Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/740

 736 DEAF AND DUMB " American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb," has appeared with some intermissions since 1847, and forms the most valuable collection of articles on this subject in the English lan- guage. 'Eight conventions of the principals and instructors have been held, beginning in 1850, at which papers of great interest have been read and discussed. Several periodicals have been published by deaf mutes themselves, but except when issued to afford work to pu- pils learning printing, they have generally had a very brief career. Religious services among deaf mutes who have left school have been conducted since 1850 by the Rev. Thomas Gal- laudet, D. D., eldest son of the founder of the Hartford asylum. His headquarters are at St. Ann's church for deaf mutes (Episcopal), New York city, but services are conducted reg- ularly or occasionally in many other places by himself or his assistants. Dr. Gallaudet has also recently established a home for aged and infirm deaf mutes, for the present located in New York, and under the care of the church mission to deaf mutes. Literary associations have been formed by the graduates residing in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. "The Elect Surds," founded in 1866, is an organiza- tion for mutual improvement and assistance, having members and lodges throughout the United States ; its standard of admission is high, and its discipline rigid, and the good it has already done is very considerable. In England, there are five schools for the deaf and dumb in London, viz. : London asylum, Old Kent road, with a branch for girls at Margate ; Jewish ; Mr. Van A sen's, private ; Miss Hull's, private, South Kensington ; and female, Clapton. There are also schools at Edgbaston, near Birmingham, Manchester (with infant department), Liver- pool, Exeter, Doncaster, Newcastle, Brighton, Bristol, Bath, Hull day school, and Handsworth- Woodhouse, near Sheffield (Roman Catholic). In Wales, there are schools at Swansea and Llandaff; in Scotland, at Edinburgh two (one being a department of Donaldson's hospital), Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee. In Ireland, there are four in Dublin, viz.: the Clare- mont ; St. Joseph's, male, and St. Mary's, fe- male, Roman Catholic ; and a day school ; and one (also for blind) at Belfast. The British schools receive no government assistance, ex- cept that the guardians of poor law unions are empowered to pay for indigent deaf children at such rates as are specified. The London asylum has an income of 15,000, mostly from its fund ; a few of the others have small investments, but the majority are almost entirely dependent on each year's subscriptions. The cost of each boarding pupil is about 20 a year. Owing. to this scantiness of means, and the necessity of children^leaving early to be apprenticed, the age for admission is from 8 to 12, and the course seldom extends beyond five years ; no trades are taught, except printing at some. The Man- chester institution has an infant department, for children under 12, and a few have been received as young as 3 years. The London asylum has 350 pupils, including those in the branch for girls at Margate ; few of the rest have more than 100. At London articulation is attempted with all the pupils the first two years ; the other British schools have discarded it entirely save for semi-mutes, except the Jewish school in London, and the Roman Catholic at Hands- worth- Woodhouse, near Sheffield. Valuable text books and essays have appeared from the pens of Charles Baker of Doncaster, D. Bux- ton of Liverpool, A. Patterson of Manchester, W. R. Scott of Exeter, the Rev. J. Kinghan of Belfast, and the late D. Anderson of Glasgow. The buildings at Manchester and Glasgow are considered the finest in Great Britain. Sev- eral of the British schools have funds to assist in apprenticing their graduates. Religious ser- vices among the adults are sustained in London by the society in aid of the deaf and dumb, Ox- ford street, in Manchester by a similar society, and in other places by the principals of various institutions. On the continent, as in the United States, while much has been done by private charity for the education of the deaf, it is pro- vided for by the state as much as that of other classes of children. The course is more ex- tended than in Great Britain, and workshops are attached to most of the schools. The num- ber of establishments is so great that we can mention only a few of the most important. In France, those at Paris and Bordeaux are the oldest, and are supported by the state, and pur- sue precisely the same method ; the latter has the most magnificent buildings of any in the world. At Paris, the male and female depart- ments were separated in 1859, the girls being removed to a distant building under distinct management. The boys have a term of seven years, during the last three of which, while continuing their studies, they learn joinery, turning, wood carving, shoemaking, bookbind- ing, lithography, and gardening. The charge is 1,000 francs. Indigent pupils are supported by the state or their own department or com- mune. The most eminent French instructors since Sicard have been Be"bian, author of a manual which has been the model for many others in Europe ; Morel, editor of the " Circu- lars of the Paris Institution," and of the An- nales ; Paulmier, Puybonnieux, and Valade- Gabel, able and voluminous writers ; Berthier, a deaf mute, biographer of De l'pee ; Pelis- sier, a semi-mute poet; Piroux of Nancy, an enthusiast for dactylology ; and Recoing, who devised a syllabic dactylology for the instruction of his own son. In Belgium and Holland, the institutions are supported partly by the state and partly by religious communities and socie- ties of subscribers. At Bruges the late Abbe Carton, and at Groningen the erudite brothers Guyot, formed the most complete collections ever made of works reLitive to the deaf; the latter issued in 1842 a Liste litteraire pJiilo- cophe, or bibliography of whatever had been published concerning the deaf and dumb and