r them, and
advocating the teaching of speech. He further invented a manual
alphabet, which was one of the first of its kind. In 1616 Giovanni
Bonifaccio also wrote regarding the "art of signing" and speech for the
deaf.

But it is to Spain that credit is to be given as being the first country
of Europe where there are recorded accounts of successful instruction of
the deaf. In 1550, or perhaps earlier, Pedro Ponce de Leon of the Order
of St. Benedict taught, chiefly by oral methods, several deaf children
in the convent of San Salvador de Ona. Great success must have attended
his efforts, for in addition to the Spanish language and arithmetic, his
pupils are reported to have mastered Latin, Greek and astrology. About
this time there lived a deaf artist, known as _El Mudo_, and he had very
likely received instruction in some way. In 1620 Juan Pablo Bonet, who
had had several deaf pupils, instructing them largely in articulation
methods, published a treatise on the art of instructing the deaf, called
"_Reduccion de las Letras y Arta para Ensener a Hablar los Mudos_;" and
he was the inventor of a manual alphabet, in considerable part like that
used in America to-day. Sir Kinelm Digby of England, visiting Spain
about this time, saw Bonet's work and wrote an account of his pupils.

In 1644 appeared in England "_Chirologia_, or the Natural Language of
the Hand" by a physician, Dr. John Bulwer, who had perhaps also observed
the results in Spain. This was followed in 1648 by his more important
work, "_Philocophus_, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's Friend," mostly
describing a kind of process in articulation and lip-reading. Bulwer's
friend, John Wallis, a professor at Oxford, seems to have been the first
practical teacher here, instructing two deaf persons by writing and in
speech, and showing them to the King. In 1653 his "_Tractatus de
Loquela_" was published. Along the same line was the writing of Dr.
William Holder on the "Elements of Speech," published in 1669, in which
he advocated articulation teaching. In 1670 there appeared a treatise by
George Sibscota on "The Deaf and Dumb Man's Discourse," but this was
really a translation from the writings of a German named Deusing. In
1680 Dr. George Dalgarno of Scotland published his "_Didascalocophus_,
the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor," in which preference was given to the use
of a written language and a manual alphabet, of one of which he was
himself the inventor. In 1698 appeared "_Di