legislature decided to incorporate this, and to allow some of the
state pupils to be sent to it.

In the meantime--in fact, seven months prior to the actual establishment
of the Clarke School--a school which had resulted from a private class
had been started in New York City, known as the New York Institution for
the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes. This was under a former Austrian
teacher, and its stated purpose was to use the oral method as in
Germany. Two years later the school board of Boston, having made a
canvass of the deaf children of the city, resolved to establish a day
school, which was to be a pure oral one, and which not long after was
called the Horace Mann School. These three schools were thus the
pioneers in the present oral movement.[553]

The oral method has gained ground steadily since these times. It is now
used exclusively in twelve of the institutions, while it has always
remained the prevailing method in the day schools.[554] A great
extension is also found in the institutions employing what is called the
"combined system," and in them more and more attention is given to the
teaching of speech.

The growth in the number of speech-taught pupils may be indicated in the
following table, showing the number and percentage of those taught
speech in different years from 1884, the year we first have record; of
those taught wholly or chiefly by the oral method since 1892; and also
of those taught wholly or chiefly by the auricular method since
1893.[555]

NUMBER OF THE DEAF TAUGHT SPEECH, NUMBER TAUGHT WHOLLY OR CHIEFLY BY
ORAL METHOD, AND NUMBER TAUGHT WHOLLY OR CHIEFLY BY AURICULAR METHOD, IN
DIFFERENT YEARS

------+--------+--------+------+---------+------+------------+------
| | | | NUMBER | | NUMBER |
| TOTAL | | | TAUGHT | | TAUGHT |
| NUMBER | NUMBER | | WHOLLY | | WHOLLY |
YEAR | OF | TAUGHT | PER | OR | PER | OR | PER
| PUPILS | SPEECH | CENT | CHIEFLY | CENT | CHIEFLY BY | CENT
| | | | BY ORAL | | AURICULAR |
| | | | METHOD | | METHOD |
------+--------+--------+------+---------+------+------------+------
1884 | 7,482 | 2,041 | 27.2 | | | |
1890 | 8,901 | 3,682 | 41.3 | | | |
1892 | 7,940 | 3,924 | 49.4 | 1,581 | 19.9 | |
1893 | 8