of But if he were in the darke or if one turned his face out of his sight he was capable of nothing one said A Preamble to the OBSERVATIONS upon the rare Atchivement of Art before related WE must confess there be infinite things in the bosome of Nature which are hidden and unknown to us Nature abounding with innumerable treasures of Sciences which can never be exhausted and in the suppression of some as in the manifestation of those that are discovered the immense Wisedom doth sufficiently shine and appear The particular Notions and Rules of this new found Art may perchance as that Invention of Herophilus concerning the Rythme and metrical lawes of the Pulse appear a little too fine and subtle for the grosse fingers of our Apprehension and a Taske onely fit for the grand Master of Subtleties himselfe But upon the atchievement being matter of fact a lesse acute understanding may fasten a few easie Observations Observation 1. THe first thing observable that occurres in this Relation is that this Spanish Lord was taught to hear the sound of words with his eye if that expression may be permitted Indeed the exploit and expression both are very new and may seem exceeding strange to those who either know not that there is a community among the Senses or have not well thought upon it It being admirable how the objects of one Sense may be known by another and how one Sense will oftentimes supply the office and want of another for light may be felt odours may be tasted the relish of meates may be smelt magnitude and figure may be heard and sounds may be seen felt or tasted Examples and Experiments of all which Exchanges I am able to produce upon occasion so that to exercise Sense is our brain to receive an impression from the externe object by the operation or mediation of some one of those which we call an externe Sense yet there seemes to be no absolute necessity that Sensation must be made by an organical part made for that purpose but one sense may be exercised by the Organs of another by changing the offices of the Senses which well examined would keep the most Sceptical from doubting of a community among them if not of degree at least of the whole kinde for we see the touch is the ground worke of all the rest And therefore Campanella in his ingenious Book De sensu rerum proves that all the Senses are but Tact but the sensories and manner of sensation differ which he makes good through all the Senses proving that al sensation is performed by contact By looking into the causes whereof we shall discerne these strange effects to fal within the observation of Art and to deserve a further enquiry That odours should be tasted and the relish of meates smelt is not strange if we consider the conformity betwixt the two Senses of smelling and tasting for Phisicians that write of these Senses finde them very conformable and therefore it happeneth that the loosing of one of them is the losse also of the other And accordingly the very names which men have imposed to expresse the affections of both do many times agree as savour which is common both to the smell and taste and sweet likewise the strongest of which we see oftentimes do make themselves known as well by the one as by the other Sense and either of them in excesse will turne a mans stomacke and therefore deafnesse which Marcellus cals Surdiginem the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word as Herotianus notes with Hippocrates doth not only denote a privation of Hearing but also sometimes a privation of sight after the same manner almost as we finde among the Latines that surditas doth oft signifie a privation or obtusion of divers senses but howsoever one sense through a sympathetical league more naturally and strictly observed between it and some other sense may be impaired or suffer damage upon the defect of that other sense yet there is seldom any decay in Nature but will be by this community someway supplyed For if all the senses should be defective except the touch which cannot be utterly lost without the privation of life the virtue of all the Senses would run into the touch and make that not to be deposed King of the senses so accurate it shal be able to officiate for all the rest And indeed the expressions are somewhat remarkable that men defective in their Senses often use which seem to acknowledge no defect but what they have an equivalent recompence for it being ordinary for blinde men to use words as if they saw which I remember Montaigne in his Essayes takes great notice of who was once visited by a blinde Gentleman who took upon him confidently to commend the Architecture and contrivance of his Mansion-house What a fair lightsome room saith he is this What a goodly prospect this house hath What a fair beautifull childe is this Taking upon him to judge of colours and all manner of beauty and proportion And this day I followed a blinde man in Red-crosse-street who being near a Brew-house made a stand Oh saith he This is a Brew-house I see it to whom I It is will guessed Are you sure you see it I replied he That I do I smell it Two Gentlemen passing by smiled at the blinde mans expression Nay I assure ye Gentlemen said I He is in the right for he does see it so I passed on leaving them two behinde me blaming the sobriety of my justification of that as they thought impropriety of Speech used by the blinde man which put me in minde of a passage in Servius in his Tractate de Vnguent Aâ—mario of a man that having lost his eyes saw notwithstanding through his nose And I believe men accidentally deaf who can speak and perceive any thing by the motion of mens lips wil be apt to the great justification of occular Audition now and then to say I hear or I have heard and being the other day in company of one Master Oxwyth a Spanish Merchant to whom I am much beholding for some intelligence out of Spain and he telling me somwhat of the rare qualities of this Spanish deaf Lord which his Factor had sent him intelligence of to satisfie my curiosity who had formerly intreated that favour from him He began to tell me somewhat of the most remarkable properties of M. Crispe who is wel known to be deaf and among the rest he said that a while ago he walking with him in the company of others one asked him how his Brother did My Brother replied he presently is very well I heard from him but the other day and whether his intelligence came by word of mouth or from the mouth of a pen in transitory or fixed words He that had an Ear in his Eye might well say He heard from his Brother and that the defect of the Ear in deaf men may be supplied by the office of the Eye or
to the braine then by the eare or eye shewing that a man may heare as well as speake with his mouth Upon which and other unlooked for discoveries I began in Idea to conceive the modell of a new Academie which might be erected in favour of those who are in your condition to wit originally deafe and dumb for which Edifice and Gymnasium having provided all kinde of materialls requisite I soone perceived by falling into discourse with some rationall men about such a designe that the attempt seemed so paradoxicall prodigious and Hyperbolicall that it did rather amuse then satisfie their understandings insomuch as they tooke the tearmes and expressions this Art justly usurpes for insufferable violations of their reason which they professed they must renounce before they could have faith to credit such an undertaking For the satisfaction therefore of such knowing men who yet are incredulous and too superstitiously devoted to the received Phylosophy I thought good to hint the Phylosophicall verity of this Art which I doe with the greater assurance having gained an unanswerable Demonstration from matter of fact for other matters hinted they must expect credit upon the like successe Neverthelesse heerein I shall not descend to exact particulars intending onely to present the Iâ—chnography of this Art referring the inward contriving of accommodations and the method of operation to our intended Academy In the meane time for the enlarging of your Charter and to bring you into a neerer incorporation of society and communion with us I heere commend unto you the Accommodations this Art holds out wishing you all in good time a happy metamsychosis or transmigration of your senses that so at least by way of Anagram you may enjoy them all That learning first to write the Images of words and to understand the conveyances of a visible and permanent speech from that Hand A. B. C. you may proceed unto a Lip-Grammar which may inable you to heare with your eye and thence learn to speak with your tongue which benefits of Art when you have attained and are become capable of perusing this tractate whose argument is so new and strange that there was never so much matter concerning you presented under one object of the eye containing a narrative of your originall estate with the supplementall advantages thereof the novelty and inventive straine of this booke may at once delight and profit you which is the hopefull wish of Your officious Friend and Historigrapher PHILOCOPHVS AD SUBTILISSIMUM virum D. Ioan Bulwerum cognomento Chirosophum sub personâ Philocophi Surdis mutisque canticum novum cum discantu felicitèr canentem ABdita Naturae nobis miracula pandis Quae nescit Libris Plebs inimica bonis Quae doctos latuere viros latuere Platonis Discipulum quae Tu das Stagerita novus Instituis Surdos Mutos audire Magistros Dum Logicum faciunt mota labella sonum Sic nunquam frustra narratur Fabula Surdo Si detur Surdis posse videre sonos I.H. Oxoniensis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To his ingenious friend Philocophus on this Foundation of his intended Academie REjoice you Deafe and Dumbe your Armes extend T' embrace th'inventive goodnesse of a Friend Who heere intends for your reliefe to Found An Academie on NATVRES highest ground Wherein He doth strange mysteries unlocke How all the Sences have one common Stocke Shewes how indulgent Nature for each sence Wanting allowes a double recompence How she translates a sence transplants an Eare Into the Eye and makes the Optiques heare Inoculates an Eare with sight whereby