Epée, CHARLES MICHEL, ABBÉ DE L'

Epée, CHARLES MICHEL, ABBÉ DE L', instructor of the deaf and dumb, was born at Versailles, 25th November 1712. Taking orders, he became a preacher and canon at Troyes, but eventually, on account of his Jansenist opinions, was deprived of this office, and now lived in retirement in Paris. In 1765 he first began to occupy himself with the education of two deaf and dumb sisters; and, as he asserts, without any previous knowledge of Pereira's efforts in the cause, invented a language of signs, by which persons thus afflicted might be enabled to hold intercourse with their fellow-creatures. His attempts being crowned with success, he determined to devote his life to the subject. At his own expense he founded an institution for the deaf and dumb, which was first publicly examined in 1771, and from 1778 received an annual subsidy. It was not, however, converted into a public institution till two years after his death, which took place 23d December 1789. He wrote two or three works on his system, for an estimate of which see Hartmann's Deafmutism (Eng. trans. 1881).