DEAFNESS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") notice in the Spectator of December 22nd a letter by Miss Constance Miles in which she contradicts a statement by one of your correspondents that lip-reading cannot be acquired by any one who is past youth. Let me at once endorse to the full her statement. I have been taught lip-reading and speech-making from infancy at home and without association with other deaf persons. And thus from continuous and daily experience I find it a comparatively simple matter, with hardly any misunder- standings to speak of, to converse in the usual way with my relations and friends on everyday topics. I am quite convinced that if the deaf and partially deaf only knew and realized that the art of lip-reading, no matter at what age, can be acquired, they would be falling over one another in their eagerness to learn it. But I ought to acknowledge that my lot has perhaps been more fortunate than the others.—I am, Sir, &c., W. HENDERSON.
d Alexandra Road, Birkenhead.
[We are sure that what our correspondent says is true. We recently heard of the case of a school-teacher who suddenly became almost completely deaf, but who set himself to learn lip-reading. He did so with such success that he was able to conduct the school as well as ever. This seems almost incredible, but the managers of the school were convinced that the teacher's conduct of the school remained thoroughly efficient, and they con- tinued him in his appointment. —ED. Spectator.]
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