It shall performe the office of an Eie Presents rich odours Tasted Viands Smelt And Sound and Light in a strange maner felt The sences Arts new Master-piece are taught T' exchange their objects by a new found thought The Deafe and Dumbe get Hearing Eies which breake Their Barre of Silence and thence learn to speake Words may be seene or heard W' are at our choyce For to give Eare or Eie unto a Voyce Where men by their transposed senses gaine This Anagramme of Art and Nature's plaine Amicitiae Artis Transcendentiae ergo Tho. Diconson Med. Templ A Table of such hints and notions as more directly concerne Deafe and Dumbe men That men born Deafe and Dumb have a kinde of significant speech and naturall Language and what that is Wherefore it is that Deafe and Dumbe men can expresse themselves so lively by signes That all Deafe and Dumbe men seeme to have an earnest desire to unfold their lips to speech as if they accounted their Dumbnesse their greatest unhappinesse That a man born Deaf and Dumb may be taught to heare the sounds of words with his eyes The strangenesse of that expression abated and qualified by proving a community among the Sences and their mutuall exchanging of objects And Hearing to be nothing else but the due perception of motion A notable example of Hearing sounds with the eye in a Spanish Lord who was borne Deafe and Dumbe The causes why men are borne Deafe and Dumbe various and unknowne Supposed by some to happen through a propriety of their place of birth An example seconding that opinion The opinion of Astrologers why men are borne Deafe and Dumbe That the sin of the Parents is sometimes thus punished in their children An example of Gods justice in a Boy borne Deafe and Dumbe That Deafenesse is sometimes ex Traduce and an hereditary evill Why Deafe men beget Deaft children Why the children of Deafe men are not alwayes Deafe Aristotles opinion that Dumbnesse is a privation incident to man only That Deafenesse and Dumbnesse may happen to other creatures also The causes why many in a Family prove oftentimes Deafe and Dumbe very darke and obscure Histories both Foreigne and Domestique of Deafenesse and Dumbnesse running in a bloud and many children of one man and woman proving so defective in their senses A very strange History of two twin Sisters borne Deafe and Dumb having but two eyes betweene them both living to old age Why those who are borne Deafe are consequently Dumbe The chiefe cause supposed by some to be a sympathy betweene the Nerves of Hearing and Speaking A twofold reason of their strict society and communion according to Bartholinus The severall opinions of Physicians touching the causes of Naturall Deafnesse and so consequently of Dumbnesse Both opinions of sympathy and privation of Hearing urged by some to introduce a consequence of Dumbnes upon Deafenes Varolius his Anatomicall inference of Naturall Deafenesse from Naturall Dumbnesse That to argue Deafenesse from Dumbenesse is no good way of inference The chiefe signe to distinguish naturall Deafenesse from that which happens through a disease The only true and undoubted cause why they who are borne Deafe are consequently Dumbe That men originally Deafe though they seeme to be Dumbe yet most part of them are able to yeelde some sound or inarticulate voyce That Dumbe folkes when they are angry will make a very great gabling noyse A
reason of that extraordinary loud fury in them That the voyce which Deafe and Dumbe men utter is very unapt in it self to expresse the conceptions of their mindes unto others That Dumbe men not naturally Deafe insomuch as the voice is naturall understand one another when they vent any passion of their mind therby In what cases originall Deafenes is incurable and the reasons The sad and lamentable condition of those who are borne Deafe and Dumbe The sadder condition of those who are Deafe and Blinde The yet more miserable condition of those who are Deafe Dumbe and Blinde A strange History out of Platerus of an Abbot reduced to this wretched condition in whom the sence of Touch did officiate for all the rest Another pregnant Example of the officious nature of the Touch in supplying the defect and temporall incapacity of the other Senses Sennertus his well collected reasons of calling naturall Deafenesse miserandum malum The incapacities of Deafe and Dumbe men according to the Civill Law The pittifull condition of those who are Deafe and Dumbe and withall indocile Fooles and mad What the Civill and Canon Law decreeth concerning such That they who are borne Deaf and Dumbe unlesse there appeare pregnant signes of a well tempered minde within are neither capable nor worthy of the benefit of this New Art which teacheth men born Deafe and Dumb to heare with their Eâ—e and thence to learne to speak with their Tongue Three reasons of Mâ—â—curialis why mens Hearing of all the sences should be most often hurt from their Nativity A fourth reason given by Varolius That in originall and Naturall Deafenesse both Eares are alwayes affected and why That the chiefe signe of Naturall Deafnesse in men is To have both Eares affected from their Nativity In what cases originall Deafnes is incurable and the Reasons Why one Eare onely is commonly affected in Deafnes hapning through sicknesse That there is no necessity of that common affection betweene the Eare and the Tongue but that one may be â—ome Mute through Naturall Deafenesse without any hurt to the Nerves of the Tongue This proved by many arguments and by the example of the Spanish Lords speaking as soone as he had got from Art an Auditory Eie of Discipline That there is no reciprocall necesâ—â—ry that they who are originally Damoc must be therefore Deafe This confirmed by one of the fowre cases of Deafe and Dumbe men stated in the Civill Law The Anatomicall reason of Dumb mens being Dumbe from their Nativity and yet not therewithall being Deafe An Anatomicall Reason why they who become Deafe through any disease doe not sympathetically grow Mute An Anatomicall Reason why they who become mute through sicknesse do not sympathetically thereupon grow Deafe That they who are strucken Deafe by a disease prove sometimes accidentally Dumbe Histories of some who after they could speak growing Deafe through a Disease have lost the use of speech The Reason thereof Histories of many deprived of their hearing by sicknesse who yet have retained their speech The Reason of their retention of speech An Aphorisme of Mercurialis explained touching Deafe mens who are Deafe through some disease not being by reason thereof or in as much as they are Deafe Dumbe Histories of some strucken Dumbe by astonishment or indignation who yet may be supposed not thereupon to have growne Deafe Aristotles opinion of sights conducing more to prudence and discipline then hearing disliked by Mercurialis because he had observed blinde men oftentimes to be more prudent then they who are Deafe Riverus his judgement why they who are Deafe from their nativity have the instruments of their speech Vitiated A reply to that Arculanus his doubt whether the number of Dumbe or Deafe men be greater Resolved upon the question that there are more Dumbe from their nativity then Deafe for all that are borne Deafe are Dumbe That there are ex tempore more Deafe then Mute The Philosophicall reason thereof Whether men Mute from their nativity may in progresse of time attaine unto speech An example verifying they may Lusitanus answer to Fontanus his question An muti fiant loquaces affording a Philosophicall reason of such strange events Histories on many borne Dumbe who by some extraordinary fright and passion have received the gift of speech Why they who are so cured must be frighted as well as angered The Philosophicall reason of so strange an effect of a mixt passion The suffrage of the civill Law to Mute mens recovery of speech That they who have beene Mute from their nativity if their eares have beene open and the impediment was onely in their Tongue that removed they instantly fall to speaking as if they had learned it before This not onely inferred from Histories but reason An example of a Boy of foure yeares old thought to be Mute who by a naturall crisis recovered and on a sudden began to speake as other Boys of that age and so proceeded to a greater perfection of speech That it is an ancient conceit setled in all mens mindes that no effectuall reliefe can be given to men originally Deafe and Dumbe but by the divine Art of miracle-working Faith Histories of many Deafe and Dumbe men miraculously cured A very strange example of a Boy Deafe and Dumbe cured by a mischiefe or a chance-medley miracle Reasons why Deafe men speake through the Nose Why smelling is often lost upon Deafenesse Another reason thence taken of Deafe mens speaking through the Nose That men Deafe or blinde or otherwise defective in their senses are apt to use expressions as if they heard or saw What that property in them may seeme to imply Painting and limbing commended as usefull and matter of contentation to Deafe and Dumbe men Histories of two Deafe and Dumb men eminent in that Art That writing to the Deafe and Dumbe may serve in stâ—â—d of speech That from writing first learned by Deafe and Dumbe men there lies a way if well followed to the attaining unto speech or an Articulate voyce A strange example of a man borne Deafe and Dumbe who feeleth sounds How this Deafe and Dumbe Lord who was taught to see words had those words so seene or heard transferred to pronuntiatioÌ„ again to his Intellect A Reason why they who are Deafe by nature are necessarily Mute How the Deafe and Dumbe Spanish Lords understanding might be framed out of wordes seene or heard with his eye That it is a stranger thing in nature if considered how children learne to imitate speech who as is thought take no marke at all of the motions of the mouth of him that speaketh then that this Deafe and Dumbe Lord by observing the motions men made should be taught to understand others and to speake himselfe that others might understand Him How both these may be done That Deafe and Dumbe men have their other Senses more sharpe to supply the want of this That they are heerby endowed with an ability and sagacity to heare or see with their
