BLINDNESS. The World War gave an impetus to the move ment for the emancipation of the blind that had begun in the i8th century. Every country involved in the holocaust was driven to face the problem presented by a number of vigorous citizens, normal in every way but deprived of sight. These men of every rank of life were unconscious pioneers and leaders of the blind. As the number of those stricken through the wars of the Crusades brought about the establishment of the first public institution for the assistance of the blind 600 years before (see FRANCE), so these 2oth century warriors have made their presence felt in legislative and other spheres.
Blind men and women have made positions for themselves in the past in isolated cases, but to-day there is hardly an avenue of life in which a man or woman without sight is not succeeding. The way has been opened in literature, the arts, the Church, law, politics, commerce, trade, agriculture and sport. Even the un employable blind are not left destitute.
Since the beginning of history there have been individual blind persons gifted with exceptional initiative or enterprise, or who, having had 'the advantage of a good education, have burst the bonds of affliction and led useful and interesting lives. The blind community as a whole, however, is and has always been poor, and it vvas not until private and public efforts tvere made to secure edu cation and training for them that any opportunity for even the slightest degree of progress from a condition of absolute depend ence was afforded. Inability to read was the greatest handicap, and the development of methods whereby this became possible was the first great step forward in the education of the general blind community.
Systems of Reading.—The earliest authentic records of tan gible letters for the blind describe a plan of engraving the letters upon blocks of wood, the invention of Francesco Lucas, a Spaniard. In 164o a writing-master in Paris cast a movable leaden type for the use of the blind. Pins inserted in cushions were next tried, and large wooden letters. Cast metal letters followed, and in Germany R. Weissembourg made use of letters cut in cardboard, and afterwards pricked maps in the same material. By this method he taught Mlle. Paradis, the talented blind musician and the friend of Valentin flatly. To Haiiy belongs the honour of being the first to emboss paper as a means of reading for the blind; his books were embossed in large and small italics, from movable type set by his pupils. Haiiy's first pupil, Francois Lesueur, was sorting the papers on his teacher's desk and came across a card strongly indented by the types in the press. The blind lad showed his master he could decipher several letters on the card. Immedi ately flatly traced with the handle of his pen some signs on paper. The boy read them, and the result was printing in relief, the greatest of Hauy's discoveries.
The first book for the blind produced in the United Kingdom was by James Gall, of Edinburgh, in 1827; it was printed in a triangular modification of the common alphabet. Five years later the Scottish Society of Arts offered a prize of i2o for the best alphabet for the blind, and a Dr. Fry of London carried off the prize from 16 competitors. Gall's publication and the move made by the Society of Arts had attracted attention. Overseas visitors came to Scotland to investigate progress, among them Dr. Howe of Boston, who went home to set up a printing press, while John Alston of Glasgow launched an appeal for a printing fund and printed a Bible for the blind in Fry's type.
At the beginning of the i9th century 23 different methods of embossed printing were in existence. The best known are Lucas's, Frere's, Moon's and Braille's. The Moon type invented by Dr. Moon of Brighton in 1847, which partly retains the roman out lines, is easily learnt by those who have become blind late in life (fig. I).
The Braille system is now in world-wide use, even having been adapted to Chinese by Dr. Murray, a Scottish missionary, and a Braille magazine is published in Esperanto. Louis Braille (1809 5852) was born near Paris, and became blind when three years of age. He was a pupil and later an instructor at the Institution des Jeunes Aveugles, Paris, and adapted the system that bears his name from that invented by Captain Charles Barbier, a young French cavalry officer. Louis Braille published his system in 1829 and developed it further five years later. It was not given official recognition in Paris until two years after Braille's death. The Braille alphabet consists of varying combinations of six dots in an oblong, the vertical side containing three dots and the horizontal two. There are 63 possible combinations of these six dots, and after the letters of the alphabet have been supplied, the remaining signs are used for punctuation, contractions, etc. (fig. 2) . For writing, a ruler is used, consisting of a metal bed either grooved or marked by groups of little pits, each group consisting of six; over this bed is fitted a brass guide, punched with oblong holes whose vertical diameter is three-tenths of an inch, while the horizontal diameter is two-tenths. The pits are arranged in two parallel lines, and the guide is hinged on the bed in such a way that when the two are locked together the openings in the guide correspond exactly to the pits in the bed. The brass guide has a double row of openings, which enables the writer to write two lines; when these are written, he shifts his guide downwards until two little pins, which pt'oject from the under surface at its ends, drop into corresponding holes of a wooden board ; then two more lines are written, and this operation is repeated until the bottom of the page is reached. The paper is introduced between the frame and the metal bed. The instrument for writing is a blunt awl, which carries a little cap of paper before it into the grooves or pits of the bed, thereby producing a series of little pits in the paper on the side next the writer. When taken out and turned over, little prominences are felt, corresponding to the pits on the other side. The reading is performed from left to right, consequently the writing is from right to left ; but this reversal presents no practical difficulty as soon as the pupil has caught the idea that in reading and writing alike he has to go forwards (fig. 3) .
The first ten letters, from "a" to "j" are formed in the upper and middle grooves; the next ten, from "k" to "t," are formed by adding one lower back dot to each letter of the first series; the third row is formed from the first by adding two lower dots to each letter; the fourth row, similarly, by adding one lower front dot.
The first ten letters, when preceded by the prefix for numbers stand for the nine numbers and the cipher. The same signs, writ ten in the lower and middle grooves, instead of the upper and middle, serve for punctuation. The seven last letters of each series stand for the seven musical notes—the first series representing quavers, the second minims, the third semibreves, the f ourth crotchets. Rests, accidentals and every other sign used in music can be readily and clearly expressed without having recourse to the staff of five lines which forms the basis of ordinary musical notation, and which, though it has been reproduced for the blind, can only be considered as serving to give them an idea of the method employed by the seeing, and cannot, of course, be written. By means of this dotted system, a blind man is able to keep mem oranda or accounts, write his own music, emboss his own books from dictation and carry on correspondence.
The first complete copy of the Bible (English) in Braille was in 39 large foolscap volumes. It was produced between 1877-9o, and every dot was punched out by the hand of one man. Inven tion of the stereotype-machine by Frank Hall (U.S.A.) in led to a tremendous increase in the production of Braille books. The National Institute for the Blind can print 6,000 pages an hour with its electrically driven press.
Many games such as chess, draughts, dominoes, have been adapted for the use of the blind, and most card games can be played with cards upon which Braille characters are embossed to indicate suits and values. Some blind people are extremely expert As more sensations are received through the eye than through any other organ, the mind of a blind child is vacant, and the train ing should begin early or the mind will degenerate. Indirectly the loss of sight results in inaction. If no one encourages a blind child to move, he will sit quietly in a corner, and when he leaves his seat will move timidly about. This want of activity produces bad physical effects, and further delays mental growth. The blind are often injured, some of them ruined for life, through the ignorance and mistaken kindness of their friends during early childhood. They should be taught to walk, to go up and down stairs, to wash, dress and feed themselves. They should be carefully taught cor rect postures and attitudes, and to avoid making grimaces. They should be told the requirements of social conventions which a seeing child learns through watching his elders. They have no consciousness that their habits are disagreeable, and the earlier unsightly mannerisms are corrected the better. Blind children have a stronger claim upon the public for education than other children, because they start at a disadvantage in life, they come mostly of poor parents, and without special instruction and train ing they are almost certain to become a public charge during life.