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
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
in al things the properties of Gold let men dispute whether it bee Gold or no So if we may by the favour of God have this Art so successefull unto us that a Deafe man may be brought to enjoy the benefite of an eare in his eye that is the eye to officiate for the eare let men dispute whether he heares with his eye or no for wee are not so magistrall in this matter as to have any thought of deceiving others with a vaine Philosophy of swelling words Observation II. HEe was borne Deafe and Dumbe Great are the Nation of those otherwise ingenious men who have fallen under this unhappy accident the causes being various and unknowne there are who suppose that this happens to some through the propriety of their place of birth Soranus affirmes that those who are borne in Ships at Sea are by a proprietie of their place of birth like Fishes mute Mâ—ntâ—o confidently affirmes that by a proprietie of the place they who were borne within the walls of the Castle of Claramont proved dumbe as it happened to all the Baroâ—s that were borne there Astrologers say that Childe will be deafe that is borne when Mercurie is Lord of the sixt house and infortunate by evill aspects with Saturne chiefly if he be in thâ— sixt house Likewise they will have â—â—at impediment in their hearing in â—â—ose nativity Jupiter and Saturne bee both impedite and infortunate above the earth that is if they be retrograde or combust in evill places And if Mercurie be impedite of Saturne in a Childes nativity it doth hinder the tongue but it is worse when they be corporally conjunct together especially in the Ascendent or in the seaventh house and in the same signe with the Sun Mercurie being then Occidentall or if Mercurie be above the earth corporally conjunct with Saturne or else in an evill aspect of Saturne and in a dumbe signe called Signum mutum and also is unfortunate that is to say in an evill place retrograde or combust and peregrine that party then borne will have great impediment in his tongue or else will be dumbe and cannot speake Sometimes the sinne of the Parents are exemplarily punished in their children Dr. Joachim the brother of Camerarius told him he saw in the Court of the Lantgrave of Hesse a Boy deafe and dumbe so witty that hee could not wonder enough at his dexterity in executing the commandements that were given him for by a winke of the eye hee conceived of the will of the Prince and of his houshold The Lantgrave seeing him wonder at the sight hee told him You see this young Boy his use is to declare with a marvelous readinesse by gestures of his body and by motions of his fingers any new thing he seeth done in the Court or City He is an example of Gods justice for his mother being accused of stealing when shee went with childe with him used such an imprecation that if that which she was charged with was true her Childe might never speake when it came to be in the World but remaine Dumbe all his life To some this is an hereditary evill and an imperfection ex traduce But why Deafe men should get deafe children may be from that similitude which springeth from the seede in as much as it flowes from the whole oeconomy of the Body that is sometimes it flowes out more from the Father sometimes from the Mother from this plenty of provision proceedeth the similitude so some part in children resembleth the Mother another part the Father as that seede hath more copiously issued from the parts of either Parent And commonly when a Deafe and Dumbe man hath got his Wife with childe there is a solicitous expectation in their Friends whether the childe should prove Deafe and Dumbe or no For it falleth not out alwayes that the children of Deafe and Dumbe men inherit that imperfection of their parents as intailed upon them whereof the reason above mentioned may serve that is the seed of the perfect parent may be more luxuriant and predominant whereof I have known some examples What the issue of a Deafe and Dumbe man and woman would prove there hath beene no opportunity afforded to trie because few Philosophers have beene bidden to such a wedding The like reason may be why they should have deafe Children who are deafened by some disease or by reason of some over-potent object which hath destroyed their sense of Hearing Upon which a Quaere might be raised whether the children of those who dwell neere the Catarrachs of Nile whose parents are all deafe are not commonly borne deafe also rather then afterwards so made We doe not heare indeed that any of the brethren or family this Lord was of were unfortunate in the like defect although that hath beene the sad condition of many eminent Families Fernelius writes of a Senatour whose Wife being healthy yet all the children hee had by her were deafe and dumbe the cause he judgeth to be very darke and obscure Cardan speakes of a woman that had five and twenty children of two of which number shee was delivered within tenne moneths both deafe and dumbe which both lived and lived in his time the one with three Mola's the second with two not onely dead but putrified who while she went with them felt not her selfe as with her others but shee felt as it were a weight of lead in the bottome of her belly It being very likely that the Mola's growing to by reason of their frigiditie for they are as congealed blood did hurt their braines thence the hearing and so dulled the facultie of speech especially when they putrified Nor are examples of these sad accidents very rare among us such therefore as I have either knowne or by credible intelligence gained notice of from others I shall here annex conceiving it fit to enlarge the Forreigne story of Deafe and Dumbe men with such additionall notions The rather that wee may come a little out of these outlandish Writers debt and in some reasonable sort vie Historicall observations with them Sir Edward Gostwick of Wellington in the County of Bedfordshire Baronet a Gentleman otherwise very accomplished was borne deafe and dumbe hee hath attained unto writing which is a substitute of speech and from whence there lyes a way if well followed to the recovery of an Articulate voice Hence writing to them that are deaf and dumb may serve in stead of speech who therefore doe best begin to write and afterwards learne to speake The first invention of Writing was to make Verba visibilia missilia permanentia to remedy the defect of speech that vanisheth away is onely audible and cannot bee wrought into discourse but by two that are present together whereas this invention puts an eare as it were into the eye and presents our cogitations visible and legible writing being the later invention speech by it selfe signifies all our conceptions and writing signifies our speech for writing to words
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
