A meeting in support of the Society for Training Teachers
of the Deaf, by the German or oral system, which teaches them to watch closely the movement of the lips and to distinguish words by that method, was held at the Mansion House yesterday week, Alderman Sir R. Carden presiding, while the object of the Society was advocated by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Lord O'Hagan, and Cardinal Manning. The Cardinal
stated that there were no fewer than 30,000 deaf mutes in this country, and strongly advocated the foundation of a College to provide teachers for the education of this large number of persons. Ten thousand pounds are needed for the College, and he did not despair of collecting that sum. The German or oral system of teaching deaf mutes to understand speech by watching the motion of the lips is now adopted by 191 out of 364 schools for teaching the deaf, and is so much superior in every respect to the other systems, which establish special modes of communicating with the deaf but do not teach them to understand ordinary speech, that it is a matter of the greatest importance to make its adoption universal. In one case, said the Cardinal, a German lady who was stone deaf had been taught by this method, not only her own language, but a patois variation of it, which she was able to interpret to a lady who did not understand the patois. That is certainly a mar- vellous triumph of didactic effort, and more than £10,000 ought to be forthcoming to provide the Society with the ways and means for this noble as well as marvellous undertaking.
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