It often occurs that children become blind through the most trivial causes by parents consulting unskilful practitioners. The improvement and increase in the number of well-regulated hospitals now makes it possible for every parent, however poor, to have the best medical advice and attendance.

In all ages of the world the blind have been the objects of pity and commiseration, yet it has only been within the past century that Christian civilization in its grand onward march has taken them in its embrace, and shed the influence of its light upon their midnight darkness. During recent years leading philanthropists have given much earnest thought to the best methods of ameliorating and improving the condition of the blind. Nearly all the European Governments and the States of the American Union have made liberal provision for their education and special training. In Great Britain the work has been left thus far to charitable enterprise. Much, however, has been done,—almost every large town having its asylum, workshop, or home teaching society.

The following summary, from A Guide to Institutions and Charities for the Blind, prepared by M. Turner and W. Harris in 1871, will show the state of these institutions at a recent date :—

“In the year 1800 there were only four institutions for the blind in the United Kingdom; during the next thirty years six others were added to the list; in the succeeding thirty years seventeen more were opened; while within the last ten years twenty new ones have been established, making a total now of fifty-three, without including societies for visiting the blind at their homes, and other charities.

Scotland with five institutions sold, in the last year of which we have any report, goods of the value of £21,930, while England with forty institutions only sold in the same period goods of the value of £33,598; and Ireland, only £454.

Scotland provides for, on an average, 76 blind in each institution; while England only provides for 43, and Ireland for 60.

The donations and subscriptions in Scotland for the same year amount to more than £20 per head of the number benefited; while in England they amount to about £21, and in Ireland to about £16.

So far as returns have reached us, it appears that Mr Moon’s system of reading for the blind is adopted by 38 institutions and home-teaching societies, while only 22 use the books of other systems—Lucas’s, 7; Roman, 4; Alston’s, 4; Frere’s, 3; Braille, 4. [Since 1871 the use of Braille has been introduced into many other institutions.]

Of the 30,000 blind in the United Kingdom, there are only about 2250 being instructed or assisted to wont. The total amount received per annum for the benefit of the blind, according to the answers received, is about £66,000; besides, there are twelve societies from which no return has been made. Of institutions for the blind generally, we may remark that in each institution nearly the same difficulties appear to exist, the principal one being the difficulty of selling the goods manufactured at such prices as will secure a ready sale and cover the cost of production, and consequently in most instances there is a large surplus stock. In cases where the stock is wholly disposed of, our observations lead us to think that sales have been secured by selling at a loss.

The principal trades practised by the blind in the United Kingdom are the making of baskets, brushes, brooms, mattresses, rugs, mats, caning of chairs, with knitting and sewing for women.”

Within a few years a great impetus has been given in England to the higher education of the blind, by the formation of the British and Foreign Blind Association, the establishment of the College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen at Worcester, and the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind, Upper Norwood.

The first-mentioned association “has been formed for the purpose of promoting the education and employment of the blind, by ascertaining what has been done in these respects in this and other countries, by endeavouring to supply deficiencies where these are found to exist, and by attempting to bring about greater harmony of action between the different existing schools and institutions.

“The founders of the association took as an axiom that in all questions which relate to obtaining impressions by touch the blind are the best judges; the council of the association therefore consists entirely of gentlemen who are either blind, or so nearly so that they have to use the finger instead of the eye for the purpose of reading.

“One main difficulty in the way of educating the young blind is the great cost of most of the appliances; this the council have endeavoured to meet by the manufacture of cheaper and better apparatus than any hitherto in use.

No one who has not made the attempt can have any idea of the extreme difficulty of combining great accuracy and durability with cheapness. This has been in a great measure accomplished as regards the Braille writing frames, which are now within the reach of every blind person who wishes to avail himself of the advantages of writing. The fact that a large number of these frames has been already sold speaks for itself, and, as the great majority of the purchasers are poor, the quick sale is evidence not only of the cheapness of the frames, but also of the widespread desire for self-education existing among the blind.

“Another obstacle to the diffusion of the knowledge of the Braille system has been the absence of printed books in English. With the view of meeting this want one of the council has perfected the process of stereotyping used in France, by which the cost of production of stereotype plates is greatly reduced; and as the blind can themselves produce these plates, a new and remunerative means of employment has been discovered. Some school books have already been issued by the association, and will shortly be followed by others. The work on the Education and Employment of the Blind, by the honorary secretary, has been published under the sanction and at the expense of the association.”

