CHAPTER XXIII
CONCLUSIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE WORK FOR THE DEAF IN AMERICA
We have now examined the position of the deaf in society in America and the course and the extent of the treatment accorded them. It only remains for us to inquire if this treatment is well-considered, and how far it is commensurate with the real, actual needs of the deaf, and at the same time consonant with the larger interests of society.
The question of paramount concern to society is in respect to the possibilities of the prevention of deafness. As yet it would seem that only a minor degree of attention had been directed to this consideration, though it is likely that in the future much more serious study and thought will be given to it. The problem is for the greater part in the hands of medical science, and for much of it we shall probably have to wait for solution in the laboratory; while no small aid can be rendered by general measures for the protection of health. Already there can be little doubt that there is less deafness from certain diseases than in the past, though the statistics that we have on the question are not as definite as could be wished. The matter is really a part of the long battle against disease, and as human skill takes one position after another, it may be that many of those diseases bringing deafness will be forced to yield, and that such deafness will thus cease in great part to be an affliction upon human flesh.
Eugenics also will be looked to for help, and it may in time bring to light much that is now hidden from our ken. As yet our knowledge of the causes of deafness from birth is very imperfect. A small part may be ascribed to consanguineous marriages, and a larger part to the marriages of those whose families are affected with deafness, these perhaps not being wholly distinct, and together comprising a little over half of congenital deafness. Marriages of relatives, even though not of frequent occurrence so far as deafness is affected, have a relation to it which is not to be ignored. Intermarriages of the deaf themselves are not found for the most part to result in deaf offspring; while the likelihood of such is not always greater when both parents are deaf than when one is deaf and the other hearing. The one distinct fact of which we seem altogether certain in this matter is that when there is in the parent congenital deafness, or especially when there are deaf relatives concerned, the chances are vastly increased of deaf offspring. These are the danger signals, and not to be passed without heed. As to that form of deafness occurring when consanguinity and antecedent deafness are not involved, we are in greater ignorance. For most of it, however, we may believe that there is inherited some strain or influence predisposing to deafness; and that in the discovery and application of eugenic principles a greater or less portion will be eliminated.
Though, so far as is discernible from the immediate prospect, we cannot look to an early disappearance of deafness from the race, there are indications at present that deafness is tending to become less. The probabilities are that the future will be able to report advance, and so far as the ultimate results are concerned, we have no reason to be other than hopeful.
In respect to what has been accomplished for the deaf since America has become concerned in them, we have a record that may well be a distinct cause of pride. The work for the deaf in America is hardly a hundred years old. Yet in that time there has transpired what, without violence being done to language, can be called a revolution. A century ago the deaf were practically outside the pale of human thought and activities. They were in a measure believed to be without reason, and were little less than outcasts in society. To-day they have become active components of the state, possessed of education, on a level with their fellow-men nearly everywhere in the scale of human employment, capable of all the responsibilities of life, and standing in the full stature of citizenship.
Perhaps the first workers for the deaf had not placed their faith too high after all, when they declared that the deaf and dumb were to be restored to the ranks of their species. Perhaps, after all, the visions of these men have come true. Perhaps this that we call education has had something of the power they were trying to articulate. For it has come about that a part of society known as the deaf and dumb has been brought to a place of honor and worth and usefulness in the community in which they live.
However much of what was claimed has been achieved, it is certain that a great part has been realized. It has been by a slow, silent process, keeping time with the years, but none the less wonderful things have been wrought; and through it all the advance of the deaf has been constant and onward. It might be said with all truth that this whole progress has been simply the march of events. Education has ever been the master passion of Americans, and in its wide sweep the deaf too have been gathered in, and have been borne to the place where all the state had to offer as instruction was laid before them. Yet it remains that by and through all this the deaf have been the gainers as no other people in the world have ever been, and their story is as no other's in the rise of a section of mankind towards the richness and fullness of living which are the fruits of humanized society.
Great indeed can be the rejoicing of the deaf, for they are those to whom the way has been hard and long, but who have come from the darkness into the light.