D

n. The art of communicating ideas by certain movements and positions of the fingers; - a method of conversing practiced by the deaf and dumb. There are two different manual alphabets, the one- hand alphabet (which was perfected by Abbé de l'Epée, who died in 1789), and the two-hand alphabet. The latter was probably based on the manual alphabet published by George Dalgarus of Aberdeen, in 1680.