Hervas y Panduro, Lorenzo

Hearing. At first a professor of philosophy at Madrid, then a Jesuit missionary in America. Went to Italy and became Prefect of the Quirinal Library in Rome. While there, took an interest in education of the deaf. Returned to Spain; experimented to see whether a young deaf child (27 months) could learn faster than an adult deaf person. Another experiment showed that a born-deaf boy learned a gesture language more quickly than a hearing boy, leading to the conclusion that sign language is the natural language for deaf people. He eventually published in two volumes, Escuela Espanola de Sordo-Mudos, o Arte Para Ensenarles a Escribir y Habalar el Idioma Espanol (1795). Despite its size and merits, this book was comparatively unknown and does not appear to have had any influence on deaf education.