ed on?
The chief method is a certain silent tongue peculiar to the deaf, known
as the "sign language,"[12] a part of which may be said to be the manual
alphabet, or the system of finger-spelling,[13] the two usually going
hand in hand. In this way most of the deaf are enabled to communicate
with each other readily and fluently. But this language, or at least the
greater part of it, not being known to people generally, the deaf
frequently have to fall back on writing to convey their ideas in
communicating with hearing persons. This, while slow and cumbersome, is
the surest and most reliable method of all. In addition, as we have
seen, a certain number of the deaf are able to use speech, which of
course has manifold advantages. These are the several methods, then, of
communication employed by the deaf; but they are not usually employed
singly, as most of the deaf are able to use two or more. According to
the census,[14] the sign language alone or in combination with other
methods is employed by 68.2 per cent, or over two-thirds of the deaf;
finger-spelling by 52.6 per cent, or over one-half; writing by almost
the same proportion--51.9 per cent; and speech by 39.8 per cent, or some
two-fifths. It is probable, however, that the proportions employing the
sign language, finger-spelling and writing, either singly or with other
methods, are really somewhat larger. In this case, likewise, we find
that the lower the age of becoming deaf, the smaller is the proportion
of the deaf with speech, which shows again the connection of the ability
to speak with the age of the occurrence of deafness. Of those born deaf,
speech alone or in combination with other methods is used by 18.2 per
cent; of those becoming deaf after birth and under five, by 27.4 per
cent; of those becoming deaf after five and under twenty, by 75.3 per
cent; and of those becoming deaf after twenty, by 97.7 per cent.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] There are no sharply dividing lines between the different degrees of
deafness, but it is only those described that really constitute a
special class. Persons whose hearing is such as to be of use even in
some slight degree are rather to be distinguished as "hard of hearing."

[2] By this census both the partially deaf and the totally deaf were
enumerated, or 89,287 in all. The former should not have been
enumerated, the enumerators being instructed not to include those able
to hear loud conversation.

[3] For the census returns for