The following extract from an address delivered by the honorary secretary before the Society of Arts on the various types for the blind, shows how thoroughly they are investigating the subject :—

“The happy idea of printing on paper letters recognizable by the touch is due to Μ. Haiiy of Paris, who printed his first book in 1784, and founded the Institut des Jeunes Aveugles, Paris. The type he adopted was the script, or Italic form of the Roman letter. This was introduced into England by the present Sir C. Lowther, who printed the gospel of St Matthew in 1832 with type obtained from Paris, and followed it with other portions of the Bible. In 1834, Gall, of Edinburgh, printed the gospel of St John in Roman capitals, in which, however, all curves were replaced by angular lines, and the lines themselves were serrated, which changes, he believed, gave greater distinctness to the letter.

Alston, of Glasgow, adopted Fry’s plan of using ordinary Roman capitals. Dr Howe, of Boston, U.S., makes use of the small Roman letters, giving them angularity according to Gall’s idea.

The Philadelphia type does not differ much from Alston’s. The combination of capitals with small letters has also been tried, and a society has recently been formed at Worcester with the intention of printing on a large scale in this type. In Germany various modifications of the Roman letter exist, the principal of which, the so-called Stachelschrift of Stuttgart, consists of Roman capitals formed by finely dotted lines. AU these modifications are suggestive of the strong tendency among those who have attempted to benefit the blind to retain for them the form of letter to which the seeing are accustomed, while the constant change of form indicates a fact with which most blind persons are familiar from personal experience, viz., that none of these modifications are satisfactory as to the primary condition of being easily felt. A better form than any which has obtained currency was suggested twenty years ago by Mr Welch, a blind man, who has been the pioneer of education amongst the blind of London, and this is almost identical with one independently worked out by Mr Littledale of Cheltenham.

The second great class is made up of alphabets deviating more or less widely from the Roman letter, and consists of a stenographic shorthand invented by Mr Lucas, a phonetic shorthand due to Mr Frere, and a fuU written system introduced by Mr Moon, in which the Roman letter is retained in a more or less modified form whenever he considered this could be done compatibly with easy recognition, the simple line-signs employed by Mr Frere being used to replace the more complicated of the Roman letters. It will be necessary to examine these systems in detail, and it will facilitate this examination if we compare them with each other in the following particulars :—(a.) As respects the shape of the letter; (δ.) As respects the advantage of conformity with the Roman letter; (c.) As regards the reading from right to left and from left to right alternately; (cf.) Advantage of a shorthand as contrasted with a full written system.

(a.) As respects the shape of the letter.— Mr Lucas and Mr Frere brought out their systems about the year 1838, Lucas preceding Frere by a few months. They employed at first almost identically the same characters, but unfortunately could not agree to represent the same sound by the same symbol. Mr Frere had the advantage of having his plan carried out by a very ingenious and sensible blind man, who soon discovered that the letters formed by lines and curves upon which dots were placed were too similar to those formed by the corresponding lines and curves without dots; he, therefore, changed all his dotted characters, replacing the dotted curves by angles of 45°, and the dotted lines by lines in which a short line is substituted for the dot.

The result of this change is, that Frere’s character is now far superior to Lucas’s in the quality of easy recognition. Mr Moon’s character, in the large size which is used by him, is quite as easily distinguishable as Frere’s, but in the form in which he now prints his characters, his right-angles are not true right-angles, but are rounded. In the size which he uses, this defect is of very little importance, but it effectually prevents any considerable diminution, because, if this is attempted, the rounded right-angles cannot be distinguished from the hooked lines.

The importance of using a character as small as is compatible with easy recognition may be readily understood from the following statement :—The largest type used by Mr Frere is that employed, in the gospel of St John. The character is 4⅜-sixteenths of an inch long, and is about the same size as Moon’s character. The pages occupied by the gospel of St John in Frere are 96. In his medium type, in which the length of the letter is 4-sixteenths of an inch, the same matter would go into 67 pages; and in his smallest type, in which the length of the letter is 3⅛-sixteenths, it would occupy 46 and a third pages. It has been found, by an experience extending over 27 years, and embracing many hundreds of individuals of all ages and conditions, that all those who can read the largest type can read the medium, and almost all can read the smaUest.

The medium type is very generally preferred, as being more pleasant to the finger, and many with delicate touch prefer the smallest for the same reason. Thus it will be seen that, by selecting a well-devised character, not only can a very considerable saving be made in the size, and therefore in the cost of books, but by a diminution of size, within certain limits, the character is rendered absolutely more legible. The gospel of St John, in Moon’s type, occupies 140 pages.

(δ.) As respects the advantage of conformity with the Reyman letter.— Much has been said and written on this subject. A favourite argument with the advocate of the Roman letter is, that by its use a blind man can be assisted in his reading by those around him who are possessed of sight. This, no doubt, would be valid if no simpler character for the blind had been invented, but when we have to choose between a character in the reading of which the blind can be assisted by the seeing, and one which is so simple that no assistance is required, there can hardly be a doubt as to which ought to be used.

