with the pupil, doing away entirely with the habit of using signs.  It also requires pupils of bright, quick mind, keen perceptive faculties, and an amount of intelligence and perseverance on the part of the parents not found in the average parent of deaf mutes; for it is well known that a very large proportion of deaf mutes come from the poorer and more illiterate classes.  This is mainly attributable to the fact that by far the larger number lose their hearing in infancy or early childhood through disease—­scarlet fever, measles and diphtheria being probably the most frequent causes of deafness.  Among those able to give skillful nursing and to obtain good medical aid the number of cases resulting in deafness is reduced to a minimum.  Accidents, too, causing deafness, occur more frequently among those unable to give their children proper care.  Congenital deafness is also probably greater among the laboring classes, and is undoubtedly due to similar causes.

The methods used in the teaching of articulation form a subject of much interest.  The system has materially changed within the past few years.  The first step to be taken is to convey a knowledge of the powers of the consonants and sounds of the vowels.  Formerly, this was done by what was called the “imitation method.”  The letter H was usually the point of attack, the aspirate being the simplest of all the powers of the letters.  The teacher, holding up the hand of the pupil, makes the aspirate by breathing upon his palm.  This is soon imitated, and thus a starting-point is gained.  The feeling produced upon the hand is the method of giving him an idea of the powers of the consonants.  A later and better system is that called “visible speech.”  This is a system of symbols representing positions of the mouth and tongue and all the organs of speech, and if the pupil does what the symbols direct he cannot help giving the powers of the letters correctly.  By this method a more distinct and perfect articulation is gained, with one-half the labor of the other method.  As fast as the powers of the letters are learned, the spelling of words is undertaken.  Many words are pronounced perfectly after a few trials:  others, however, often defy the most strenuous and persevering effort.

Entire mutes who undertake articulation are like hearing children endeavoring to keep up the full curriculum of a modern school and pursue the study of music in addition:  the ordinary studies demand all the energies of the child.  Articulation consumes much time and strength.  Exceptional cases are of course to be found which are indeed a triumph of culture, but the great mass of the deaf and dumb must always be content with written language.