to vibrations of the air, are not suspected of being deaf. When that
affliction is ascertained to exist, all oral utterances from the
deaf-mute are habitually repressed by the parents.



_GESTURES OF THE BLIND._

The facial expressions and gestures of the congenitally blind are
worthy of attention. The most interesting and conclusive examples
come from the case of Laura Bridgman, who, being also deaf, could not
possibly have derived them by imitation. When a letter from a beloved
friend was communicated to her by gesture-language, she laughed
and clapped her hands. A roguish expression was given to her face,
concomitant with the emotion, by her holding the lower lip by the
teeth. She blushed, shrugged her shoulders, turned in her elbows, and
raised her eye-brows under the same circumstances as other people.
In amazement, she rounded and protruded the lips, opened them, and
breathed strongly. It is remarkable that she constantly accompanied
her "yes" with the common affirmative nod, and her "no" with our
negative shake of the head, as these gestures are by no means
universal and do not seem clearly connected with emotion. This,
possibly, may be explained by the fact that her ancestors for many
generations had used these gestures. A similar curious instance is
mentioned by Cardinal Wiseman (_Essays_, III, 547, _London_, 1853) of
an Italian blind man, the appearance of whose eyes indicated that he
had never enjoyed sight, and who yet made the same elaborate gestures
made by the people with whom he lived, but which had been used by them
immemorially, as correctly as if he had learned them by observation.