HIRSCH, DAVID:

By: Isidore Singer, Franklin S. Wilson

German instructor of deafmutes; born at Müntz, Rhenish Prussia, May 23, 1813; died at Rotterdam Feb. 2, 1895. He studied at the Heinicke institute for deaf-mutes at Crefeld, and afterward at a similar institute in Cologne, with the intention of becoming an instructor. At the age of twenty-five he received an appointment as director of a deaf-mute school at Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1847 he was called to Rotterdam as private tutor to two children; and, having other mute children placed under his care, he established May 23, 1853, what was in Holland the pioneer school of oral instruction for deaf-mutes, an institution which he conducted until 1887, when ill health compelled him to withdraw from its active management. From this school he sent forth a number of teachers, who introduced his oral system into several European countries. In recognition of his services the Dutch government conferred upon him the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and France made him an Officier de l'Académie.

S. F. S. W.