APPARATUS. Among the early appliances for writing may be mentioned the 'string alphabet' invented by Messrs. Milne and Bain, of the Edinburgh Asylum. It consisted of knots tied updn cord. Gall's writing-stamps, which date from IS3S. were much used. Saint Clair and Gall invented processes for guiding the pencil in an ingenious but slow and tedious way. GilId berg, of Copenhagen, also invented a method of pencil-writing. The modern methods employed in the best American institutions are (I) the ordinary typewriter and (2) tablets for point writing, according to the Braille and kindred systems. This has the great advantage of being legible by the blind themselves, but is a slow process. It is gradually replaced in advanced work by the lIa11-Braille writer—an adaptation of the principles of the typewriter to the print ing of point characters, made by Mr. Frank H. Hall, of the Illinois Institution for the Blind. The followers of the New York point system use a similar machine called the kaleidograph, the invention of Mr. Wait, of the New York Institu tion. A third process consists in writing with a pencil on a grooved sheet of cardboard or alumin ium. thus forming a square handwriting. This method has the advantage of extreme simplicity and cheapness, and has been much used by the blind for many years.
For arithmetic, W. H. Taylor. of York. Eng land, invented an octagonal ciphering-hoard, with cells into which type may be placed in different positions to represent the digits. A modification of this board was made at the Perkins Institu tion and manufactured by one of its graduates.
For the study of natural history, relief repre sentations of animals are employed, also stuffed specimens of birds and animals. Papier-machil models, life-size, assist the blind in the study of anatomy, while for botany these are greatly enlarged.
The early snaps for the blind were made in Europe, on'boards and by hand, the process being tedious and expensive. Dr. Howe, in 1836, in vented an atlas which is thought to have been the first book of maps for the blind ever made. At the present time the blind are aided in their study of geography by wooden wall-maps in relief dissected maps, also of wood, made at the American Printing Ilouse for the Blind, Louis ville, Ky., and at the Perkins Institution in Bos
ton; and embossed maps printed on paper by the British and Foreign Blind Association, London, and by Mr. Kunz, Illzach, Alsace.
All the kindergarten occupations, except draw ing and painting or color work, are used with the blind children. In the kindergarten at Jamaica Plain, Mass., the following changes have been made in the ordinary appliances, to fit them for the use of the blind: The tables are marked out in inch squares by grooves instead of by lines. For the use of the gift representing surface, line, and point. frames 2 inches high and the length and breadth of the kindergarten tables have been prepared. These frames are stuffed with hair, and covered with cloth stitched in inch squares with coarse silk. The cushions thus formed are placed on the tables, and the tablet rings and half rings (having been previously drilled, two holes in each) are pinned cn to the cushions. Sticks large enough to have holes drilled in them are used in place of the regular kindergarten sticks, and beads one-quarter inch in diameter are used to represent the point. By pinning the forms they make to these cushions, the children are able to examine their work with their fingers without displacing it, and can thus `see' what they have accomplished. In the use of the parquetry, the circles, squares. etc., are not pasted of plain paper. as is usual in the kindergarten, but square and oblong cards of different sizes with raised lines, forming inch squares, printed on them have been substituted.
Buituoun.trim Anagnos, Education of the Blind: Historical Sketeh of Its Origin. Rise, anti Proarcss (Boston. 1882) ; Italic, Essai sur Pei/swallow des areugles (Paris. 1786) Niebo quet, x arrup/es et de leer cVneation (Paris, 1837) : St. Marie, Der Blinde and seine Bildung (Leipzig, Isn8) : Armitage. The Education and Employment of the Blind (London. 1871) : Moon, Light for the Blind (London, I873) • Riisner, sarrricht der Blinders (Essen. 1877) : Melt, En eyklopiidisehes Handbuch des Blindensresens (Vi enna. 1899- I 9001. Consult also the Minden freund (published at Diiren since 1881) and Le Valentin Maly (edited by :Maurice de In Size ranne).