=Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb.=--Of the two principal methods of instructing deaf-mutes in this country, as defined by Mr. J. C. Gordon, of the Illinois Institution, in the sign method, deaf-mutes are taught a peculiar language of motions of the arm and upper part of the body, to which they learn to attach signification through usage. For instance, to teach the word _cat_ to a deaf child a sign teacher would show the child a cat or a picture of a cat. He would next direct attention to the cat's whiskers, drawing the thumb and finger of each hand lightly over them. "A similar motion of the thumb and hand above the teacher's upper lip at once becomes a sign for cat." After the sign has become familiar the child is trained to write the word cat on a slate, blackboard, or sheet of paper, and by frequent repetition the pupil associates the written word with the sign for cat, so that the written word recalls the gestural sign, and the gestural sign serves to recall the concept cat. This language is acquired more readily than any other means of communication. The other method is the intuitive, direct, or English-language method, and, while it would require the use of the living cat or the recognition of the picture of a cat by the deaf child, would connect the written or spoken word directly with the object, without the intervention of any artificial finger-sign. Wherever this method prevails the English language in its written or spoken forms, or in its finger-spelled form, becomes the ordinary means of communication between teachers and pupils, so that every step in instruction requires the use of the English language, which is practically both the instrument and the immediate end of instruction. All the schools called oral use this method. It can be used in connection with finger-spelling, but not with the sign method.