GEORGE DALGARNO (1626-1687)
SIGNIFICANT SCOTS
George Dalgarno
(1626-1687)
I am indebted for this article to the Supplement
to the sixth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica; the only source from which I am aware that
the information contained in it could have
been derived.] an almost forgotten, but most
meritorious and original writer, was born
in Old Aberdeen, about the year 1626. He
appears to have studied at Marischal college,
New Aberdeen, but for what length of time,
or with what objects, is wholly unknown.
In 1657 he went to Oxford, where, according
to Anthony Wood, he taught a private grammar
school with good success for about thirty
years. He died of a fever on the 28th of
August, 1687, and was buried, says the same
author, "in the north body of the church
of St Mary Magdalen."
Such is the scanty biography that has been
preserved, of a man who lived in friendship
with the most eminent philosophers of his
day, and who, besides other original speculations,
had the singular merit of anticipating, more
than a hundred and thirty years ago, some
of the most profound conclusions of the present
age respecting the education of the deaf
and dumb. His work upon this subject is entitled,
"Didascalocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's
Tutor," and was printed in a very small volume at
Oxford, in 1680. He states the design of
it to be, to bring the way of teaching a
deaf man to read and write, as near as possible
to that of teaching young ones to speak and
understand their mother tongue. "In
prosecution of this general idea," says
an eminent philosopher of the present day,
who has, on more than one occasion, done
his endeavour to rescue the name of Dalgarno
from oblivion, "he has treated one short
chapter, of a deaf man's dictionary; and,
in another, of a grammar for deaf persons;
both of them containing a variety of precious
hints, from which useful practical lights
might be derived by all who have any concern
in the tuition of children, during the first
stage of their education."
Mr. Dugald Stewart's Account of a boy born
blind and deaf.
Twenty years before the publication of his
Didascalocophus, Dalgarno had given to the
world a very ingenious piece, entitled, Ars
Signorum, from which, says Mr Stewart, it
appears indisputable that he was the precursor
of Bishop Wilkins in his speculations respecting
"a real character and a philosophical
language." Leibnitz has on various occasions,
alluded to the Ars Signorum in commendatory terms. Both of these works
of Dalgarno are now exceedingly rare.
reprinted from: Welcome to electricscotland.
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