Mons. Itard exercised the adjusting muscles of the ear by varying the notes of a large bell. In a paper I read last year to this Section at Glasgow, it was stated, that, without adjustments of the organs of sense, we have no distinct sensations, and that these adjustments are made by the muscular sense.

it, than will the mind of man take in a knowledge of the conditions and relations of things with which his body is surrounded. If the eye be obstructed, the ear opens wider its portals, and hears your very emotions in the varying tones of your voice. If the ear be stopped (deaf), the quickened eye will almost read the words as they fall from your lips; and if both be close sealed up, the whole body becomes like a sensitive plant. The quickened skin perceives the very vibrations of the air, and you may even write your thoughts upon it, and receive answers from the sentient soul within."-Dr. Howe's Report of the Boston Asylum for the Blind, 1841.

The pupils in the Manchester Asylum for the Blind are always aware of their approach even to a lamp-post. One can tell by the vibrations excited by ordinary respiration, if a person, however still, is sitting in a room which he enters, can catch a person running, and knew even a change of slippers. One pupil, aged 30, blind at three years of age, and quite blind during the last seven years, sees flashes when the eyes are pressed. Some cannot find their way when they have the pressure of a bandage on their eyes. Does this

We adjust both the voice, the eye, and the ear to the distances at which sounds are to be heard and objects seen.

Most deaf people hear better a clearlyarticulating voice, when time is given for the adjustment of the ear, than the loudest voice

prevent the adjustments sequent on touch by muscular sense? Some see a vivid light in the dark. Another pupil, aged 25, was asked, "Do you dream of light and colours?"-the answer was, "Not of more than I had seen before." This pupil is quite blind, and can hear the bubbling of a burning candle. I saw two young women in South Wales, one of whom had received instruction at the Asylum for the Deaf ; another had remained at home, and could neither read, talk with her fingers, nor write a single letter, yet she was incomparably the most intelligent, and was, as a dress-maker, so superior to her sister, that her labour supported the family. In her the muscular sense seemed affected by the slightest vibrations of a tuning-fork.

Dr. Howe says, he has known blind boys go into a menagerie, and acquire a more correct idea of the size, shape, and habits of animals than most seeing boys would. They mount the camel, and feel the elephant. Julia Brace, blind, deaf, and dumb, in the Asylum at Hartford (U. S.), after a short excursion on board a steamer, had learned more of its structure and arrangements, and described them more accurately, than any of those who had accompanied her, though their organs of sense had no defect.

when less articulate-analogous to darkness from excess of light. The late Mr. John Kemble, when asked how he contrived to make himself so well heard in so large a theatre, answered, by not letting one word trip up the heels of another.

I am satisfied, that what is called dulness of hearing and apprehension, happens more frequently from sluggish and imperfect adjustment than from diminished sensibility, particularly in those who are uneducated, or have unpractised ears. The first question to a peasant proves seldom more than a flapper to rouse the torpid adjustments of his ears. The invariable answer of a Scottish peasant is, "What's your will?"-that of the English, a vacant stare. A second and even a third may be required to elicit an answer. The slightest consideration of this subject will satisfy those who have to address mixed multitudes of the necessity of a deliberate and articulate enunciation.*

* Mons. Texier, who was esteemed to read French better than any person of his day, recommended, in his printed Instructions, to lay the accent on the mot de force only in every sentence.

Having lately again seen the young woman, Margaret Sullivan,* living in the Rotherithe workhouse, of whom I communicated to the members of this section at Plymouth all the facts I had then been able to glean, I found her intelligence improved since last year, and she immediately recognised me, when it was intimated to her that I was the person who had then made her acquaintance. Since last year, probably by exercising her ear with the Jew's-harp-her eyes, by gleams of light from a mirror-her muscular sense, by playing

*In the interval between the visit of the last and the present year, I received a note from Mr. Johnson, the medical attendant of the Rotherhithe workhouse, of which the following is an extract:—

"The early history of this case is very obscure. It is probable, at the age of four years, she had smallpox, at which period, it is said, she was in possession of all the senses-and from this time she became deaf, blind, and dumb. It would appear, she recollects the precise period at which she was deprived of these faculties. Since the kind attention which Mr. Tyrrell paid to her case, about four years ago, she has been enabled to see partially, and also to hear very loud noises. I think she might be taught to read the embossed print without much difficulty."

with the cup and ball—her touch and memory, by acquiring knowledge of her companionsinvestigation of false and true, of which she had a quick perception-liking and dislike of persons, in ratio of kindness (referable to the law of self-preservation)-and desire of distinction. In reference to the touch, she plays, counts leaves of books, sews, knows all the girls, and counts six on her fingers— then kneels and clasps her hands, in the attitude of prayer, to indicate Sunday-and still washes and combs her hair.

Though Mr. Tyrrell had, by some improvement of the pupil of one eye, enabled her to distinguish light from darkness, she did not, when I before saw her, seem to discern the outlines of objects-but now she evidently not only saw the gleam of light from a shilling on the floor, but, directed towards it by one of her companions (an intelligent girl of nine or ten years old), could so adjust the movements of her eye and hand, at the distance of four or five feet, as to reach towards and pick it up. She has means of distinguishing all the inmates of the workhouse, and readily