TEACHING THE DUMB TO SPEAK.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 77, 26 April 1879, Page 3

TEACHING THE DUMB TO SPEAK.

Some say the age of miracles is piist. One might rather say, in view of the railway, telegraph, telephone, printing press, phonograph, and electric light, tlmt the age-of miracles is only beginning. Making the dumb speak used to be miraculous. It is now reduced to a system ; schools and colloges have been opened for its practice : and thousands who havo been deemed hopelessly mutes are being delivered fuau their bondage. 1 went ono •day recently to see the class opcued by Professor Graham Bell in the Qmenock Academy, and now taught by one of his teachers (Mr. Jones) from America. I was the more interested in seeing the method, because I hud met with deaf mutes, who had been trained under it, and who were aide in consequence, and 'without the use of any manual signs, to understand all I B*id, and to speak, I cannot say musically, but in a perfocty intelligible style. On reaching the Anadcmy 1 ivus directed to (Schoolroom No. 12 opening off one of the galleries upstairs. There I found Mr. Jones busy with a clans of three little girls, deaf mutes. The tint thing that struck mo was the wonwonderful spirit with which the work of the little class was kept up. Tho exercises were, as far as possible, arranged so as to interest and delight the children whileinstructing them. The exorcises they were at wheu 1 entered was connected

with postures, on t!n' blackboard «•> written, " Stund up," • Rata* your hands," * Put ilnwii your hands," "Walk," " Sil clown," 4c. These «wb the children wen taught not only to understand as written but to understand, when spoken, from watching tlu- motions ofthfl teacher's lit». This is called lip-reading. They arc also taught to articulate the words thenaolveß, This is done hv Protenor M.lvill.- Bell's system ol " vUible speech," which lias a beautifully-con-structed alphabet of its own, based nil the varum* positions of tlie organs of speech required for articulation. Eaoh word on toe chart is practically a picture: of the successive positionsnud movements of the organs of speaou required for the pronunciation of the word. It is a beautiful and perfectly scientific system ; at the sum:' time so simple that a child can readily understand it. The deaf mutes 1 saw luul only been three weeks under Mr. Jones's tuition, and yet they were learning to articulate by it, and were rapidly Coming to understand what was said to them from the mere motion of the lip?. Deaf mutes as they are by nature, they will soon under this braining be able to converse with any one, and mingle on aliilmost equal terms with their fellow creatures. The great advantage of this system over tie! system of manual signs is at once apparent. The deaf mute who depends on the system of manual signs—the "dumb alphabet," as it is called — can only have correspondence with the very few who can read and also use these signs ; whereas the deaf-mute taught "visible speech" needs no special sign, but understands what is being said from the ordinary motions of the lips always accompanying speech. His language is also the saunas ours, and is therefore intelligible to all. The fact of this class being opened —the only one of the kind, as far u.- I

am aware, yet opened in Scotland—will interest many. It not only brings the best training for deaf mutes within the reach of many who cannot afford to send their children out of .Scotland, but it makes it possible for those who have hitherto been compelled to do so to have their children at or nearer home, and better, as well as more cheaply taught. The teacher in the Greenock Academy is, I understand, supported by two Greenock gentlemen who have deaf and dumb children themselves, and who at. -rem expense kept them at a deaf and dumb institution in London. They find it almost as cheap now to maintain a teacher between them, besides having tie' children under a much better system, having them at hemic, and hiving them taught writing, sewing, &c, with other children in the usual classes. These gentlemen, however, have kindlv made the class for their children a public cla-s, so that the deaf and dumb children of others may, at a moderate fee, have the same advantages as their own. The system itself, however, on scientific and other grounds, is exceedingly interesting. It originated with Professor Melville Bell, formerly of Edinburgh, now of Canada. His son, Dr. Graham Bell the inventor of the tel phone, has done a great ileal in America iu the way of applvingit. It has been widely adopted in the States; and in Boston, in the State Institution, I understmd that 2,000 deaf mutes have already been under it and taught to speak.—liev. 1). Macrae in the Lady's journal.