Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/227

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��This is emphatic&llj- a step iii the rigtit clirec- Iton. Under the provisions of the act, much valuable informatioii in regard to either of the diseases lueDtioDcd ma; be obtained; and, if either of them visits the country, it is to be hoped that something of scientific value will be added to our knowledge of the means of fighting it. We should have been glad to see an additional special clause providing for the appointment of experts to investigate at least the first cases which occur, for it is by the rigi(] inspection of these often doubtful cases, bj accarate diagnosis and successful isolation, that an epidemic is to be arrested. Without a special recommcndatiou of this kind, there seems to be too much danger of the omission of rigorous measures at the moat important time.

Toe REtTiFiCATios of public practice in ac- cordance with scientific theory is always grati- fying. Attention was recently called to certain results of the mode of educating deaf-mutes by means of silent signs and in seclusive institu- tions, — threatening no less a calamity than the creation of a deaf-mute variety of mankind, — and to the desirability of training deaf children in the use of common speech, in association with hearing children, and without removal from family InHueoces. The memoir on this subject by Prof. A. Graham Bell, embodied in the Report of the National academy of sciences presented to cougress last year, has led to mach discussion of the subject. The first fruits are seen in a bill now before the legisla- ture of the state pf Wisconsin, which provides for the establishment of small day-schools for the deaf in any incorporated city or village in the state. These schools will be under the control of the state superintendent of public ina tniction.

s la a movement in the right direction. Sating institutions for the education of the deaf are under the management of the boanls of state charities. But this pioneer legislation of Wisconsin recognizes the obligation of the slate to provide education for all her children,

��not as a charity, but as a right. The estab- lishment of these day-schoots was recommend- ed by Gov. Rusk in his message to the legisla- ture last January, in which he says, "There were in Wisconsin, according to the census in 18«0, 1,079 deaf-mutes, of whom 600 were of school-age, between six and twenty, and less than one-third of these were receiving instruc- tion." An equally large proportion of deaf childreu are growing up in ignorance in all our states ; and the question is forced on public consideration, whether to enlarge and increase the number of state institutions, or to supple- ment those already existing by the pro \' is ion of day-classes for the deaf, in connection with our common schools.. The Wisconsin experi- ment will be watched with interest ; its results can only be for good ; and the example of that state in taking a new departure of this kind is worthy of being generally followed, that the tests may be conclusive for the whole country.

��Prof. A. G. Bell was invited by the commit- tees on education, of the senate and assembly of the legislature of Wisconsin, to present his views for their information ; and, after complet- ing his viva voce explanations, he addressed an oi^en letter to the committees, in which his arguments are recapitulated clearly and com- pactly. This document we commend to alt who are interested in the subject. We have room for only one quotation : " Out of a total of 33,S7ei deaf-mutea in the United States in 1S80, 15,050 were of school-age; and the total number of deaf-mutes returned as then in the institutions anil schools of the United States was only 5,393." This fact atone shows the necessity, not only of doing some- thing, but of doing it without delay.

��LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

•,• Oimti>atiul that no one ventures to raise a (loubt as to the original assertlou. Vet to n IspnaD in science il; dues not seem thut any proof of such

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