Translations:Victor of Aveyron/73/en

If, then, after the first years of infancy, the attentions are very distinct, and require the organ to be in very different conditions. For the first, there is a need only for a certain degree of sensibility in the nerve of the ear; the second requires a particular modification of that sensibility. It appears possible, then, that those who have ears well organized, and duly sensible, may still be unable to seize the articulation of tion is naturally directed only to those objects which have some known and perceived connection with our tastes, the reason may be easily conceived why our young savage, feeling only a small number of wants, was induced to exercise his senses only on a small number of objects. This, if I mistake not, was the cause of that perfect inattention which struck everybody on his first arrival at Paris; but which, at the present moment, hath almost altogether disappeared, evidently because he has been made to feel his connection and dependence upon all the new objects which surround his words. There are found, among* the Cretans, a great number of persons who are dumb and yet not deaf. Among the pupils of Citizen Si card there are several children who hear perfectly well the sound of a clock; a clapping* of hands; the lowest tones of a flute or violin, and who, notwithstanding, have never yet been able to imitate the pronunciation of a single word, even when loudly and slowly articulated. Thus, it appears, that speech is a kind of music to which certain ears, although well organized in other respects, may be insensible. The question is, whether this is the case of the child that we are speaking of. I do not think it is, although my favorable opinion rests on a scanty number of facts. It is true that my experiments, with a view to the ascertaining of this point, have not been numerous, and that I was for so Ion" a time embarrassed concerning the inode of conduct that I ought to pursue, that I restricted myself to the character of an observer. What follows is the result of my observations.