Bulwer was the first Englishman to write about the teaching of deaf-mutes. "Chirologia is often cited as Bulwer’s link to later Deaf studies because it focuses on hand gestures ^[15] which have come to be seen as the domain of deaf communication. In fact the book only mentions the deaf in passing.^[16] He believed it was Nature's recompense that deaf people should communicate through gesture, "that wonder of necessity that Nature worketh in men that are born deafe and dumb; who can argue and dispute rhetorically by signes" (page 5). The handshapes described in Chirologia are still used in British Sign Language.^[17] Bulwer does mention fingerspelling describing how "the ancients did...order an alphabet upon the joints of their fingers...showing those letters by a distinct and grammatical succession", in addition to their use as mnemonic devices Bulwer suggest that manual alphabets could be "ordered to serve for privy ciphers for any secret intimation" (Chironomia, p149). Chirologia is a compendium of manual gestures, citing their meaning and use from a wide range of sources; literary, Religious and Medical. Chironomia is a manual for the effective use of Gesture in public speaking" (Wikipedia).  New edition, edited and annotated by James W. Cleary, Carbondale, 1974. Digital facsimile of the 1644 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

"Bulmer promoted what we would call today 'central nervous system plasticity,' in describing how one sense could take over the duties of another. This is well illustrated in the frontispiece of this work, which is the first representation of bone conduction, illustrated by the person 'listening' to the cello with his teeth. The figure in the middle shows the effects of speech articulation by blowing smoke. At the bottom are four faces. 'The first head shows a man with the mouth not in the normal position but located in the middle of the nose (smell), meaning that he can taste through his nose. The second man lacks a nose, and his mouth is shifted to the area of his nasal root, meaning that he can smell through his mouth (taste). The third man is blind, however, in each auricle an eye is engraved, thus he is able to see with his ears. The man on the right has no ears, but he hears with the right eye which is shown by the engraver by an auricle replacing the eye" (Robert Ruben, Hear, Hear! Six Centuries of Otology [2002] No. 80). Reproduction of the engraved frontispiece from the Folger Shakespeare Library at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1648 edition lacking the frontispiece from Gallaudet University, Internet Archive at this link.

Extensively illustrated treatise on varieties of body modifications, real or imagined, includes details on hair styles, tatoos, piercing, including sexual aspects. Digital facsimile of the 1653 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.