Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1885 — Superstitions About Deaf Mutes. [ARTICLE]

Superstitions About Deaf Mutes.

The hopeful theories recently advanced byJu’rof. Graham Beilin regard to teaching the mutes to speak, aid the large and liberal provision made in these days for helping the infirmities of the deaf and clumb, are in striking contrast with the treatment of the physically disabled amoig the most advanced nations in early times. Among the ancient Greeks deaf mutes were looked upon as a disgrace to humanity, and under the barbarous laws of Lycurgus they were exposed to death. Nor was highly enltured Athens less cruel than Sparta toward these unfortunate creatures. Deaf mute children were pitilessly sacrificed without a voice being heard in their behalf. Aristotle declared congenital deaf mutes to be incapable of instruction, and this was the universal opinion of classical antiquity. The Romans treated the unfortunates with the same cruelty as the Greeks. As soon as a child was found to l e deaf and dumb it was sacrificed to the Tiber. Only those escaped whom the waves washed to the shore or whom the natural leve of the parent kept hidden.