Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/368

 EDUCATION

320

EDUCATION

Manual Alphabets. — Venerable Bede (op. cit.) describes finger alphabets. Monks under rigid rules of silence often made use of them. Rosellius, a Flor- entine monk, in his " Thesaurus Artificiosse Memoriae " (1579), figures three one-hand alphabets which, with minor ditlerences. were used by Bonet and Hervas y Pauduro. The first alphabet used in teaching spoken and written language to the deaf was the Spanish one- hand alphabet of RoseUius. "The happy thought of this adaptation", says J. C. Gordon, "is attributed to the pious and learned monk, Pedro Ponce de Leon" (1520-1584). The two-handed alphabet, used in Great Britain, was in use centuries ago among the school-boys of Spain, France, and England. Manual alphabets" have nothing to do with "signs" or the " sign-language ". They constitute a manner of wTit- ing language by spelling words on the fingers. As a means of intercourse with the deaf, they are preferable to writing on paper, being more convenient and rapid.

000 Catholics, it follows that, if conditions and causes are uniform, there are 17,625 Catholic deaf — 10,272 under the age of 20 and 7353 adults. Since deaf-mutism is common among the poor, it is probable that the number of Catholic deaf is much larger. The statistics for the schools for the deaf throughout the world may be tabulated as follows: —

Schools

Teachers

Pupils

Africa

7

16

127

Asia

9

47

453

Australia

/

46

332

Europe

450

3152

25,821

North America

148

1790

12,784

South America

7

34

229

Total

628

5085

39,746

Two-handed Alphabet

For the sake of promoting the welfare of thousands of deaf persons, it is recommended to hearing persons to master this art, which is easily acquired.

Statistics. — According to the United States Special Census Report for 1900, there are in Continental United States 89,287 persons with seriously impaired powers of hearing. Of these 2772 are blind-deaf, 37,426 are totally and 51,861 partially deaf; 51,871 became deaf under the age of 20 and 37,416 in adult life; 46,915 are males and 42,372 females; 84,361 are white, and 4926 coloured.

There are on an average 1175 deaf to the 1,000,000 population in Continental United States. Consider- ing that there are in this territory probably 15,000,-

One-handed Alphabet

Reports received from fifty-three State schools in the United States, having an aggregate attendance of 10,124 pupils, show the values of the grounds and buildings to be S13. 370.576; expenditure for grounds and buildings, 8605,027; expenditure for salaries and other expenses, 82,556,459, making a total expenditure of 83,161,486, or 8312 average cost per capita.

Reports from forty-three public day-schools show expenditures for salaries and other expenses to be 896,014 for 788 pupils, or an average cost per capita of 8122. Reports from three denominational and private schools show an aggregate expenditure of 820,649 for 135 pupils, that is to say, an average cost per capita