Another plea for the use of the Roman letter is, that by its means the blind can write in a character understood by everybody. This writing is, as we shall presently see, a very imperfect process; but this argument is undoubtedly of some weight. These remarks apply simply to the existing systems in which the Roman letter is employed. It is probable that a much more legible alphabet might be constructed, but, after our 96 years of experience and experiments with.the Roman letter, another failure may well be feared. The small angularized Roman letter of Dr Howe, of Boston, which is used in most of the schools of the United States, is probably as good a form as any, and if printed in a larger size would not be difficult to feel; in its present size, however, it is far too small, and has signally failed in America. The American schools are aU State institutions, and have to furnish accounts to their respective State Legislatures of the work done by them.

Out of 664 pupils in seven schools, where the Roman character of Dr Howe is used, one-third learn to read fluently, one-third by spelling, while none fail; and it must be borne in mind that those who learn to read by this system also acquire an admirable method of writing. Moon’s system retains those Roman letters which can be easily distinguished, and thus makes a transition between the systems in Λvhich the Roman character is used and those which employ purely arbitrary signs. For this reason, and from its great simplicity of construction, it is more easily learned than any other, and therefore is well suited to the great mass of the poor, who from want of intelligence or of application cannot learn one of the shorthand systems. Its great bulk, however, involving costliness of production and comparative slowness of reading, is a serious obstacle to its general use.

(c.) Reading from left to right, and from right to left, alternately. —In Frere’s system the lines are read from left to right, and from right to left, alternately, an arc of a circle taking the finger from the end of the upper to the beginning of the lower line. The plan may be illustrated by imagining the letters to be fixed on the upper edge of a long string. Let it be supposed that this string is doubled backwards and forwards upon itself in such a way that the letters always occupy its upper edge. This will give a good idea of Frere’s method of reversing the line; not only is the line reversed, but every letter in it is also reversed, so that the finger, when moving forwards, whether towards the right or towards the left, meets the characters in the same position, and is, in fact, never moving backwards, in the same manner that a person may walk to the end of a room, turn and walk back, yet is moving forwards in both directions. Moon, on the other hand, while borrowing the reversal of the line from Frere retains the letters in the returning line in the same position as the advancing, so that the finger in the return line meets the characters in the opposite direction from that in the advancing line; and to those accustomed to Frere’s simpler method of reversal an unpleasant feeling is produced, exactly comparable to walking backwards.

The following example of both modes of reversal, in which Roman Capitals are used, will make this clear :—

Frere's Method.

I WILL MAKE DARKNESS M3HT 3ΗΟΉ3Θ THØIJ

Moon's Method.

I WILL MAKE DARKNESS .MEHT EROFEB THGIL

No doubt habit will accustom a reader to either plan, and probably there is not much difference in the difficulty of either, but, as we shall see by-and-by, it is absolutely necessary for writing that the pupil should thoroughly understand that, whichever way he goes, he is moving forwards; it is, therefore, wise to accustom him in reading to a process which he will have to follow in writing. Opinions differ widely among the blind whether it is best to read forwards in one direction and backwards in the other, or forward in both; it seems, however, among those who have had experience of the return line, that there can be no doubt of its great value, as by its use no time is lost by the reading finger having to return from the end of the upper to the beginning of the lower line, and the setting free of the left hand enables it to follow the right in reading, to take its place, or to rest.

(d∙) Shorthand.— By a shorthand system, reading is more rapid, and a nearer approach is made to the way in which the eye takes in a whole word at a glance, than in a full-written system. The books are also more manageable and less costly, but the stereographic method is distinctive of correct spelling, and in the phonetic method this is not even attempted; yet it is advisable, for many reasons, that the blind should be able to spell. The shorthand systems seem therefore to be of the same use to the blind as to the seeing—not being of universal application, but extremely useful to those who have to read much.

In all the systems which we have hitherto considered, the letters, whether Roman or arbitrary, are formed by raised lines. The method employed for writing them is as follows :—Small cubes of wood are used with projecting pin points, so placed as to assume the form of each letter. The paper to be written on being laid on a soft surface, the pin-point letters are pressed into it; each point carries some of the paper before it, forming a little prominence on the reverse side, ana as the pin points are very close together, the series of little prominences formed by them feel to the fingers like serrated lines. This plan ought rather to be called printing than writing. It requires great practice, and is at the best very slow and imperfect; yet it has its uses, as by employing Roman capitals the blind can correspond with the seeing. The letters, however, are not sufficiently distinct, and communications from blind correspondents written in this manner, or with pencil, are less satisfactory, both to writer and reader, than if the letter had been written from dictation....