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THE SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE DEAF AND DUMB. BY J. BIRKBECK NEVINS, M.D.LOND.

THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAF AND DUMB ARE VARIOUS.

1st. Such signs as the dumb may make from infancy to indicate hunger, pain, anger, pleasure, &c., which become intelligible to those intimately associated with them, though they may be unintelligible to strangers, and cannot possibly be called a "sign language."

2nd. Facial expressions, accompanied or not accompanied by speech, such as anger or pity, on the part of hearing people; which expressions become intelligible in a degree to the deaf and dumb, although without any sound being heard. But such facial, or even oral movements, could not be called an "oral" language.

3rd. A system of signs constructed upon some intelligent principle, which may be taught to a number of deaf and dumb as well as to hearing persons; and if such signs should have any easily intelligible meaning in themselves, they might then, in a perfectly legitimate sense, be called a "sign language." Such a system of signs would evidently be a great advance upon the limited number above suggested, and it is such a system that is and has been in actual existence for about a hundred years (constituting the so-called 'sign language of the deaf and dumb,") which it is the object of this paper to illustrate and explain.

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4th. There is yet another method of communicating with the deaf and dumb, viz., by teaching them to watch the

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lips, tongue, and throat of a person when speaking slowly and distinctly, and at the same time pointing to tangible objects, so that the deaf person learns in time to associate certain positions of the vocal organs with certain objects; and, further still, he is taught to imitate those positions and movements of the lips, &c., and at the same time to breathe out gently, and he then produces a sound appreciably resembling the spoken words. Thus, in some sense, he sees what is said to him, and he speaks back in reply without hearing a word on either side. This is called, technically, the "deaf and dumb oral language."

5th. The finger or alphabet deaf and dumb language requires a knowledge of spelling and reading, which implies a somewhat more advanced education; for the fingers must be placed in such positions as to resemble as nearly as possible the capital letters of the alphabet, and then the words are spelt in these capital letters by the one side, and are read from the letters by the other. This is, perhaps, the most generally known system of communicating with the deaf and dumb that is employed by hearing persons.

Lastly. A slate, or paper, and a pencil, for actually writing and reading what it is desired to convey, is the last, and often the first resource (because of its obvious advantages) that is employed by the educated deaf and dumb, even when they are themselves familiar with the "sign," finger," or "oral" systems.

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ORIGIN AND ORIGINATOR OF THE SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE

DEAF AND DUMB.

The common belief in the time of our Lord's sojourn upon earth was that a deaf and dumb person was one possessed by a devil,* and even to almost our own time * Matt. xii, 32; Mark ix, 25; Luke xi, 14.

this popular impression seemed to attach to these unfortunates; for, in the absence of the natural human faculties, they seemed scarcely to be human beings. Their inability to make their wants or thoughts known, and to communicate with their fellows, made them apparently mere brute beasts, and they were so often treated as such (being buffeted and pelted from place to place) that their hands became habitually against every man, and every man's hand was against them; most violent conduct being often the result, until their condition was miserable in the extreme.

The earliest recorded attempt to teach the deaf and dumb was made in 1750 by a Spanish monk, of Sahagum, named Pedro de Ponce, who instructed four deaf and dumb pupils in speech-what would now be called the "oral system."* His example was followed by de Carrion, also in Spain; by Wm. Holder in England, and by Wallis, Professor of Mathematics in Oxford, before the end of the century. By Dr. Amman, also, in Holland, whose system was pursued by Kruse of Leignitz, in Germany, and was perfected by Heinicke, who died in 1790 and is considered as the real founder of the German or "oral system" as at present known. (Rep. Deaf and Dumb Com., 1889, pp. li, lii.)

These attempts were, however, isolated, and were limited in their application to a very small number of pupils, to as few as four only, in the first case mentioned

* "So long ago, however, as A.D. 700, an Englishman, John de Beverley, then Archbishop of York, discovered the possibility of teaching a deaf mute to speak and to understand spoken language by watching the lips of the speaker, and he succeeded in instructing one deaf mute at any rate, in something of the Christian religion" (National Cyclopædia, art. "Deaf and Dumb," p. 439). But neither teacher nor pupil left a successor, and it was not until after the lapse of above a thousand years that the attempt was successfully revived by the Spanish monk in the case of the four pupils above mentioned.

above. But in 1712 was born in France a man who became an ecclesiastic; and, as the Abbé de l'Epée, was filled with pity for these wretched outcasts from society. In 1740 he began to devise a system by which indefinite numbers might be taught to communicate with each other, and possibly with hearing people also, and by which their intelligence might be cultivated and their moral and religious sentiments evoked; so that they might be raised from the level of dangerous brute beasts, and become elevated and useful members of society. With this object he gradually invented what is now called the "sign language" of the deaf and dumb, and after years of work he was followed by the Abbé Sicard, who brought his system to the still more complete condition in which it still exists in active daily work, in every French and English speaking community. The more the details of this system are studied, the higher is the estimation in which it will be held, and the stronger will become the feeling that its author must have been possessed by little less than inspiration from above to have conceived and executed such a method as it is the object of this paper now to illustrate and explain.*

The first object to be accomplished was to find some medium that could be readily grasped and remembered even by such a vacant and apparently blank mind as that of the ordinary deaf and dumb of his day, and thus to gain some means of mental and practical communion with him and others; and it is in the selection of such media that the first rudiments of his system are to be found. Take,

* "His great object being to impart instruction to the deaf and dumb, he spent his whole income, beside what was contributed by benevolent patrons, in the education and maintenance of his pupils, for whose wants he provided with such disinterested devotion that he often deprived himself of the necessaries of life, restricting himself to the plainest food, and clothing himself in the coarsest apparel. He died in 1789."-Gates' Dict. Gen. Biog., 4th ed., 1885, p. 391.

for example, a man, a woman, and a child, as the commonest and most tangible objects to be brought before his mind, or the more abstract and advanced ideas of "day" and "night." What was the simplest sign and the most easily executed, and most easily remembered that could be adopted for the representation of a man? At that date beards were commonly worn, and the Abbé selected this as his type of a man, and the hand pulling a real or imaginary beard is universally understood by every deaf and dumb person of French or English origin as meaning a man.

But a "woman"-what of her? At that date ringlets were commonly worn by French women, and the forefinger of each hand making an imaginary corkscrew on the side of the face was the sign for a woman, until ringlets went out of fashion. At the present date the forefinger moved over the side of the face and chin, to indicate the absence of a beard, and therefore a woman, * is the modern sign. The deaf and dumb language has evolved that change out of changed circumstances.

But a child? A boy is a small man—therefore the sex is indicated by the plucking the beard, and the childish age by stooping down and spreading out the hands about the level of the knees. A girl would similarly be indicated by the imaginary ringlets and the hands held out at the imaginary childish height. A baby would be an imaginary something gently tossed in the arms, or lying in one arm

* There is some complexity about the modern sign for "woman." The finger passing over the smooth face is in some Deaf and Dumb Schools the sign for "girl" not woman, who is represented by the three fingers placed on the palm of the hand or on the forehead, which is the finger-alphabet letter "M." and generally indicates the "M"-woman-the mother. But in the Liverpool school and some others the children make no distinction between woman in general and mother in particular. Thus, if a lady or any other woman calls at the school to visit it or to see the master, the deaf and dumb messenger informs the master that an "M" wants to see him, as if every woman was a "mother" in the estimation of the deaf and dumb child. (See p. 274.)