deafness; unfortunately, it soon appeared that the relief which had been afforded was altogether imaginary, or else very transitory. Galvanism has since been tried by Pfingsten, Schubert, Bremser, and Hafner, but never with permanent success. Electricity has been equally vaunted, and found equally wanting. Whatever effects, says Itard, may be really or apparently produced by the application of galvanism or electricity, are sure, however much they promise at the time, to disappear in a few days. The perforation of the tympanum appears, in some few cases, to have promised favourable results, but these have never been realized. The plan of Itard, for the relief of the deaf and dumb, which consists in endeavouring to call the organ of hearing into gradual exercise, to develop in it the auditory function, is one of the most scientifie which has ever been proposed; but even its author cannot boast that it is ever brilliantly successful. He commences his operations by striking a huge bell to excite the sense of hearing. Every succeeding day the violence of the stroke is diminished, or the

patients are placed at a greater distance from it. By thus gradually diminishing the intensity of the sound, the ear, having once become attentive, is enabled to catch what had previously escaped it. The next series of experiments is intended to teach the difference of sounds: a variety of noises are made, and, at different intervals, and the patients are accustomed, if possible, to distinguish between them. By following out this method, Itard has enabled some of his patients to carry on a vocal conversation, provided they are addressed very slowly and distinctly. In others it has, to a greater or less extent, improved the faculty of hearing, and consequently that of speaking also. He has laid a Treatise on his medico-physiological system before the Royal Academy of Medicine, which was very favourably reported on by Husson, on the 6th of May, 1828, after he had repeated his experiments before commissioners appointed by the Academy, and convinced them of their value. It is somewhat ominous, however, that Itard's plan had met with no success except under his own direction. Eplinius made similar experiments in Germany a few years ago, but without any favourable result.

With respect to the absolute curability of congenital deafness, Kramer, the highest living authority on the subject, says, "I may venture to declare distinctly, that hitherto not a single deaf and dumb patient has been cured, that is to say, has been rendered capable of communicating, like a person who hears well, with his fellow-men, in an unrestrained manner, by means of hearing, under all circumstances. The problem, so important for all mankind, whether congenital deafness be curable, is, therefore, practically as yet unsolved; affording sufficient reason for doubting whether it ever will be satisfactorily solved in the affirmative.

The therapeutical prescriptions hitherto proposed, some of which are enumerated, are all either empirical or chimerical; and it is evident that the medical treatment of congenital deafness, (though a very interesting subject,) is altogether subordinate in importance to the general education of the deaf and dumb, to the art of teaching them conversation by signs, and to the moral discipline to which they ought to be submitted; on these points, the concluding portion of Dr. Schmalz's work contains full details, presenting us, indeed, with a complete hand-book of the subject, which cannot but prove highly acceptable to all who are engaged in the management or superintendence of the deaf and dumb.