There are four methods by which the deaf-mute can communicate with his fellow beings: the gesture-language, the finger alphabet, and writing, and articulation. Gestures form the speech of nature. They are the universal language of which so many philosophers have dreamed. There is confusion in some minds between the sign language and dactylology, but they are quite distinct, the one being as old as human nature, the other probably the invention of Ponce. The gesture-language cannot be described better than as a system of representing objects and ideas by a rude outline gesture imitating their most striking features." Hence, there is a certain likeness between the signs used by all who employ this method, although ludicrous mistakes must, one would imagine, be quite possible events. Thus, Tylor tells us, that to put the forefinger against the closed lips is "silence," but the finger put in the mouth means a "child." These are two very natural and distinct signs, yet they led the Greek to make Harpocrates the God of Silence, out of the Egyptian Horus, the God of the Dawn, who was not unfittingly represented by the image of a child. The universality of the gesture-language may be illustrated by "the remarkable spectacle of a Belgian deaf-mute, who did not understand English, entertaining for upwards of an hour a number of English deaf and dumb, who were unacquainted with the native language of the lecturer.” Dactylology combined with a certain number of natural or arbitrary signs, is the method which has so far been generally foliowed in England, but strenuous efforts are now being made to bring into popular favour the oral teaching, known as the German system. The advantage of the manual alphabet is the comparative ease with which it can be taught; its disadvantage is that it accentuates the difference between the deaf-mute and the rest of the world, and makes him a being apart, a foreigner in his native land. In spite of this disadvantage, thousands educated under this system have taken their share in the battle of life, and been able to give a good account in the mart and in the workshop. Dactylology can only be taught and learned by great perseverance and energy, but oral teaching makes still heavier demands. The deaf-mute has to be taught not only the habit of accurate observation, until he is able to detect by the motions of the lips the sounds he can never hear, but also the management of his vocal organs for the production of sounds that must ever remain inaudible to him. The system of "visible speech," devised by Mr. A. G. Bell, has been used for this purpose in America. It may be described as a philosophical alphabet, the characters in which are physiological diagrams. The marvellous results of oral teaching in individual cases are indisputable, but some teachers, Dr. Buxton for example, who speaks with the authority due to enthusiasm and experience, doubt whether it is adapted for general use. Further experience alone can decide this problem. Moritz Hill, a distinguished professor of this system, claims that out of one hundred pupils, eighty-five are capable when leaving the school of conversing on commonplace subjects with their teachers, family, and intimate friends. Sixtytwo can do so easily. Out of one hundred pupils, eleven can converse readily with strangers on ordinary subjects. Many others learn to do this after quitting school.* It is a strong point in favour of articulation, that by the exercise of the vocal organs the health of the lungs is greatly promoted. Some evidences have already been cited of the intellectual capacity of the deaf and dumb. Their powers have been the subject of inconsiderate exaggeration and depreciation. They vary in what may be called natural powers, in the same manner as their hearing brethren, and have the additional disadvantage of being in the position of foreigners in their own land. Their thoughts to reach accurately the outside world, must not only be expressed but translated. Many curious examples have been recorded of the peculiar phraseology in which they sometimes clothe their thoughts, owing to the difference between the natural logic of the order of their sentences and the more highly developed and involved structure of spoken language. To weed these "deaf-mutisms" is one of the most difficult of the teacher's tasks. There are recorded in the English census one hundred and eleven persons who were blind, deaf, and dumb. Several remarkable cases have been recorded of beings thus deprived of the ordinary instruments of moral and intellectual instruction, yet making considerable progress. The most important of these, from an educational and psychological point of view, is that of Laura Bridgman, who was born in 1829, and is still living an inmate of the Perkins' Institute for the Blind, at Boston, Massachusetts. When two years old she was attacked by an illness which destroyed her powers both of hearing and of sight, * "Annals," xix, 141. and gravely injured the senses of smell and taste. She was taught the finger alphabet, not in the earlier stages without great difficulty, and the correspondence between word and object having once been made clear to her mind, her future progress became rapid for one so deprived of ordinary "secretaries of the mind." The record of her education has recently been written by Mrs. Lamson, her former teacher, and is full of suggestive matter in relation to practical education and to the most intricate questions of mental and moral philosophy. Her passion for knowledge enabled her to acquire a fair education, to read the raised books prepared for the blind, to write, and to cipher. She has some acquaintance with the piano and is a good needlewoman. By reading and conversation she has acquired a good stock of information on many subjects, some of them sufficiently remote, and has been rescued from the darkness of a mere animal existence to a life of intellectual