VI. Additional Communications respecting the Blind and Deaf Boy, James Mitchell

Extract

The following circumstances respecting the Blind and Deaf Boy, James Mitchell, have come to my knowledge since the publication of Professor Stewart's Memoir; and I doubt not but the Society will think them worthy of being recorded. They are derived from the most accurate and authentic of all sources, the boy's sister, Miss Mitchell.

In the month of April 1814, Mr Parker, an English gentleman, (distinguished, as I have since learned, for his active benevolence,) did me the honour to wait upon me, to communicate a plan for the instruction of young Mitchell, which had some time before occurred to him, and which he was very desirous should be put to the test of experiment. This method seemed in no respect inconsistent with those principles which in all circumstances appear to regulate the acquisition of language; and I therefore expressed my willingness, to promote, by every means in my power, the object which Mr Parker had in view.