I was so fortunate as to hear of the child, and immediately hastened to
Hanover to see her. I found her with a well-formed figure, a
strongly-marked, nervous-sanguine temperament, a large and
beautifully-shaped head, and the whole system in healthy action. The
parents were easily induced to consent to her coming to Boston; and on
the 4th October, 1837, they brought her to the Institution. For a while
she was much bewildered; and after waiting about two weeks, until she
became acquainted with her new locality and somewhat familiar with the
inmates, the attempt was made to give her knowledge of arbitrary signs,
by which she could interchange thoughts with others. There was one of
two ways to be adopted--either to go on to build up a language of signs
on the basis of the natural language which she had already commenced
herself, or to teach her the purely arbitrary language in common use:
that is, to give her a sign for every individual thing, or to give her a
knowledge of letters, by combination of which she might express her idea
of the existence, and the mode and condition of existence, of anything.
The former would have been easy, but very ineffectual: the latter seemed
very difficult, but, if accomplished, very effectual. I determined,
therefore, to try the latter.

The first experiments were made by taking articles in common use, such
as knives, forks, spoons, keys, &c., and pasting upon them labels with
their names printed in raised letters. These she felt very carefully,
and soon, of course, distinguished that the crooked lines _spoon_
differed as much from the crooked lines _key_ as the spoon differed from
the key in form. Then small detached labels, with the same words printed
upon them, were put into her hands, and she soon observed that they were
similar to the ones pasted on the articles. She showed her perception
of this similarity by laying the label _key_ upon the key, and the label
_spoon_ upon the spoon. She was encouraged here by the natural sign of