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Chapter 3 Dr. Bell's 'Deaf Variety of the Human Race' LD DEAF PERSONS be allowed to marry each other? That was a question that had been raised in the preceding decade and one that was being asked repeatedly during the 1890s. ·One of the persons who had grave doubts about the wisdom of such intermarriages was Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. Dr. Bell studied former students of the American and Illinois Schools for the Deaf and concluded thilt intermarriages among deaf people increased the number of deaf children. By noting the recurrence of surnames he became suspicious of blood relation. He deducted that it was "highly probable" that "a considerable proportion" of deaf persons in thE' country belonged to families which had more than one deaf member, and suspected that the reasons for this were hereditary. If such intermarriages were permitted to continue, Bell believed, eventually there would be a "deaf variety" of the human race. This concerned him greatly, and the subject of such marriages became a great debate both among educators of the deaf and deaf persons. Bell was not the first to wonder about the results of intermarriages among deaf persons. In ]868 Willjam A. Turner warned in an article in the American Allnals of tile Deaf about the dangers of such marriages between congenitally deaf persons. Dr.James Kerr Love, also writing in the AIIIIUls, went a step furthe r and propOSE'd bann.ing marriages between cousins and between individuals who had each had deafnE'ss within their families. The 1890s In 1883 Bell presented a paper, "Upon thc Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race," before thE' National AcadE'my of Science in New Haven, Connectieu t. In his presE'ntation Bell noted that man was able to modify breeds of animals by careful selection, and he rE'asoned that it should be possible similarly to modify the varieties of the human race. He admitted that hjs statistics were incomplete and hoped that the pubLication of such information would lead to tlwir completion. He also acknowledged that one could not dictate to a man or woman whom they could marry. Wrote Bell, "Thuse who believe as I do, that the production of a defective race of human beings would be a great calamity to the world, ,"ill cxamine carefuUy the causE'S that lead to the intermarriages of thE' deaf with the object of applying a remedy." Bell blamed the E'ducationaJ system 01 thE' day for intermarriages among deaf persons. He would have razed all residential and day schools for the deaf. Bell believed that "herding" deaf children under one roof was a cruel thing to do, and he saw such action as creating life-time bonds and encouraging intermarriagE 's. Bell quoted the Rev. W. W. Turner who had said, "... before the deaf and dumb were educated, comparativE'ly few of them married" and that "... intermarriage (if it existed at aU) was so fare as to be practically unknown. This suggests the thought that the intermarriages of the dE'af and dumb have in some way been promoted by our methods of education." There were other things that disturbed Bell. He saw deaf people's tendencies to socialize among them75 Dr. Alexallder Graham Bdl. selves-to hold reunions, have socialgatherings, form their own clubs and associations, publish their own newspapers, hold religious worship, and state and national conventions-as further encouraging social intercourse among them. Such association, Bell believed , restricted deaf persons' selection of partners and friends, thus encouraging deaf people to marry each other. Bell broached the possibility of forbidding such marriages by law. He saw forbidding congenitally deaf persons from marrying each other as oneway to check the "evil" although he admitted that " proving that a person had been born deaf" would probably make the law inoperative. He reasoned that legislation forbidding persons who belonged to families that had more than one deaf person to marry would probably be more practical although perhaps unwise. As an alternative he saw the possibility of friends discouraging such intermarriages. Bell supported the establishment of small schools, TIle segregatioll of deaf-mutes, tlte lise of the sign language, alld the employmet1t of deaf teachers produce all ellvironment that is unfavorable to the cultivatioll of articlliatioll alld speech-readillg, alld that sometimes causes the disuse of speech by speaking pupils who are only deaf. -DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BEll 1890s 76 believing the smaller the better. To Bell the ideal condition would have been...

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