Excerpt from The Aural Surgery of the Present Day The old dispute for precedency between the eye and the ear admits of an easy solution, if we consider these two most important Senses in their relation to the several ages of man, and to his external and internal life. Thus the child, during the second and third years of life, even when blindness exists, acquires, by the ear alone, easily and playfully as it were, by intercourse with those who Speak, the power of speech, the true stamp of man. Those who are deaf born, or who become so before the expiration of the seventh year, either never acquire the power of speech in this natural way, or again forgetting what has been early learnt, remain or become dumb, and thus lose the most important as well as the most natural means for intellectual and spiritual culture. Acute hearing is, therefore, of inestimable value for the period of childhood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.