others when they spoke and to speake himselfe that others might understand him It is somewhat observeable that a Priest was the undertaker I know not how but they have beene Inventors of many strange Arts which yet no great wonder if wee consider their recesse opportunitie and encouragements to study and all their advantages to promote a contemplative life And as they say of them who shall be Inventor and Owner of the Philosophers stone that he must have many good and pious quallifications So he that attemps such an exploite as comes neerer to a true miracle then those of the magi did to those of Moses as being an artfull shadow of a supernaturall and miraculous effect which could not bee done but by fasting and prayer it will bee necessary that he should Priest-like seriously and religiously set upon the worke since a Heathen would not have attempted such a businesse without first sacrificing to Mercurie for good successe He taught him to speake In teaching of Parrots and other Birdes that are imitatours of maâ—s speech That man should be the teacher is not the matter for they will imitate the squeaking of Cart wheeles or any noyse they heare but in learning of an Articulate voyce so compleat as that of mans is there is a necessity that man should bee the teacher For man could not have discipline unlesse from Man because the active power of discipline exists in man onely for as man had the passive power of discipline granted unto him so it was necessary hee should have the active power also delivered unto him And what the active power ought to have beene wee shall finde in the quality of the passive power For men are chiefely disciplinable quatenus they have hearing therefore the active power must consist in something that may move the hearing and so effect it wherefore since sound is the adaequat object of hearing Man received a power for forming of certaine sounds which wee call the voyce and instruments to the Articulation thereof whereby speech is produced Indeede the first exercise of this discipline seemes to bee committed unto Women as being by nature more talkative and eloquent the flesh of whose tongue is soft and flexible for the forming of a sweeter voice and articulation for which very cause their tongue is broader whence it appeares by experience that not onely Birds that have a soft and broad tongue doe sing more acute and better but men also especially women whose tongues are softer are more talkative and also pronounce voyces more articulate then men by reason of the flexibility of their tongue proceeding from the softnesse thereof Did not all of us as many as are men learne first to speake of our Mothers or Nurses Hence it is that Plato and Quintilian are so carefull in their directions for the choise of a fit Nurse for Children that the tongue and speech may be rightly and distinctly formed And after the introduction of Colomes into Forraigne Countries have not the Children borne there reteyned the speech of their Mother Certainely Nature her selfe the Architectrix of things sagaciously foreseeing what was herein convenient for mankinde hath allowed Women this priviledge that they are seldome any where found mute And therefore Quintilian sayes that Children will prove mute if they be brought up by Dumâ—e Nurses Yet upon what occasion soever dumbnesse may happen there is no certaine judgement to be given of a childs being mute untill he bee three yeares old But that this Lord born deafe and dumb was yet taught to understand others when they spake and to speake himselfe that others might understand him and this without a miracle by the power onely of Art seemes to me plainely to contradict that supposed infallible sympathy of the nervs of hearing and speech that without controll or contradiction many Physitians have confidently affirmed to be the onely cause why a man deafe from his nativity is consequently dumbe for it had beene impossible if that Law of sympathy had beene perpetually binding to have recovered speech without hearing first for so runne the Lawes of occult Qualities and the Decrees of the Median and Persian sympathâ—sts whereas this Lord having got a paire of Eare-Spectacles before his eyes whereby the dependencie that speech had upon the eare was taken away There remained no signe of a sympatheticall league of silence contracted betweene the tongue and the eare But the tongue set at liberty proves free and being sui juris leaves the unprofitable eare and by Art enters into an Auditory league of amity and allyance with the Eye which now officiously becomes a succedaneum or Quid pro quo for the Eare. It must bee confessed that the effects of sympathy are very strange as appeares by rare accidents that have befallen the senses Camerarius not without admiration beheld William Prince of Orange who upon the receiving of a wound in his Neck lost his Taste And a French Souldier who by the like wounnd became mute for there is a double nerve proceeding from the third Conjugation which is inserted into the Larynx with one branch whereof the tongue is made apt for speech with the other Sapours are perceived That hee should loose his Taste is a lesse marveyle but that he should loose his speech who had his hearing good and his tongue untouched seemed saith Bodin incredible to me before untill we had found it true by experience The Instruments of smelling have a knowne sympathy with the Eare For wee see very often that when the nostrils and sense of smelling is impaired through a dull obtusenesse that the hearing is also somewhat offended likewise in sneezing when we blow our Nose and in holding our breath in our compressed nostrils who doth not forthwith perceive his hearing and eares really to suffer thereupon Of which saith Mercurialis in his Epistle to Varolius no man can devise a better reason then if he should state the instruments of smelling to reach on both sides even to the passage of hearing and so should affirme that the hearing is in some sort co-affected with them And indeed they who loose their smelling doe also very soone become somewhat deafe as you may easily perceive But whether from this sympathy we may finde any resolution of that Problem why those who are thick of hearing doe speake through the nose is not yet agreed upon Although here Mercurialis writing to Varolius about this matter sayes Hee may very well boast that hee hath hereby layd open a way for the explanation of many doubtfull and obscure effects But that there should be such a necessity of this common affection happening to the eare and the tongue as it is the instrument of speech not yet agreed upon to be a sense the faire flourish of an unsatisfying sympathy can give little assurance And I am the lesse affected with this elegant evasion of a nonplust Ignorance because they who become deafe through any disease though their voyce becomes hoarser yet they
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