The Deaf: Their Position in Society and the Provision for Their Education in the United StatesBest, Harry
History
The Deaf: Their Position in Society and the Provision for Their Education in the United States
Best, Harry
Deaf -- Education -- United States; Deaf -- United States
Taking these tables also collectively, we find in respect to scarlet
fever a decline in all the schools, this being especially pronounced in
the case of the Ohio. In meningitis, however, there is an increase so
heavy as to call in question the accuracy of the earlier records; and it
is possible that it failed to be entirely recognized then. In most of
the other diseases, as in the previous case, no very great change is
perceptible. In general fevers a decline is apparent in all, in most
being considerable; and probably several diseases were formerly included
which are now listed separately. In measles rather a decline is found in
the American and Ohio schools, but a slight increase in the Iowa, and a
somewhat larger one in the New York Institution. In typhoid fever there
is a slight increase also in the Iowa School, but a decrease in the
Ohio. In brain fever a considerable increase is observed in the Iowa
School, but a slight decrease likewise in the Ohio. In whooping cough
there is an increase in the New York Institution and the Iowa School,
but a decrease in the American. Such diseases as pneumonia, diphtheria
and catarrh seem not usually to have been separately classified in the
past, though in the Ohio School we find diphtheria noted, and with
somewhat smaller proportions than in later years; while in several of
the schools we find "colds" given in former times, which may have been
in part really catarrh.
Combining now the results of our two groups of tables, we may be able to
reach some conclusions with respect to the increase or decrease of
deafness from certain diseases, though on the whole far less definite
than we could wish. In the first place, it seems safe to affirm that
deafness from scarlet fever is becoming relatively less with the years;
and it is possible that if it continues its present rate of decline, it
will in time cease to be one of the main causes of deafness. On the
other hand, meningitis, its great companion in evil, shows a striking
increase in comparison with past years, as a cause of adventitious
deafness; while its accretion may be traced as well in a series of
recent years in certain schools, though not in others. But how far there
is an absolute increase in meningitis over the past, and whether it is
tending at present actually to increase, may be a matter for question.
In view of the possibility that the disease was not sufficiently
accounted for in the past, and in the absence of any knowledge to
indicate a reason for its less prevalence in earlier years, at least not
to the extent indicated by the statistics, it may be that its increase
is, after all, more apparent than real. The fact, moreover, that in the
series of recent years a marked increase is found in some schools, but
a marked decline in others, may perhaps be taken to mean that at present
meningitis may be on the increase only in certain sections, depending
possibly on local conditions. With the greater medical skill of to-day,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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