tly with him by a
strange way of Arthrologie or Alphabet contrived on the joynts of his
Fingers; who taking him by the hand in the night, can so discourse with
him very exactly; for he feeling the joynts which she toucheth for
letters, by them collected into words, very readily conceives what shee
would suggest unto him. By which examples [referring to this case and to
that of an abbot who became _deaf, dumb_, and _blind_, who understood
writing traced upon his naked arm] you may see how ready upon any
invitation of Art, the _Tact_ is, to supply the defect, and to officiate
for any or all of the other senses, as being the most faithfull sense to
man, being both the _Founder_, and _Vicar generall_ to all the rest."[8]

[Footnote 8: _Philocophus_: or, THE DEAFE and Dumbe Mans Friend. By I.B.
[John Bulwer] sirnamed the _Chorosopher_. London, 1648. Pp. 106,107.]

Dr. Alexander Graham Bell has modified the Dalgarno alphabet, and has
made considerable use of it in its modified form as figured in the
_Annals_, vol. xxviii., page 133. He esteems it highly for certain
purposes, especially as employing touch to assist the sight or to release
the sight for other employment, as in reading speech for instance. Here a
touch-alphabet may be an efficient aid to the sight, as the touch may
fairly keep pace with the rapidity of oral expression in deliberate
speech. An objection of Dr. Kitto to the two-hand alphabet so widely know
by school-children and others in Great Britain and in this country would
seem to apply with greater force to the Dalgarno alphabet: "To hit the
right digit on all occasions is by far the most difficult point to learn
in the use of the [two-hand] manual alphabet, and it is hard to be sure
which fingers have been touched."[9]

[Footnote 9: Dr. Kitto remaks the following common mistakes in reading
rapid two-hand spelling: the confounding _i_ with _e_ or _o_; _d_ with
_p_; _l_ with _t_; _f_ with _x_; _r_ with _t_ and with one form of _j_;
_n_ with _v_, and adds: "Upon the whole, the system is very defective,
and is capable of great improvement." _--The Lost Senses_, p. 107.]

It is not the purpose of the writer to attempt even a catalogue of the
numerous finger alphabets, common, tactile, phonetic, "phonomimic,"
"phonodactylologic," and syllabic, which have been proposed for the
special use of the deaf.

The one-hand alphabet used by Ponce and figured by Bonet was common in
Spanish almanacs hawked by ballad-mong