[51] Out of 107 children born to former pupils of the Minnesota School up to 1892, 2, or 1.9 per cent, were deaf. Report, 1892, p. 39. Out of 811 children born to former pupils of the American School up to 1891, 105, or 12.9 per cent, were deaf. Report, 1891, p. 20.
[52] The study had been originally planned by Dr. F. H. Wines for the International Record of Charities and Corrections. See issue for October, 1888. The work was published by the Volta Bureau. For a discussion of the results, see Association Review, ii., 1900, p. 178; Publications of American Statistical Association, vi., 1899, p. 353; Biometrika (London), iv., 1904-5, p. 465. See also charts in current numbers of Volta Review.
[53] From the total number of marriages, 974 were deducted, being cases concerning the offspring of which no information could be obtained, and also 434 cases where there were no offspring.
[54] From p. 134. It has also been computed by Dr. Fay from his data that of 5,455 married deaf persons, 300, or 5.5 per cent, have deaf offspring. Annals, lii., 1907, p. 253.
[55] The proportions for the general population are hardly over 0.3 per cent and 0.05 per cent respectively.
[56] The proportion of the married deaf who are married to deaf partners is found by Dr. Fay to be 72.5 per cent, and of those married to hearing partners, 20 per cent, there being no information for the remaining 7.5 per cent. The census returns, however, give the respective proportions as 51.3 per cent and 48.7 per cent.
[57] See Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1879, p. 214; A. G. Bell, "The Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race", Memoirs, 1883, ii., part 4, p. 177; Proceedings of Conference of Principals, i., 1868, p. 91; v., 1884, p. 205; A. G. Bell, "Marriage, an Address to the Deaf", 1898; Evidence before the Royal Commission on the Deaf, etc., 1892, ii., pp. 74-129; Annals, xxix., 1884, pp. 32, 72; xxx., 1885, p. 155; xxxiii., 1888, pp. 37, 206; Popular Science Monthly, xvii., 1885, p. 15; Science, Aug., 1890, to March, 1891 (xvi., xvii.); Arena, xii., 1895, p. 130; Association Review, x., 1908, p. 166; Volta Review, xiv., 1912, p. 184; Proceedings of Reunion of Alumni of Wisconsin School for the Deaf, vi., 1891, p. 46; National Association of the Deaf, iv., 1893, p. 112; ix., 1910, p. 69; Report of Board of Charities of New York, 1911, i., p. 150.
[58] No statutory action seems ever to have been taken in the matter. In Connecticut, however, in 1895 when a law (Laws, ch. 325) was enacted forbidding the marriage of the feeble-minded and epileptic, a provision respecting the congenitally deaf and blind came near being included. Annals, xl., 1895, p. 310.
[59] Census Reports, 1880. Report on Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes of the Population of the United States, 1888, p. 402ff.; Census Reports, 1890. Report on Insane, Feeble-minded, Deaf and Dumb and Blind, 1895, pp. 108ff., 684; Special Reports, 1906, p. 122. The ages of the deaf were reported less fully in 1880 than in 1890, and less fully in 1890 than in 1900; and if we take the numbers of those whose ages were reported in these three censuses, we have the following table, showing the proportion of the congenitally deaf.
THE CONGENITALLY DEAF ACCORDING TO NUMBERS IN WHICH AGE WAS REPORTED