to Heaven with his mouth yet bloudy he broke out into these his first words I returne great thankes unto thee most blessed St. Martin that opening my mouth thou hast made me after so long a time of silence deliver words in thy praise The people admiring at this miracle asked him if he had also recovered his hearing who professed openly to them that he heard all things very well The like miraculous reception of speech in all the circumstances hapned to a dumbe man in the Monastery of Schwartzachth as appeares by the Cronicle of the Vrspergensium Abbats It is reported also by Ecclesiasticall writers that one Anagildus who was both deafe and dumb and blinde was restored to all his sences whilst he prayed unto St. Julian The like is reported of St Bernard who returning upon a time to his Monastery cured one both deafe and dumbe that stood at the Gate Riverus in his medicinall observations affords us a strange example of a Boy both deafe and dumbe who was cured by a mischiefe or a chance-medley miracle who upon a time playing at dice was struck with a big staffe with which most grievous blow his occipitall bone was broken into many particles of which dangerous wound notwithstanding by the industry of a skilfull Chirurgion he was cured And while he grew to be well his sense of hearing came to him and he began to stammer out certaine little words untill at length hee attained the perfect faculties of hearing and speaking and in that condition he lived untill the forty fifth yeare of his age having been scarce two yeares dead when Riverus recorded this Historie Observation IX THat strange patience Constancy and paines was required to the effecting of this worke any one would imagin since great matters are not soone atchieved it seemes it was after some yeares before he who for his undertaking of it was laughed at was looked upon as if he had wrought a miracle which is no disparagement to this Art 〈◊〉 speech is not attained by 〈◊〉 â—ut with many difficulties and 〈◊〉 after some yeares and even wrâ—â—â—ng which is but the image of speeck here it can be learnt in any perfection by them who have all their senses usually takes up many of our youthfull yeares Observation X. THat he should be brought to speake as distinctly as any man whatsoever and to understand so perfectly what others sayd that he would not loose a word in a whole days conversation sheweth the wonderfull perfection of this Art that he should observe the accent and terminations of every word not hearing himselfe is very strange But the last is most strange and difficult even to them that have the just perfection of all their senses for who would undertake in a whole days discourse not to faile in understanding or misse one word of what another sayd unto him which manifestly shewes that Nature doth pay any defect by recompencing at least twofold How he was brought to speake so exactly this naturall Deasnesse remaing upon him is worth the enquirie for to imagin after what manner the words seene or as we use to speake heard with his eye were transferred to pronunciation and againe to the intellect is the greatest difficulty in this businesse we will suppose this transmutation was not performed without a necessary junction between those words seene and the habit of moving the vocall Musculs and it manifestly proves motion and articulate sounds to be one and the same thing In children indeed who have all their sences this transition is made as well by sight as hearing when they are instructed before they can understand for out of the Phancie of the thing seeÌ„ they may come through into the Phancie of the sound by joyning the vision of wordes seen in their Horn-books to the representation of the sound It being wel known unto us that boys when they learne to reade they bring forth a voyce out of a sound and that is the reason why those who are Deafe by Nature are necessarily mute For although boyes do not conceive of or comprehend the sound of words yet hearing they learne to know and although wordes are not understood by an Infant yet this Cognition which consists in sight and hearing is proper to them for man hath understanding as it perspicuously appeares even from his first Infancie because he learneth Now how his understanding was framed out of words thus seen or heard might be after the same manner as out of writing which is also a kind of visible speech permanent as the motions of the mouth are a transitory speech for vision is made out of sence joyning out of vision out of many joynings a generall comprehension out of a generall comprehension an vniversall proposition out of an vniversall proposition that kind of joyning which is called reason when one thing is inferred out of another is the understanding made so that as Cardan subtilizeth the matter there are seaven orders of Sences The Exterior Phancie junction memory generall comprehension Vniversall proposition and the vniversall it selfe which is the property of the mind so that what kind of motion went in by the sensory or organ of sence be it Eare or Eye such as it were from one and the same effigies of motion was returned and pronounced by his voyce and what he thus seeing heard he learnt to speake the same But indeed as the Verulamian Oracle of human learning notes it is a thing strange in nature when it is attentively considered how children learne to imitate speech they take no marke at all as he thinks of the motions of the mouth of him that speaketh for they learn in the dark as well as in the light the sounds of speech are very curious and exquisite so one would thinke it were a lesson hard to learne it is true that it is done with time and by little and little and manny essayes and proffers but all this dischargeth not the wonder It would saith he make a man thinke though this which wee shall say will seem exceeding strange that there is some transmission of spirits and that the spirits of the teacher put in motion should worke with the spirits of the learner a predisposition to offer to imitate and so to perfect the imitation by degrees which operations by the transmission of spirits is one of the highest secrets in nature But as for imitation it is certaine that there is in men a predisposition to imitate for no man in effect doth accompany with others but he learneth ere h 'is aware some gesture or voyce or fashion of the other But labour and intention to imitate voices doth conduce much to imitation and therefore we see there be certaine Pantomimi that will represent the voyce of Players of enterludes so to life as if you see them not you would thinke they were these Players themselves and so the voices of other men that they heare and indeed as he saith in generall so in this particular case
man that had his Hearing Zuâ—nger speaking of this mutuall suppeditation of the senses saith that if one sence as the Eare prove defective more spirits are caried unto the rest which makes their Actions though diverse more powerfull for multitude of spirits makes much to exquisite hearing an argument whereof we have in Blind men and Moles for you may see that Blind men allways most exquisitly heare and the Mole also which is Blind by Nature is thought to have the seâ—â—â— of hearing most exquisite because thosâ— spirit which should have served the visory vertue they all are turned over to the Eare and thereby make the hearing most exact Examples of these advantages in Blind men and the notable qualification of their observant Eare Camerarius can afford you many and the learned Relator in his Treatise of Bodies one most remarkable of a blinde Schoole-Master So likwise they who want their hearing see more exactly and their observations are more pregnant because the sence of hearing doth not distract them other where and being they can heare nothing they looke alwayes more attentively being Nature recompenseth in one sense the losse of another and therefore we use when we would view a thing more exactly to shut one Eye and thereby the sight becomes more accurate And if a man would heare more attentively and with lesse distraction let him shut his Eyes and if he would see with lesse distraction it were good for him to stop his Eares for any one sense is more vigorous in sensation when the other sensories are suspended from action Hence as my Lord Bacon observes sounds are meliorated by the intention of the sense where the common sense is collected most to the particular sense of hearing and the sight suspended wherfore he supposeth sounds to be sweeter to Blind men then to others The like perchance may be said of visible objects to deafe men and that the subtleties of articulate sounds or motions are with more inquisitive delight and attention contemplated by them As for the other senses they do divers things beyond their ordinary function so as one might say that perfection consisteth not in the distinctioÌ„ of the Organs of the sense but in the continuall use of them so carefull is Nature like a good mother to make amends for a fault that none should accuse her to be a step-mother for what she taketh away in some of the senses she allows and recompenseth in the rest insomuch as deafe and dumbe men having a double defect to wit of speaking and hearing they usually have double recompence this makes them good naturall Phisiognomers For as concerning the notes of the affections which appeare in mens Faces by instinct they know and discerne them readier then we can and as we know we are often beholding to the countenances of Men for the explanation of their Mindes so they know by the motions of affections and passions that accompany the motions of speech the passions that are vented in those locall motions oâ— Articulation made in the parts about the Mouth And it may not bee so difficult to them as unto us to conceive and distinguish of each motion and signification of the lips for wanting the sense of Hearing their Eie is more accurate and apt to observation so that wondring what those motions of mens mouths meane and heedfully observing at several times noting both the occasion and the returne of that occasion they ingeniously fâ—ame out of their