Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bébian, Roch Ambroise Auguste

BÉBIAN, Roch Ambroise Auguste, educator, b. on the island of Guadeloupe in 1789; d. there in 1834. He was the son of a merchant, and was encouraged to devote himself to the instruction of the deaf and dumb by his godfather, the Abbé Sicard, under whose direction he qualified himself for the task. He published “Essai sur les sourd-muets et sur le langage naturel” (1817), and afterward became a professor in the royal institution for deaf-mutes. His zeal for reform excited much jealousy, and, in 1825, he was compelled to resign his professorship and return to his native island. His other publications were “Mimographie, ou Essai d'écriture mimique” (Paris, 1822); “Manuel d'enseignement pratique” (1827); and “Éloge historique de l'abbé de l'Epée.”