interest, of cheerful contentment, and of religious feeling and emotion. Charles Dickens, who was greatly interested in her case, has given a description of her, which, whilst eloquent, does not exaggerate. "Her face was radiant with intelligence and pleasure. Her hair, braided by her own hands, was bound about a head whose intellectual capacity and development were beautifully expressed in its graceful outline, and its broad, open brow; her dress, arranged by herself, was a pattern of neatness and simplicity; the work she had knitted lay beside her; her writing book was on the desk she leaned upon. From the mournful ruin of such bereavement there had risen up this gentle, tender, guileless, gratefulhearted being." Laura Bridgman is fond of letter-writing, and has composed two "poems," which are extremely curious examples of the lyrical instinct. One of these embodies the aspirations which give light and hope to the darkened prison-house of her soul: "Heaven is holy home. Holy home is from everlasting to everlasting. Holy home is summerly. I pass this dark home toward a light home. Earthly home shall perish. But holy home shall endure for ever. Earthly home is wintry. Hard it is for us to appreciate the radiance of holy home, because of the How glorious holy home is, and still more than a beam of sun! By the finger of God my ears and eyes shall be opened. The string of my tongue shall be loosed. With sweeter joys in heaven I shall hear and speak and see. With glorious rapture in holy home for me to hear the angels sing Also that I can behold the beauty of heavenly home. Jesus Christ has gone to prepare a place for those who love and be- My zealous hope is that sinners might turn themselves from the When I die, God will make me happy. In Heaven music is sweeter than honey, and finer than a diamond." It will be seen from this rapid retrospect, that the art of educating the deaf and dumb has gone through more than usual vicissitudes. Methods have been invented, forgotten and reinvented in a manner which renders its earlier annals confused and perplexing. The philanthropy of the eighteenth and nineteenth century has done much. Whilst sanitary and medical science has reduced the frequency of deaf-mutism, educational agencies have been at work, giving its victim a fuller preparation and equipment for the battle of life. Education cannot restore to the deaf and dumb the lost glory of the many voices of nature, but it can fill that dumb void with intellectual sympathies and moral aspirations until, "The silence itself is music WILLIAM E. A. AXON. 66 NOTE. 66 66 The works chiefly referred to in the foregoing article are as follows:-"Liste Litteraire Philocophe," par C. Guyot et R. T. Guyot. Groningue, 1842. Marriages between First Cousins in England, and their Effect," by George H. Darwin ("Journal of Statistical Society," June and September, 1875). 'Studj sui Matrimonj consanguinei de Paolo Mantegazza." Milano, 1868. "Consanguineous Marriages as a Cause of DeafMutism," by Edward A. Fay, 1876. Caprices d'Imagination," [par Jean Jacques Bruhier.] Amst., 1741. "The Marriage of near Kin," by Alfred Henry Huth. London, 1875. "Anecdotes and Annals of the Deaf and Dumb," by Charles Edward Herbert Orpen, M.D. Dublin, 1836. "La Surdi-Mutité, Traité Philosophique et Medical," par le Dr. A. Blanchet. Paris, 1850. "Annals of the Deaf and Dumb," published quarterly at Washington, U. S. "Life and Education of Laura Bridgman,” by her teacher, Mary Swift Lanson. London, 1878. 106 THE RATING OF CHRONOMETERS. THE rating of the marine chronometer for the purposes of navigation is but little understood by the general public. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we consider how deficient most of us are with respect to the principles and management of our own particular timekeepers; indeed, had we only an outline of the simplest elementary knowledge in that direction, it would be utterly impossible for the thousands and thousands of watchesthe merest rubbish of their kind-to find a market in this country. With that, however, we have here nothing further to do. The reader will be kind enough to bear in mind that, throughout this paper, the term "chronometer" will have reference to the marine chronometer only; this statement being necessary, because there are watches called "pocket chronometers" extensively used upon land as well as at sea, and, unless noticed in time, a confusion might arise. The rating of the chronometer is that operation, or that series of operations, performed by the maker for the purpose of ascertaining its timekeeping properties in relation to the standard mean time astronomical clock of an established meridian. Ours is Greenwich; and the chronometer maker has to so manipulate his instrument after he has set it going, that it shall beat as nearly to that standard as is practicable. To attain that object, he has to be highly skilled in the quality of the materials operated on, to deal with variations and extremes of temperature, and other details; in fact, to educate his now living handiwork, so to speak, in such a way, that it shall, in its sailings over the globe, be the ever-sleepless and ever-trusty friend of the mariner wherever and whenever he may desire to consult it. At one time, the name "chronometer" was used to signify almost any kind of time-keeping instrument, being derived from the Greek words xpovos, time, and μeтpov, measure; in other words, a measurer of time; but for many years it has been settled that such name is specially applicable to instruments having a particular form of escapement. Furthermore, the marine chronometer is so called, because, in addition to the form of escapement already mentioned, it is as large as a small clock, has a dial of from three to four inches in diameter, is made to go from to two to eight days, is always "fixed on the flat,” with the face upwards, being secured in its box in gimbals, at right |