In Denmark Addison saw what impressed him most. All the children of school age go to Fredericia and remain for a year in the boarding institution. They are then examined and the semi-deaf--29% of the whole--are sent to Nyborg. The rest--all the totally deaf--remain another year at Fredericia and are then divided into the A, B and C divisions before mentioned, and on the same criterion--intellect. Those in C--the lowest class, 28% of the totally deaf--are sent to Copenhagen, where they are taught by the manual method, no oral work being attempted. Those in B class, numbering 19% of the deaf, remain in the residential institution in Fredericia and are taught orally, while the best pupils--A class--are boarded out in the town and attend a special day school. These form 26% of the deaf, and those with whom they live encourage them to speak when out of as well as when in school. The buildings and equipment generally are excellent. "Hand signs" are used at Nyborg, indicating the position of the vocal organs when speaking, and, as might be expected, the "lip"-reading is 90% more correct when these symbols--infinitely more visible than most of the movements of the vocal organs and face when speaking--are used at the same time. The idea of these hand signs, by the way, corresponds to that of Graham Bell's _Visible Speech_, in which a written symbol is used to indicate the position of the vocal organs when uttering each sound; it is a kind of phonetic writing which is to a slight extent illustrative at the same time. We find natural signs of the utmost value when teaching articulation, to describe the position of the vocal organs. We give these details from Mr Addison's notes because it is to Germany that so many look for guidance to-day, and it is the home of the so-called "pure" oral method; while the system of classification in Denmark into the four schools which are controlled by one authority, struck him very favourably and so is given rather fully.
In France most of the schools are supported by charity, and the only three government institutions are those at Paris for boys, with 263 pupils lately, at Bordeaux for girls, having 225 inmates, and at Chambéry with 86 boys and 38 girls. In the great majority the method of instruction is professedly pure oral. "But," said Henri Gaillard (_Report, World's Congress of the Deaf_, Missouri, 1904), "this is only in appearance. In reality all of the schools use the combined method; only they are not willing to admit it, because the oral method is the official method, imposed by the inspectors of the minister of the interior."