owne observation many things Art could not with any certainty instruct them in so that the apparent motions of the lips the formes of words seeme to have beene distinguished by the observation of some deafe and dumbe men without the helpe of a Teacher Nature the Patriarch of physick saith being many times skilfull without a Teacher for it seemes by some stories of deafe and dumbe men as they are recited by certaine Authors that some even of themselves without teaching have fallen upon observing the motions made in speaking and so have come to the understanding of the received significations of those motions Wee have saith Camerarius in Nuremberge a yong man and a yong maide borne of one Father and Mother of a good House and well knowne that are endued with a singular quick conceit for although they be Deafe and Dumbe by Nature yet can both of them reade very well write cypher cast account The young man conceiveth at first by signes that are made him what he is required to doe if his pen be wanting by his countenance he sheweth his thoughts being the quickest and cunningest at all Games both at Cards and Dice that one can finde among the Germans although they there use great advisement and be marvellous ready and quick His Sister passeth all other Maydes for working with her needle all kinde of Sempstry Tapestry Embrodery c. But above all the wonderfull recompences of Nature this is remarkable in them that most commonly as soone as they see ones lips stir they understand his meaning They are oftentimes at Sermons and a man would say that they draw and conceive with their Eyes the wordes of the Preachers as others use to doe with their Eares for they will oftentimes no body ever teaching them or setting them any Letters or Copies write the Lords prayer and other godly Prayers Know by heart the Texts of the Gospels that are read upon Holy Dayes and write them readily when in the Sermons the Preacher maketh mention of the name of Jesus the yong man is ready before any of the Hearers to take off his hat and to bow his knee with all reverence Platerus makes mention of one borne Deafe and Dumbe who neverthelesse could describe his minde in a Table book which he alwayes carried about him and could understand what others also wrote therein Platerus his Father reported of him that when he with great zeale heard Oecolampadius preaching by the motion of his lips and his gesture he understood many things as he also could by any others lips that laboured before him Zuinger speaking of this Deafe and Dumbe man who was according to his relation a Poyntmaker sayes that he heard Oecolampadius preaching seeming to hear with his very eies The like ability of preception gained from his owne attentive observation as I am informed by a Philosophicall Friend had one Gennet Lowes a woman dwelling in Edenburge in Stotland who being Deafe and Dumbe by Nature could understand any one in her House meerely by the moving of their lips So that by their motions alone without a voice or speaking aloud to her she could exactly perceive their meaning The Civill Law seemes also to have tooke notice that men that are Deafe and Dumbe may come to heare others speake by observing the moving of their Lips For among their extraordinary Law Cases they have inserted this recondit and very seldome heard of notion touching Deafe and Dumbe mens perceiving the efficacy of others wordes by the moving of their lips
the defect of the Eye in blinde men by the office of the Ear so that the Ear also may see will not appear so paradoxical if we consider the consent of visibles and audibles as it is elegantly set forth by my Lord Bacon in his Natural History Cent. 3. from Exper. 255. to Exper. 267. which being long to recite I referre to the inquisition of the curious And with good judgement for demonstrations sake did that Heroe of learning use in divers instances the examples of the sight and things visible to illustrate the nature of sounds prosecuting it to a more full comparison since the hearing hath a great affinity with the Organ of sight for they have both one common faculty and the extremity of the auditory passage where the Nerve dilated is conjoyned with the included aire doth answer to the Chrystalline in like manner those parts which are about the involution of the Eare are correspondent to the sight of the Eye and the other parts about the Chrystalline And I would fain know why Gordonius a learned Phisician as appeareth by his Workes in his Description of the Instruments of Hearing where he writes of the Diseases of the Ear attributes a concave optique Nerve unto the Ear. His Marginal Commentator confesseth he seeth not for what reason he doth it and till some bodie will undertake to see farther into his minde we may suppose he was a secret Friend and a well wishing Nichodemus to auricular vision Now whether the expression of hearing sounds with the Eye may be permitted will appear if it cannot be denied but that Hearing is nothing else but the due perception of motion and that motion and sound are not different entities but in themselves one and the same thing although expressed by different names and compized in our understanding under different notions which is proved by the observation of sounds which follow the lawes of motion for every effect of them is to be demonstrated by the principles and proportions of motion So that motion alone is able to effect and give account of all things whatsoever that are attributed to sound and sound and motion do go hand in hand together and whatsoever may be said of the one is likewise true of the other Aristotle therefore defines sound by motion and the Voyce to be a kinde of percussion and therefore sound is the same with motion and no resulting quality which may be further convinced by the ordinarie experiment of perceiving Musique by mediation of a sticke for a deaf man is capable of that sound no otherwise than as bare motion is sound Now since articulate sound or motion may be perceived by the Eye then it may hear as well as see and hear by seeing It will be no great impropriety of speech to affirme the Eye may hear since it can perceive the adequate object of hearing and performe the office of an ear in judging of sound as it is motion all sound being motion as soon as it is perceived and the thing which we call sound and makes speech audible being purely motion Indeed sound which is but an accident of speech which is as they commonly speak the sensible quality of Hearing is reckoned by Philosophers to be proprium sensile to wit to be perceptible but to one sense yet as it is figure and motion which two alwayes imply one another and of the essence of speech it may be accounted commune sensile and be perceived by more outward Senses than one I but sayes one if sound be motion Which is the mobile Surely in articulate sounds which are the motions I onely undertake for the mobile may be the aire or breath as it is moved and informed by the instruments of speech And if that be not liked What thinke ye of the Lips for the mobile of articulate motion Verily although I am not of his opinion who held that motus and mobile were all one yet by a warrant of Anatomicall subtletie I may say that movens and mobile are for in the lips which were to move and be moved in speech the motory power is mingled with the mobile I but no motion is performed in an instant but sound in an instant fils thousands of eares if they be neer Surely Articulate motion also is performed in an instant and can fil thousands of eares or eyes if they be at a convenient distance I but rest is opposite to motion but it is not opposite to sound Surely silence which is a rest from speech is opposite both to motion and the audible Articulation of sounds I but againe it is objected here are many motions without any sound for you may move your hand or any part of your Body without sound It may bee not for we have reason to suspect there may be some kinde of sound in every motion according to that of Ausonius Nil mutum Natura dedit And I thinke and beleeve there is some sound in every motion although it may not be perceived being drowned by other greater sounds that are about us And wee are emboldened by this Art to question whether the eare bee the onely judge of sound The rather since there are some nation have no eares yet heare most exactly T is true Articulat motion requires noâ— alwayes anaudible sound but a visible iâ— doth at least and therefore not to be accounted among those motions which are supposed to passe without sound For otherwise Articulate sound and motioâ— being one and the same you will make them like the two Socii in Plautus moâ—â— one another as if Articulate motioâ— should passe without sound that is without it selfe I but yet againe there is a sympatheticall and antipatheticall power in sounds to affect or disaffect the hearer which is not in motion although there be not found objects so ingrate to the eye as to the eare yet in Articulate sounds this way perceived by the eye there is as well as by the eare for what are the angry frownes and stormie motions of a tempestuous countenance which provokes the face of another to the like impetuosities but antipatheticall motions and what are yawningâ— and laughter which appeares chiefly about the mouth but sympatheticall motions which passe from one man to another and affect or disaffect them with the like More especially these sounds of motions which are audible to him that heareth with his eares have a power to gratifie or distaste his ocular eare But I have no designe to oppose any mans fansie or to impose any thing upon it if they will give me leave at least for the decency and countenance of the argument I handle to say and thinke thus Let them enjoy the liberty of their judgement for wee are not necessarily engaged by our designe to make good this expression of hearing sounds with the Eye Therefore as for that wee say as the great Advancer of Learning saide of factitious Gold If a mettall may be procured by Art which shall exactly answer
