The Deaf | Page 5

be
regarded as either totally deaf or practically totally deaf.[1] With such
deafness there is not infrequently associated an inability to speak, or to
use vocal language. Hence our attention may be said to be directed to
that part of the community which, by the want of the sense of hearing
and oftentimes also of the power of speech, forms a special and distinct
class; and is known, more or less inaccurately, as the "deaf and dumb"
or "deaf-mutes" or "mutes."

In our discussion it is with deafness that we are primarily concerned.
Deafness and dumbness are, physically, two essentially different things.
There is no anatomical connection between the organs of hearing and
those of speech; and the structure and functioning of each are such as to
preclude any direct pathological relation. The number of the so-called
deaf and dumb, moreover, who are really dumb is very small--so small
actually as to be negligible. Almost all who are spoken of as deaf and
dumb have organs of speech that are quite intact, and are, indeed,
constructively perfect. It comes about, however, that
dumbness--considered as the want of normal and usual
locution--though organically separate from deafness, is a natural
consequence of it; and does, as a matter of fact, in most cases to a
greater or less extent, accompany or co-exist with it. The reason of this
is that the deaf, particularly those who have always been so, being
unable to hear, do not know how to use their organs of speech, and
especially are unable to modulate their speech by the ear, as the hearing
do. If the deaf could regain their hearing, they would have back their
speech in short order. The character of the human voice depends thus
on the ear to an unrealized degree.
NUMBER OF THE DEAF IN THE UNITED STATES
According to the census of 1900 there were 37,426 persons in the
United States enumerated as totally deaf;[2] and according to that of
1910 there were 43,812 enumerated as "deaf and dumb."[3] Hence we
may assume that there are between forty and fifty thousand deaf
persons in the United States forming a special class.[4]
The following table will give the number of the deaf in the several
states and the number per million of population, according to the
census of 1910.[5]
NUMBER OF THE DEAF IN THE SEVERAL STATES
NO. PER NO. PER MILLION OF MILLION OF NO. POPULATION
NO. POPULATION
United States 43,812 476 Montana 117 311 Alabama 807 377

Nebraska 636 531 Arizona 53 259 Nevada 23 281 Arkansas 729 464
New Hampshire 191 443 California 784 329 New Jersey 667 263
Colorado 243 304 New Mexico 177 540 Connecticut 332 297 New
York 4,760 522 Delaware 59 291 North Carolina 1,421 644 District of
Columbia 114 344 North Dakota 239 414 Florida 216 286 Ohio 2,582
539 Georgia 956 366 Oklahoma 826 491 Idaho 114 349 Oregon 241
359 Illinois 2,641 468 Pennsylvania 3,656 477 Indiana 1,672 619
Rhode Island 208 383 Iowa 950 427 South Carolina 735 485 Kansas
934 552 South Dakota 315 539 Kentucky 1,581 690 Tennessee 1,231
563 Louisiana 774 468 Texas 1,864 478 Maine 340 458 Utah 232 621
Maryland 746 576 Vermont 126 354 Massachusetts 1,092 324 Virginia
1,120 543 Michigan 1,315 468 Washington 368 323 Minnesota 1,077
519 West Virginia 713 584 Mississippi 737 410 Wisconsin 1,251 537
Missouri 1,823 553 Wyoming 24 159
From this table the largest proportions of the deaf appear to be found in
the states rather toward the central part of the country, and the smallest
in the states in the far west and the extreme east. The highest
proportions occur in Kentucky, North Carolina, Utah, Indiana, West
Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, New
Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, New York, and
Minnesota, all these states having over 500 per million of population.
The lowest proportions are found in Wyoming, Arizona, New Jersey,
Nevada, Florida, Delaware, Connecticut, Colorado, Montana,
Washington, Massachusetts, California, District of Columbia, Idaho,
Vermont, Oregon, Alabama, and Rhode Island, in none of these states
the number being over 400 per million. Why there should be these
differences in the respective proportions of the deaf in the population of
the several states, we cannot say; and we are generally unable to
determine to what the variations are to be ascribed--whether they are to
be set down to particular conditions of morbidity, the intensity of
congenital deafness, or other influences operating in different sections;
or, perhaps in some measure, to the greater thoroughness with which
the census was taken in some places than in others.
AGE WHEN DEAFNESS OCCURRED

The vast majority of the deaf lost their hearing in early life, and most of
them in the tender years of infancy and childhood. More than ninety per
cent (90.6, according