special provision has consisted chiefly in the remission of taxes in certain instances or of some other form of more or less direct assistance. LEGISLATION DISCRIMINATORY RESPECTING THE DEAF Legislation which may be termed discriminatory in respect to the deaf has really been of but slight extent.[63] In Georgia we find an enactment of 1840,[64] in which the deaf were to be regarded _pro tanto_ as idiots, so far as concerned the managing of their estates, though this was in fact intended for their protection. In New Mexico a law has been enacted, forbidding those deaf by birth from making wills, unless their intention is declared in writing;[65] and in Louisiana a deaf man is incapable of acting as a witness to a testament.[66] In several states, as New York and Massachusetts, there have been enactments in regard to deaf-mute immigrants together with other classes who might be likely to become a public charge, with the exaction of bond as security.[67] In Georgia[68] there is an enactment in reference to various itinerant concerns which might leave deaf persons, as well as others, in the state as public charges.[69] LEGISLATION IN PROTECTION OF THE DEAF Legislation of the second class, where the deaf are thought to require particular consideration or protection, has likewise been infrequent. The first instance is an enactment of Massachusetts in 1776,[70] relating to the appointment, on certain occasions, of guardians for the deaf, especially those deaf "from their nativity," together with other persons--which is probably the earliest statutory reference to the deaf in America. A later example is an enactment in Georgia in 1818,[71] and still in force, providing for the appointment of guardians, on somewhat the same order as that which we have indicated, for deaf and dumb persons incapable of managing their estates. In New Jersey in 1838[72] a law was enacted, forbidding deaf persons under seventeen years of age to be bound out as apprentices. In Ohio a statute also of 1838[73] provided for guardians for the deaf, and several modern statutes are somewhat of this nature. In Maine the deaf cannot be sent to the reform school.[74] In Arkansas[75] and Missouri[76] it is provided that the court may appoint guardians for deaf persons from fourteen to twenty-one years of age in case of the death of a parent. Of somewhat different character, but still for the protection of the deaf, is the enactment in several states, as Wisconsin[77] and Virginia,[78] where injury or abuse of the deaf is made a matter of special attention in the law. LEGISLATION IN AID OF THE DEAF