finger-alphabet

While Peregrine was thus engaged, his associate made his appearance in another convocation of fashionable people, where he soon had the pleasure of hearing the conjurer brought upon the carpet by an elderly gentlewoman, remarkable for her inquisitive disposition, who, addressing herself to Cadwallader, asked, by the help of the finger-alphabet, if he knew anything of the magician that made such a noise in town.

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 2004

And let the pupils be required, in what they have to say to their teachers in the schoolroom or elsewhere, to employ the finger-alphabet instead of natural signs to the utmost possible extent, and this by complete sentences and not in a fragmentary way_.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 Various

And now let me say that I hope you will learn the finger-alphabet; so that, if you visit any of my little pupils, you can talk to them.

The Nursery, No. 165. September, 1880, Vol. 28 A Monthly Magazine For Youngest Readers Various

For a knowledge of intellectual development in the child possessed of all the senses, and of the great extent to which he is independent of verbal language in the formation of concepts, it is indispensable to make a collection of such concepts as uneducated deaf-mutes not acquainted either with the finger-alphabet or with articulation express by means of their own gestures in a manner intelligible to others.

The Mind of the Child, Part II The Development of the Intellect, International Education Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX. William T. Preyer 1869

As fast as he learned the finger-alphabet he had taught it to Donal, and, as already they had a good many symbols in use between them, so many indeed that Donal would often instead of speaking make use of signs, they had now the means of intercourse almost as free as if they had had between them two tongues instead of one.

Sir Gibbie George MacDonald 1864