The cultural meaning of popular science. Phrenology and the organization of consent in nineteenth-century Britain

teaching profession. He was educated primarily through the medium of writing. He started by tracing with his fingers every single letter of the alphabet before writing single words, phrases, and then sentences. Chapter 5 is the work of Roch-Ambroise Sicard, which was first published in 1803. Sicard had a tumultuous life. He studied under de l'Epee but this did not stop him from criticizing his master's methods, which, he said, turned the deaf pupils into automatons "without understanding what they were writing". Sicard's method of teaching consisted primarily of object drawing, association of written pattern with object followed by signing. This is followed by an essay on the deaf and natural language written by Roch-Ambroise Bebian and first published in 1817. Bebian was closely associated with Sicard and his essay strongly supports the sign language as advocated by Sicard. The last chapter, entitled 'The deaf before and since the Abbe de l'Epee', was written in the most elegant style by Ferdinand Berthier and was first published in 1840. Berthier was a deaf person who was educated by Laurent Clerc at the Paris Institute for the Deaf. His historical essay is well researched. He criticizes both de l'Epee and Sicard, but his sympathies lie with de I'Epee. Is there any common philosophy arising from this book regarding the education of deaf children? The answer is yes-all practitioners involved used some system of signing. Are there any controversies? Again the answer is yes-controversies between manualists supporting different sign systems, controversies between manualists and oralists. The same controversies are still with us and most probably they will continue well into the future.