LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 199

rather the contrary, speech being so rapid and serviceable

an agent compared with gesture only.

Deaf-mutes possessing an extraordinary manual dexterity

in signifying their ideas, could never have inherited it from

speaking ancestors, while they may well be supposed to

have inherited the structure common to those ancestors as

the physical means of speech. The nervous conditions

relating to abundant gesticulation, on the other hand, must

have been going through a process of atrophy for ages

during all the many generations of these loquacious

ancestors of such deaf- mutes. The latter also seem to

have a special construction of their own in their gesture

sentences a mode of construction which could never have

been inherited from their speaking forefathers.

This special and peculiar construction is stated* by Mr.

Romanes to be uniform in different countries. The deaf-

mutes " do not say ' black horse,' but ' horse black ' ; not

' bring a black hat,' but ' hat black bring ' ; not ' I am

hungry, give me bread,' but ' hungry me, bread give.' "

But such modes of construction answer every practical

purpose, and are as distinctly intellectual as any others.

The innate intellectuality of, and voluntary purposive

expression of ideas by, gesture is made specially clear in

the following statement, t which also shows how the deaf

and dumb express first that idea which they are most

anxious to impress on those they address: "If a boy had

struck another boy, and the injured party came to tell us,

if he was desirous to acquaint us with the idea that a

particular boy did it, he would point to the boy first. But

if he was anxious to draw attention to his own suffering

rather than to the person by whom it was caused, he would

point to himself and make the act of striking, and then

point to the boy." The celebrated Abbe Sicard asked a

p. 114. t p. 115.

rather the contrary, speech being so rapid and serviceable

an agent compared with gesture only.

Deaf-mutes possessing an extraordinary manual dexterity

in signifying their ideas, could never have inherited it from

speaking ancestors, while they may well be supposed to

have inherited the structure common to those ancestors as

the physical means of speech. The nervous conditions

relating to abundant gesticulation, on the other hand, must

have been going through a process of atrophy for ages

during all the many generations of these loquacious

ancestors of such deaf- mutes. The latter also seem to

have a special construction of their own in their gesture

sentences a mode of construction which could never have

been inherited from their speaking forefathers.

This special and peculiar construction is stated* by Mr.

Romanes to be uniform in different countries. The deaf-

mutes " do not say ' black horse,' but ' horse black ' ; not

' bring a black hat,' but ' hat black bring ' ; not ' I am

hungry, give me bread,' but ' hungry me, bread give.' "

But such modes of construction answer every practical

purpose, and are as distinctly intellectual as any others.

The innate intellectuality of, and voluntary purposive

expression of ideas by, gesture is made specially clear in

the following statement, t which also shows how the deaf

and dumb express first that idea which they are most

anxious to impress on those they address: "If a boy had

struck another boy, and the injured party came to tell us,

if he was desirous to acquaint us with the idea that a

particular boy did it, he would point to the boy first. But

if he was anxious to draw attention to his own suffering

rather than to the person by whom it was caused, he would

point to himself and make the act of striking, and then

point to the boy." The celebrated Abbe Sicard asked a

p. 114. t p. 115.