Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/29

* DEAF MUTE. 17 85), mentions a deaf mute who luiJ received in- Blrucliou and could write. The credit for the lirst systematic examination of the problem from a philosophical ]>oint of view is due to Jerome Cardan (4. v.), wliose con- clusion was that "written characters and ideas may be connected together without the interven- tion of soimds." This authoritative declaration had the effect of arousing widespread interest in the problem, and Pedro Ponce (1520-84), a Spanish Benedictine monk, undertook to give, regular instruction to the deaf and dumb. Pasch, a clergj-man of Brandenburg, was the next teacher of note, and he was followed bj- Juan Pablo Sonet, secretary to the constable of Cas- tile, Spain, also a 15enedictine monk. Bonet published a work in 1020, which is the earliest known treatise on the subject, and which prob- ably embodied the ideas of Cardan. It con- tained a manual alphabet differing much from that described by Bede, and in the main identical with the single-hand manual in use to-day. The treatise of Dr. John Buhner, an English physi- cian, followed in 1048; and this was succeeded by the work of Dr. Wallis, an Oxford professor of mathematics. In 10(39 Dr. William Holder, rector of Bletchingtou, published a similar work, and in 1070 George Sibscote put forth another work. A very able and philosopliical treatise was published in lOSO by George Dalgarno, of Aberdeen, Scotland, which received high praise from Leibnitz, together with an earlier work, to hich Wallis and Wilkins are both said to be indebted. In the first rank among early teach- ers of deaf mutes stands John Conrad Amman, a Swiss physician residing in Amsterdam, who, in 1692, reduced the methods then known to an exact art, as described in his Siinlus Loquens. France, late to recognize the possibilities of deaf-mute instruction, furnished many enthusi- astic advocates of it, as Pi^re Vanin. Ernaud, Rodriguez Pereira (a Spaniard who settled in France ), and the Abbe Deschamps. Preeminent stands the Abbe Charles Michel de I'Epee, of Paris, who systematized the instruction of deaf mutes in France, in 1760, in his own school. His successor, Sicard. as well as Itard, fol- lowed his methods. It was in 1760, also, that Thomas Braidwood established, at Edinburgh, the first private school for deaf mutes in the British dominions. This school, in which Wal- lis's plan of instruction was followed, was the model of the earlier British institutions. In 1783 this school was removed to Hackney, near London, and probably led to the establishment of the London Asylum, in 1792. Br. Joseph Watson, a nephew and former assistant of Jilr. Braidwood, was its first principal. . IxsTiTUTtONS. The first public school for deaf mutes was established at Leipzig, in 1778. under the direction of Samuel Heinecke. The systematic instruction of the deaf and dumb, and the intelligent organization of institutions in which to educate them, date from the early part of the nineteenth century. An essay on Teaching Vie Deaf to l^peak, by"Dr. W. Thornton of Philadelphia, was published in 1703. and in 1811 a grandson of Braidwood tried to establish a school in Xew York and Virginia, but failed in both instances. The circumstances which led to the opening of the Connecticut asylum at Hartford. April 1.5. 1817. are as follows:' A deaf- mute little girl in the family of Dr. Cogswell, an DEAF MUTE. eminent physician in Hartford, attracting some attention, it was soon afterwards found that there were other deaf mutes in the country. It was decided to send some one abroad to acquire the art of educating them ; and to establish a school for this purpose funds were raised, and the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet was selected for this work. He left the United States, ilay 15, 1S16, to execute this mission. The institution was incor- porated by the Connecticut Legislature in May. 1816, with an appropriation of .$5000. Dr. Gal- laudet returned to America in August of the same year, accompanied by Laurent C'lerc, a deaf-mute pupil of the Abbe Sicard, and they immediately commenced collecting funds to start the school. The enterprise excited general in- terest; individuals and churches contributed lib- erally, and the sum of .$12,000 was raised in the course of a few months. Earl- in 1819 the Government of ilassachusetts followed the ex- ample of Connecticut by providing for the educa- tion in the asylum of twenty indigent pupils from that State. The appropriation was after- wards enlarged so as to meet the demands of this entire class. New Hampshire made a similar provision in 1821, and Vermont and Maine in 1825. In 1834 South Carolina and Georgia de- cided to send their indigent deaf mutes to the asylum, and in 1848 Rhode Island came into the same arrangement. In 1819 Congress made a grant to the institution of twenty-three acres of wild land, the proceeds of which now form a fimd of $339,000. It was owing to this munificent gift that the name of the school was changed to the 'American Asylum.' Before the school at Hartford was in operation, efforts had been made to establish a similar institution in the city of Xew York : a society was formed which was incorporated April 1.5, 1817. as the "Xew York Institution for Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb." Watson's book was taken as a guide, and articulation was taught in cases where the scholar appeared to possess the necessary apti- tude. But this method did not prove veiy suc- cessful ; and in 1827 the Legislature, which had provided since 1822 for the support of 32 pui)ils, authorized an investigation by the superinten- dent of common schools of the State, who recom- mended in his report the introduction into the ■New York school of the improved methods in use at Hartford and Philadelphia. In consequence of that recommendation, the directors finally succeeded in engaging, in 1831, the permanent services of Harvey P. Peet, then one of the most efficient instructors in the American Asylum. He served as principal from 1831 to 1867. and had a worthy successor in his son, Isaac Lewis Peet. Under the management of these two able teachers the institution has taken a place among the most successful schools for deaf mutes in the world. Its grounds comprise about 26 acres, upon the banks of the Hudson River at Washington Heights, Xew York City. The in- stitution has a shoe-shop, tailor-shop, and car- penter-shop, a printing-office, garden, and sewing- rooms connected with the school, in which the pupils receive competent instruction to prepare them for self-support by manual labor, as in all our large asylums. The Pennsylvania institution was organized at Philadelphia in 1820 by Joseph Seixas. a Portuguese .Tew. Laurent CIcrc was an instructor in it. as was Lewis Weld, its first principal. The Kentucl^ Asylum for Deaf