is as words to cogitations Yet this order is not of necessity that speech must bee learnt first and afterwards Writing should succeede to signifie our words rather then words writing there being no naturall necessity for it so that the contrary cannot bee done But it happens rather by reason of the facility and because men that are deprived of noâ—â— of their senses are apt sooner to speake then to write the tongue being sooner fitted by nature for that employment then the hand for this But the cleane contrary may be done as appeares in the atchievement of this honourable Gentleman and others mentioned in this book For as they who have their hearing dâ—â— as the readyer and better way bâ—â—in 〈◊〉 speech so they who are deafe doe best begin at writing Therefore neither of them hath a naturall necessity but it seemes by the nature of the thing that the reason and account of speech and writing is the same but that they have a greater facility of speaking who enjoy all their senses but they who want their hearing may have writing in stead of speech and the notice of things accrues to them by sight as to others by hearing So that speech is as it were a silent and audible writing and writing is a visible and permanent speech and withall so missive that where the eare is absent we can send our mind by writing to a friend why not then when the faculty of hearing is wanting as in deafe men may we not send a message of intelligence to his eye in writing since the eare and eye are knowne to exchange objects without any robery in case of necessity transferring their sensitive rights one unto another The youngest brother of the said Sir Edward Gostwick is in the same condition being yet an excellent Limbnâ—r invited to that art by his Genius or some signalitie of spirit observed in him Painting and Limbning next to writing having beene ever thought of excellent use and to afford singular contentation to those that are borne deafe and dumbe And therefore Q. Pedius the Nephew of Q. Pedius a man of Consular degree and one that had tryumphed by Caesar Dictator made Co-heir with Augustus being dumbe by nature Messala the Oratour of whose familie the Grandmother of the childe was descended being carefull how the Boy should be brought up after mature advise and deliberation thought good that he should by signes and imitation be trained up in the Art of Painting And Augustus Caesar approved of his judgement and advice herein and in truth the young Gentleman being apt thereto although he dyed a youth was growne a great proficient in that Art Sir John Keyes Master of the Ordinance to King James had two Sisters who were both borne Deafe and Dumb they could write and were very ingenious to imitate any kinde of needle work they saw Sir Miles Fleetwood hath two handsome Gentlewomen to his daughters both borne deafe and dumbe De La Barre the rich Dutch Merchant who lived at Eeling in Middlesex had two daughters born deafe and dumb they were both marryed A Friend of mine who was once in their companies at Brainford their Husbands also being there told me he did much admire at their dexterity of perception for by the least motion of their Husbands countenance or hand they presently conceived of their meaning Master Freeman of London Skinner had two daughters both deafe and dumbe One Master Diet a Parson in Staffordshire hath a Brother and Sister both deaf and dumbe One Thomas Xing Farmer of Langley in the County of Essex had by one woman a sonne and three daughters all deafe and dumbe One in Osmaston within a mile of Darby had foure sonnes and all of them were borne deafe and dumbe One John Gardiner of Thaxted in Essex hath a sonne and daughter both deafe and dumbe his sonne Robert Gardiner is a Tradesman here in Towne and one of the most notable examples I have discovered for proofe of the feeling of sounds and whom to the satisfaction and admiration of some Friends of mine I have shewed and exposed to a philosophicall view and tryall And as I am informed by a Merchant of credit living in London who hath a sonne deafe and dumbe there was in Lincolneshire one Master Dallison a Gentleman that used grazing who had three sons born deaf and dumb who made them all 3 Graziers and they proved the craftiest in that way that the Country ever bred for they were very expert at their pen which they managed in all their affaires with singular readinesse using it as it is indeed for a kinde of supplementall speech I am informed by an accomplisht Gentleman that knew them a learned Friend of mine they were so accurate at the pen that they could write the Creed in the compasse of a farthing which he hath seene fairely so written by them One Master Adams in the East of Kent had two daughters very handsome proper Gentlewomen which were all the children he had and they were both borne deafe and dumbe A Husbandman of Sherington within a mile of Newport in the County of Buckingham had a sonne and a daughter both borne deafe and dumbe A Husbandman living at Tilstone in Cheshire about seven mile from Chester had two daughters Twins that were borne deafe and dumbe having but two eyes betweene them one of the eyes of each of them being originally blinde they lived both to be old women Some Cheshire men of my acquaintance who knew them both affirme that they had a very strange and admirable nimblenesse of perception both to understand others and to deliver their owne mindes by signes which happened without doubt unto them through the marvelous recompence that nature affordeth in such cases For having but one eye the sight of that was certainely very accurate Aristotle is of opinion that deafnesse and dumbnesse are privations onely hapning unto men Yet there be who are of another minde for that Horse who never moves nor prickes up his eares at any noise or sound and useth to cast back his eares is deafe and that horse who in the companie of those he hath used to travell with never neighes is dumbe Yet if a Horse were foaled deafe hee would not be consequently dumbe because the speech of beasts is naturall unto them and hath no dependencie upon the eare and so it cannot be excluded by a privation of hearing through any naturall deafenesse Observation III. HE was borne deafe and so consequently he was dumbe They who from their first conformation and birth are deafe they likewise are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or at least live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence surdus quasi seoridus i. sine ore and mutus quia eo sensu minutus The chiefe cause why they who are borne deafe are consequently dumbe is supposed to be the sympathy betweene the instruments of hearing and speaking the reason of whose strict society and communion is not knowne to all men which according to
Bartholinus is two fold first a nerve of the fift conjugation hath diverse branches shooting from it the greater is expanded into the Eare and the membrane which is of exquisite sense and carries the species of all sounds unto the Braine the lesser branch runs out to the Tongue and the Larynx by reason of this communion of vessels which with Hippocrates and Galen is the onely cause of a simple sympathy the affections of the Eare and Tongue are easily communicated Hence when the membrane of the Eare is touched by two deepe a picking there followes a dry Cough and in the inflamation or impostume of the Lungs with a shortnesse of the breath the eares grow moyst The second cause of this sympathy is a little Cartalagineous Canale as it were an Aqua-duct which from the second passage of the Eare is carryed unto the Palate so that from the mouth into the Eare and from the Eare into the mouth the ayre doth freely passe and repasse whence when wee would heare with more attention we hold our breath lest by inspiration of the thick ayre the Cochlea of the eare should be filled and the Tympanum extended They also that doe pick their eare doe raise spettle because by that compression there is made an expression of excrements into the Cartilagineous Aqueduct and from thence into the Tongue for by this way which was made to purge out the congenit ayre there lyes a passage for the excrements from the eare to the mouth but not è contra by reason of the Valvula it hath whence in the affections of the eare Masticatories are so beneficiall And therefore when the instruments of hearing are hurt or ill affected the instruments of speech that have so neere an allyance unto them are likewise endamaged Laurentius sayes that they who from their first conformation are deafe by reason of the obstruction exolution and refrigeration of the nerve of the fift paire they also are mute Campanelia sayes that naturall deafenesse proceedes either from the obstruction of the Auditories or the want of the Meningis and these are all mute without a voyce not without sound for sound is naturall but the voyce and speech is learnt by hearing or altogether destitute they are of speech yet they utter a voyce which is so far from enabling Dumbe men to expresse their conceptions to others that they seeme very unapt to doe it neither can any understand Dumbe men unlesse those who are a long time and much exercised with their conversation neither could they then unlesse Dumbe men themselves besides the voice did adhibit diverse gesticulations of the hand and whole body Notwithstanding in as much as the voyce is naturall it is understood of all men and therefore when Dumbe men utter any sad voyce all men understand it and will perceive the affection of the minde to be sadnesse and herein Dumbe men will also very well understand one another if they be not originally Deafe The great noyse and gabling which Deafe and Dumbe folks make especially when they are angry proves them to have a sufficient command of their voyce the sound whereof many times makes the house to ring againe with their inarticulate noyse of their anger Insomuch as he who to avoyde the inconvenience of Domesticke tempests should marry a Dumbe Mistresse may perchance speed no better then Seigniour Moroso did with his Silent woman The reason may be That Deafe and Dumbe folke being deprived of hearing they are not so capable of a soft answer or Apologie inductive to a pacification which might allay and calme the tempest of their anger and then wanting a vent of speech whereby