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Cloud's letter was forwarded by TIME without delay to the Dictograph Products Corporation. Said they:
TIME, New York, N. Y.
New York, N. Y. Mar. 14, 1925
Gentlemen:
We acknowledge receipt of your letter of Mar. 12 in which you very kindly give us an opportunity to comment on a letter from a TIME subscriber.
He criticizes the Acousticon advertisement and says: "My acquaintance with people having 'the poorest of ears' runs into the thousands, not one of whom has been helped by the 'aid' advertised."
First, we hope you will ask your subscriber to analyze our advertisement and see that it offers an absolute free trial of ten days, we paying the transportation charges. Would it not seem impossible that a business concern could live and grow for over 20 years, doing business on this basis, if this product were not really of immense benefit to the hard of hearing people?
There are deaf people who cannot hear with anything. If the auditory nerve is dead, sounds mean nothing. But, for hundreds of thousands of people who do have some hearing, the Acousticon is just the difference between despair and success. The users of the Acousticon are people in every profession, business and occupation.
Just the other day, an eminent specialist of New York City sent us a letter from a patient, a Bishop to whom he had recommended the Acousticon. The Bishop said in the letter :
"I have given the SRFD Acousticon a fair trial during the past six days and I am aware of distinct improvement in my hearing, not only when using it, but when I lay it aside in my home. I find that I hear best with the lever of the transmitter on the stop next but one to the 'soft' end of the scale."
If your subscriber is really interested in learning what has been done for the past 20 years for the deaf people, and what is being done now, there are numerous sources to which he can apply for the information.
We suggest, for instance, such eminent ear specialists as Dr. Thomas J. Harris, Secretary of the American Otological Society, and past President Dr. James F. McKernan of New York City or any other eminent authority.
Lastly, our advertisement urges the deaf person to try the Acousticon. When he has tried it for ten days, he is capable of using his own judgment.
If we can give you any further information, or make any further comment, please consider us at your service.
EDGAR LOWE,
Vice President.
There are 44,885 deaf mutes in the U.S.—425 per million population. Total deafness, however, is rare. Even among these unfortunate mutes, from 15 to 20% have a useful amount of hearing. Affliction of the ear, found in innumerable forms and degrees, is commonly caused by scarlet fever, measles, tooth-cutting, catarrh, loud noises, old age. There have been occasional cases of apparent total deafness, arising from an unknown cause, which disappeared after a few years in a manner equally mysterious.
There is no "cure" for deafness. Science does what it can, but the fact remains that the human ear, the most delicate, most inaccessible of physical contrivances, once injured, can never be entirely repaired.