Sicard. Three years later the school was taken over by the government and became the "National Institute."
In 1815 several gentlemen of Hartford, Connecticut, headed by Dr. Cogswell, who had a deaf daughter, became interested in the establishment of a school for the deaf in this country. The Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet had shown some interest in the work and made experimental efforts in teaching Alice Cogswell. These gentlemen resolved to send Gallaudet abroad to study methods there by way of preparation for starting the school they had in mind. When Gallaudet reached England he found the work in that country under a monopoly in the hands of the Braidwood family. They refused to allow him access to their secrets or to give him any assistance except under conditions with which he could not comply. He met the Abbe Sicard in London and was by him cordially invited to visit the school at Paris. There he was shown every courtesy and spent several months studying methods and learning the sign language. Returning to America he brought with him Laurent Clerc, a graduate of the Paris school and at that time a teacher in his alma mater. When the school at Hartford was opened, Clerc was employed as an instructor, teaching the sign language to other instructors, and thus the so-called "French method" with its language of pantomime was introduced into this country.
Finger spelling used by the deaf and in their education was originated by neither them nor their teachers but is a borrowed art. No authentic information is obtainable as to its origin but the researches of the late Prof. J. C. Gordon, of Gallaudet college brought to light certain historical data from which we get the following facts:
The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used finger signs for numbers. There is evidence of the existence of dactylology among the Assyrians, on their monuments of art, down to the fifteenth century. The venerable Bede described finger spelling more than a thousand years ago and three manual alphabets are figured in an edition of his works printed in 1532.
Monks and others under vows of silence as well as others who had special reasons for secret communication used both signs and finger spelling. Rossellius, a Florentine monk, mentioned three such alphabets in 1579.
The first finger alphabet adopted in teaching spoken and written language to the deaf was the Spanish one-hand alpha-