others usually denounce their indignation they pay it with the voyce which is the onely weapon they have left moving their tongue as if they would hammer and forge out something equivalent to an Articulate voyce which they manage to the utterance from which there results such a noyse which although inarticulate is significent enough to expresse their passion and chollericke indignation Petraeus adjudgeth deafenesse to happen through an ill and unapt structure of the eares and imperfect occlusion of the auditory Nerve or by obstruction from a humour or crasse winde and these for the most part are mute Jonstonus sayes deafenesse happens through default of the braine which either begets not animall spirits or transmits them not through some peculiar disease Secondly in the auditory nerve which doth not carry them or by a vitious conformation whence deafe men are for the most part dumbe Some indeede thinke that originall deafenesse may happen through a dislocation or ill disposure of the little bones of hearing But Capivaccius says they erre and are ignorant in Anatomie who thinke the hearing may be hurt through any defect of those three little bones of the eare It were to be wished that distection had been made of many Deafe and Dumbe which might have discovered the ill conformation of the instruments of bearing and the other causes of these impediments Magirus Sennertus and others from the same sympathie inferre dumbnesse to be a consequence of naturall deafenesse Varolius on the contrary inferres deafenesse from dumbnesse The auditorie Nerves saith hee arise on boâ—â— sides of that part of the Ceâ—ebellum which he calls Pontem or the Bridge and the nerves of Taste arise about the middle of the same betweene both the nerves of hearing From which my observation you may saith he if you please drawe out a reason why from those that are dumbe by nature their hearing also is taken away Since the nerves of hearing and the Tongue are derived from the same principle But this is not so probable a way of arguing as the other since the chiefest signe to distinguish naturall deafenesse from diseased is that they who are borne deafe are alwayes dumbe Of which the true cause is not this supposed sympathy betweene the eare and the tongue which Mercurialis a most exact and judicious Physition approvs not of but that which followes in the relation is the undoubted cause for this Lord was deafe and so consequently dumbe for not being able to heare the sound of words he could never imitate nor understand them Therefore Alexander answering to this Problem Why they that are borne deafe are likewise dumbe Saith That speech and discourse are acquir'd by discipline discipline comes by hearing Whence hearing taken away there is no place left for discipline to enter in and so consequently speech is destroyed it being impossible to apprehend Idioms or to forme new without hearing For the minde of the deafe not instructed by sound cannot tell how to forme those vocal words which the wit of man hath invented for they can neither conceive in their minde nor produce with their tongue words which they never heard For speech in the naturall and ordinary way is learnt by discourse heard and conveyed to the understanding by the eare which is the sense of discipline For man being borne to the knowledge
of all things it behooved him in sooth to be disciplinable that beside sensitive knowledge his understanding might perceive those things by discipline to which the senses could not attaine but the hability to discipline consists in the nature of our Intellect which is certaine pure power of its owne nature respective to all kind of knowledge to which in as much as it is disciplinable all the senses are servicable but more especially the hearing without which men attaine to none or little and unconsiderable discipline for they who are born deaf or become deafe in their infancie although they may have the parts of their voyce and speech yet they never learne to speake wanting the chiefe medium to greater disciplines And although deafe and dumbe men may attaine to some knowledge by disciplâ—â—e yet they never arrive to the intimate offenses of things by apprehension whereof our Intellect gaines a proper perfection All this happening unto them through their defect in hearing which as Theophrastus saith of all the senses neerest allyde unto Reason and thereto thought by Aristotle most to confâ—â— the receite of discipline Montaigneâ— Riverus also would have both there sons sympatheticall and privative to introduce the consequence of dumbnesse upon deafnesse being of opinion that the reason why they that are deafe speak not at all is not onely because they could not receive the instruction of Words by the Eare but rather in as much as the sense of hearing whereof they are deprived hath some affinitie with that of speaking both which with a naturall kinde of ligament or seame hold and are fastned together in such sort as what we speake we must first speake it unto our selves and before wee utter and sound the same forth to strangers we make it inwardly to sound unto our Eares Observation IV. HIs deafenesse it seemes was such that if a Gun had beene shoâ— off close by his eare he could not heare it yet Physitians and Chirurgions had long employed their skill to remedy that unhappy accident Which method was commendable in respect of the uncertaine cause of the impediment For although the cure according to the opinion of all cannot be effected where originall deafenesse proceeds out of the privation or as they speake Ex carentia foraminis that is when the Auditorie nerve is wanting and not planted in the stony Bone or when the nerve it selfe is created solid or when the orbicular membrane the Tympanum or more properly called the membrane of the Tympanum which is pellucid thin and subtile that sounds might be more easily transferred to the congenit ayre is thick from their birth because these things happen through a defect of the Plastique virtue And what nature once takes away the Physitian by no art can repaire there being also no returne allowed from a privation to a habit Yet since possibly somâ— other matter might bee in cause and nature many times in a strange extraordinary manner appeares propitiously to coâ—â—â—rate with the administrations of Aâ—â— this conclusion was necessary which proceding the atteÌ„pt was a means of advancing the reputatioÌ„ of the cure which was wrought by a new way of ocular suppeditation beyond the reach of any coÌ„mon â—urists skill But before we winde up this Observation it would be worth the noting what Mercurialis conceives to be the causes why hearing is so frequently hurt from mens nativities which he delivers to be chiefely three One is that the Infant in the wombe hath all the instruments almost of the senses occluded except the eares for it hath neither the nostrils nor mouth nor eyes open Yet for the most part it hath the Eares wide open and therefore it easily comes to passe that somewhat out of the wombe may fall into the Eares which indeede cannot happen to the other senses Another reason is that the inward instrument of hearing is empty and being empty in the wombe and a most moyst head is easily replenished A third reason is that the auditory nerues the proper instrument of hearing are nearer to the braine then the other instruments of sense and being nearer the braine are more pâ—ssible and hence it comes to passe that they are more easily offended To these Varolius seemes to afford a fourth reason or if you had rather the third very much explained and enlarged The rising saith he of the Auditorie nerves from the processe of the Cerebellum as it shewes the use of the after-Braine was to be the chiefe principle of the sense of Hearing So it teacheth us the cause why more are deprived of their hearing from their nativitie then of any other sense For since they proceede from the Cerebellum and are not drawne out far they are easily stopped with the mucous excrements thereof Another thing observable is that both the Eares are alwayes affected in originall deafenesse that being the chiefe signe of naturall deafenesse which being caused almost alwayes through the disease of the Braine whence the cause being internall and common to both the Auditorie nerves it is necessary that at the offence of a Principle both the nerves should be offended and consequently both Eeares grow Deafe Which happens otherwise in Diseases because deafnesse in a Disease for the most part proceedes from some externall cause precedent now an outward cause may â—â—rt one Eare the other unhurt because the Eares being very remote one care may be hurt from without or within the other unhurt so that the Principle of the Nerve be not offended Observation V. THe lovelinesse of his Face and especially the exceeding life and spiritfulnesse of his Eyes and comelinesse of his person and the whole composure of his body throughout were pregnant signes of a well tempred minde within Whence we note that it is requisite he should be an expert Phisiognomer who attempts this Art to judge of the capacity fit yeares and ingenious composure of countenance the signe of a well tempered and Docile minde which as they were inductive encouragements to the first Attemptor So no question did much conduce to the facility of the worke For Ex â—â—ni ligno non fit Mercurius and it had been in vaine to have cast away time to relieve an Idiot maugre the indisposition of Nature and Minerva who had not so much as matter to worke upon Observation VI. ALl that knew him lamented much the want of meanes to Cultivate his minde and to embrue it with those notions which it seemed to be capable of in regard of it selfe had it not beene so crossed by this unhappy accident The condition that they are in who are borne deafe and dumbe is indeed very sad and lamentable for they are looked upon as misprisions in nature and wanting speech are reckoned little better then Dumbe Animals that want words to expresse their conceptions and men that have lost the Magna Charta of speech and priviledge of communication and society with men For by this one thing men chiefely differ from other living creatures
This is the interpretor and as it were the message of the minde This doth easily expresse and declare those things which the understanding conceives All which things how much they confer to the attaining of discipline how much to the society of men among themselves And lastly how much to their conservation and perfection hereby appeares manifest that they who are most able in speech they also seeme to excell among men and to be of a more excellent understanding To summe up all Speech doth so much avayle to the adorning and perfecting of man that nothing almost greater or better could have beene given by God And therefore Plato sayd The Effluction of words the Minister of prudence is of all Effluctions the best and most beautifull So that in Republicâ literariâ deafe and dumbe men never attaine to any degree of honour or respect Let us see how they are lookt upon in Foro Civili there there is much arguing about their Civill capacities and many Embargos have beene made of their goods and those priviledges which belong to a free condition with many inconveniencies and incumbrances on their estates A deafe and dumbe man cannot be a witnesse in those things which are perceived by the sense of hearing A deafe and dumbe man is uncapable of all conventions which require words A man borne deafe and dumbe cannot Donare some extend it to other contracts but Alexander reproves that extension A deafe and dumbe man understanding nothing is compared to an Infant If a dumbe man understand any thing he is compared to a Pupill A deafe and dumbe man found a Delinquent is not punished more gently as a Pupill A dumbe man may enterpose his command if he have understanding but he cannot interpose his authority A dumbe and deafe man cannot alienate among the living for he is like to a dead man A man deafe and dumbe by nature cannot make his last Will and Testament A deafe and dumbe man cannot appoint Executors of his last Will and Testament If a man be dumbe and deafe by nature so that he can neither write nor speake he cannot make his Testament but if these defects be severed that hee can either write or speake he may make his Will and it is of force This therefore is to be observed A man both deafe and dumbe by nature cannot make his Will and although it be made for a pious cause it is not of foâ—ce among which causes liberty is numbred For a Testament made by a man both dumbe and deafe by nature wherein hee bequeatheth freedome is of no value But if he be not mute or deafe by nature and hath learnt to Paint or Write hee may make his Testament Yet some say that in making a last Will there is neede of an articulate voyce and that signes will not suffice Sennertus very justly therefore calls deafenesse Miserandum malum a pittyfull and miserable mischance for since the Eares are as it were the Portall or entrie of the minde by which those things are sent into the minde which are delivered by Doctrine and Institution for the right managing and transacting our life before God and men that man must needes be miserable who is destitute of the facultie of hearing for hee cannot use the ayde and benefit of hearing either to his eternall health or present safety They are more miserable yet who are withall blinde Since they are not capable of the benefit of this Art or of an ocular supply to their Auricular defect But most miserable are they who are blinde deafe and dumbe An example of which wretched condition we have in Platerus of a certaine Abbot who being made blinde mute and deafe by the malignity of the French Pox could no other way understand and perceive the mindes of others then by their drawing letters upon his naked arme with their finger or piece of wood expressing some intimation unto him out of which singly by themselues apart perceived he collected a word and of may wordes a sentence which how miserable a case it was and how horrid the punishment of his committed sinne any one may easily understand A pregnant example of the officious nature of the Touch in supplying the defect or temporall incapacity of the other senses we have in one Master Babington of Burntwood in the County of Essex an ingenious Gentleman who through some sicknesse becomming deaf doth notwithstanding feele words and as if he had an eye in his finger sees signes in the darke whose Wife discourseth very perfectly with him by a strange way of Arthrologie or Alphabet contrived on the joynts of his Fingers who taking him by the hand in the night can so discourse with him very exactly for he feeling the joynts which she toucheth for letters by them collected into words very readily conceives what shee would suggest unto him By which examples you may see how ready upon any invitation of Art the Tact is to supply the defect and to officiate for any or all of the other senses as being the most faithfull sense to man being both the Founder and Vicar generall to all the rest So that whereas among the senses bestowed upon us by nature some are necessarie to life others to a happy life some to neither without the sense of Touch man can neither bee nor live without sight and hearing he may indeed live yet no way well or happly smelling is neither necessary to a mans being nor well-being And that sight and hearing conduce to a good and happy life appeares in that they are most necessary for the acquiring prudence and discipline And although Aristotle seemes to have thought that sight did more conferre to prudence then hearing Yet Mercurialis is of another opinion because he observed blinde men to be oftentimes wiser and more prudent then those that were deafe So that he who is deprived of his hearing seemes to be at the greatest losse and therefore a good Aurist is worthy of double honour But most disconsolate is their condition who are naturally deafe and withall indocile fooles or mad of which sort I have known many For they commonly are deprived of the society and conversation of men and by reason of their incapacitie and want of understanding they are fit for no publique employment and they are in vaine and impertinently present at any conference or consultation their condition in many things being far worse then that of blinde men In the Civill Law a deafe man understanding nothing is compared to an Infant and if he altogether want understanding he must have a Guardian appointed him it being left to the arbitriment of the Judge to determine whether he hath understanding or no and there are certaine signes nominated by which hee must demonstrate that he is not voyde of understanding And when it is presumed that he wants understanding he is interdicted Marriage by the Canon Law Observation VII AT the last there was a Priest who undertooke the teaching him to understand
Headach which she suffered seemed to have occasioned the ensuing-losse concerning her speech he delivers nothing certaine since infants otherwise by reason of their inbâ—cility cannot speake so soone yet he thinks it â—s very likely that she then lost her speech when she was deprived of her hearing which thought of his is undoubtedly unâ—o the purpose But as to his charging this upon the â—ld sympatheticall account I am not of â—is minde but rather had reckon her failing in the weak inchoation of speech as a necessary consequence of the privation of the sense of hearing and her imperfect offers at articulate pronunciation at her seaventh yeare to be the faint and dying motions of an imperfect and feeble speech and the green fruite of the lips â—nipt in their bud perishing before thorough ripe And in this sense would I understand that of Mercurialis in his Prelections of the diseases of the Eare Sur di a morbo quantum sit ratione surditatis non sunt muti Dico ratione surditatis qua fieri potest ut morbus qui facit surditatem etiam auferat loquelam that is they who are Deafe through a disease by reason of their Deafnesse are not mute that is simply in as much as they are deafe yet it may so fall out that the disease which occasions Deafnesse may deprive them of their speech also to wit if there be laesio principii that the come on principle of both faculties all affected or by accident upon the precâ—ding losse of their hearing as in these examples The like as I am credibly informed hath hapned unto a Gentlewoman a Neece of Sir Robert Pyes Lady who now liveth with her who having had her hearing and thereby attained to some degree of speech about the secondâ—y are of her age was deprived of both by a great sicknesse that befell her and remaineth now being a woman growne so deafe and dumbe that any one unacquainted with the occasion of her losse would suppose her to have been originally deafe and dumbe Deafnesse hapning to her in the very initiation of her speech soone obliterating the weake impression of that imperfect language she had then attained unto for hearing being the sense of memory that affected in all probality the memory must suffer some Diminution with it which hapned to them both without any impeachment of their intellects they retayning the usuall capacity and understanding of Deafe and Dumbe folkes and their dexterity in expressing themselves by signes Speech onely being soone abolished by oblivion where discourse with others cannot bee maintained nor any recruite allowed unto the tongue thereby there having never been as yet any way contrived by Art to inable men made Deafe by sicknesse to learne de novo to speake notwithstanding the impediments of the Eare This accidentall dumbnesse which those fell into being of that kind wherein the voyce or rather vociferation or sound indeed remaines but yet the articulate speech is intercepted wâ— h kind of mutenes is by the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is found an analoicaglly in infants but properly in those who have lost their speech through some preceding disease Riverus a strong sympathist in this point would have the reason thereof to be evident seeing they who are deafe from their Nativitie if they had not the instruments of their speech vitiated they would bring forth an articulate voice out of a naturall instinct as other Animals doe although from their Nativitie they should be seperated from other Animals of the same species that they could never heare them yet they would bring forth a voice that is Connaturall unto them But they saith he who are Deafe from their nativitie utter no articulate voice but onely a confused sound which argues a manifest lesion of the parts serving to the speech for answer whereunto I confesse it may so fall out that cause which deprives the eare orginally of its hearing may also take away the faculty of speech from the tongue yet in most deafe and dumbe men that I have seene I cannot perceive but that they have those few naturall expressions which proceede from the instinct of nature which are rather passions of the minde then any significant sounds that properly belong to any Tongue or language such as is the interjection of laughter as ha ha he of sorrow as ha of weeping as oh of crying out for aide as O although it may be they utter them not altogether in so plaine a tone as they who enjoy their speech Neither if any man be originally dumbe is there any reciprocall necessity that he must be deafe Hence Ioachimus Mynsingerus in the Scholiast upon the Institutions Stating the foure cases of deafe and dumbe men saith Si aures apertae sunt lingua vero impedita sive ex accidenti sive novercante natura contraxerit c. Which words imply that one may be dumbe from their Nativitie and yet injoy their hearing Arculanus upon Almansor raises a doubt whether the number of dumbe or deafe men be greater to which it is replyed that there are more dumbe from their Nativitie then deafe for all that are deafe are dumbe because through their defect of hearing they cannot learne how to forme letters syllables nor words dumbe men being dumbe from their Nativitie by reason of some defect in the nerves moving the tongue which come from the seaventh paire of nerves of the Braine who yet notwithstanding are not deafe there being no defect existent in the fift paire of nerves of the Braine and in the other Organs and instruments which serve to hearing whereas ex tempore there are more deafe then mute for we see by the course of Times and causes occuring to sick men that the eare is oftener hurt then the tongue for nature was very carefull to furnish the tongue with greater nerves and Arteries for the Tusts sake without which man can not long subsist the Tongue moreover being lodged in a safâ—â— place inclosed in an immured den whereas the eares are more obnoxious by their scituation to be endamaged by extraneous occurrents Fontanus puts the question An muti fiant loqâ—aces and he affirmes by way of answer that he saw this verified in Zacharias his foole about which accident he writes to Lusitanus desiring an explication of that wonderfull example Zacharias saith he a foole Orphant who would be angry at the motion of the Moone Lunatique and mute theee months before his death fell into a Consumption and when he was wasted so farr that he drew neere death he spake freely gave thankes to me and the standeres by for our undeserved favours to him yea kissed my hand before I felt his Pulse This man in his right wits departed godly out of this life Io which prodigious History Lusitanus returnes in answer that it had neede of a Coon or Pergamean Oedipus But saith he That men should have an impediment in their voyce and become speechlesse and mute by reason of
by their transpositions are able to expresse any language agreed on by the inventive constitutions of men yet all tongues are not necessarily tyed to take in all the Letters of natures Alphabet for the language of Cuzco wants B D F G J consonant and single L and makes shift with the other naturall Letters B is not used by the Chinoys and the Tartars cannot pronounce it and the Chinoys as it is sayd cannot pronounce R. The Brasileans cannot pronounce the Letters L. F. R. the reason whereof one being demanded made answer because they had amongst them neither Law Faith nor Rulers yet a more Philosophicall cause might be found out for that the Chinoyse nor Brasileans can pronounce the naturall Leter R is not by reason of the altered figure of the instruments belonging to speech for those parts which conspire to speech are the same in them as in other men nor by reason of the substance scite progresse of vessels or the hurt of their originall because the same substance of the instruments appertaining to speech is preserved in them as in others who have not this impediment the same progresse and scite of particulars and the selfe same beginning of instruments neither doth this happen to them by reason of the moist temperature of their head or tongue and other parts conspiring to speech for their hard Heads declare them to be of no such temperament the specificall cause of their naturall indisposition to the pronuncation of this Letter is either their over many or more and different scituation of pores existent in the instruments appertaining to speech now the instruments appertaining to speech are the Lungs the rough arterie the larinx the tongue the pallate teeth and lips in all which instruments there is none of the above numbred conditions observed in them which are not exactly seen in those who speake most perfectly besides that difference which consists in passages or pores therefore it is certaine pores that occasion this impediment and it is in them an affection in conformation and no way in distemper for there are in the midle region of the pallate that is in the fourth bone of the upper jaw two holes which are not found so open and obvious in those who are without this affection those two opeÌ„ passages being the imediate cause of this their impotence to pronounce the Letter R. nor were it impossible perchance to assigne a specifique cause of the Brasilians inability to pronounce L. and F. and the Tartarians inability to pronounce the Letter B but peradventure that might be as prepostrous a worke as to assigne a cause to the golden Tooth Wee neede not all the Letters in our Language and lesse of them in speaking then in writing many Northerne Dialects have rejected some of the naturall Letters as B. G. D. V. consonant which is thought to have happened through the nature of the Region propriety of the Idiom and strength of men together also with custome which is that they might perpetually speak with vehemency adhibiting every where a kinde of impetuous force in speaking which cannot be done without a vehemnet exsufflation hence necessarily usurpe P. for B. F for V. consonant T. for D. C. for G. the cause of which vehement exsufflation is no other then that which is aledged by Gallen in these words the Celts and all kinde of Thracians and Scythians have a soft white skinne without haire therefore their naturall heat together with their bloud flies back into the inner parts where while it is agitated pressed and growes hot they become couragious bold and of a precipitate judgment therefore the internall heat boyling excites a valid respiration and this causeth a valid exsufflation and this powers out a vehement voyce hence comes rushing forth letters which are formed with a vehement force of the breath that for B. it thereby becomes P. for G. C. for D. T. for V. consonant F. for Northerne men who are strong and have a strong Tongue they choose and utter more stronger letters that is those to whose prolation both a stronger tongue and sufflation is required whence their speech semes to be more rough and â—gâ—d for they that inhabit cold Countreys have a tongue corespondent to the rest of their actions therefore they are vehement rigid severe and couragious whence Charles the fifth Emperour was wont to say that the German tongue was military and therefor if he were to threaten or speake more roughly to any he would use the German tongue because that tongue is minatory harsh and vehement whence a Moderne sayes of the Germans that they have a full mouthed language and that they speake as if they had Bones in their Tongue instead of Nerves Note that in all these varieties of Pronuntiation the Letters which constitute words are made by the same motions but that they admitted more of some Letters then other into their Idioms hath hapned through their Different Exsufflations There are also some strange kinde of pronuntiations with divers Nations which I take to be rather affectations then ensuing upon the former recited causes The people in the Bay of Soldania have a chattering rather then a language their words for the most part are inarticulate and in speaking they clocke with the Tongue like a â—â—ood Henne which clooking and the wâ—â—d are both pronounced together very strangely In Mexico their language especially used by Theeves and Lovers is a kinde of whistling whereby they understand one another They of Guinea when they speake they put out their neckes like Turky Cockes and speake very fast The generall language of Peru hath three maner of pronunciations of some sillables in which variety of Pronuntiation lieth the different signification of the same word One way in the Lips another in the Palat and the third in the Throat The Catayans speake much through the Nose That which was wondered at most of all was his discerning the Gutturall motions of the Welch Pronuntiation because the motions of that part could not be seenâ— or judged by this New-taught-Hearing Eie otherwise then by the Effect those Motions might happily make by a Motion of Consent in the other parts of the Mouth exposed to view Certainly it must bee confessed that those languages that use most the Labiall Letters must necessarily be the most remarkeable and easie to discerne and they that much use the Gutturall to be somewhat more difficult to apprehend and it seems his Master confessed that the Rules of his Art reached not to produce that effect with any certainty and therefore concludes this in Him must spring from other Rules He had framed unto himselfe out of his own attentive Observation Observation XVI THe exquisite and admirable perfection of his judicious hearing eye which he attained unto by Art is well imputed to the advantage that nature had justly given him in the sharpnesse of senses to supply he want of this endowing him with an ability and sagacity to do beyond any other