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 mea sure 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 Em ployment 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 [ r honorary secretary before the Society of Arts on the vari- ous 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 M. 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 Eoman capitals. Dr Howe, of Boston, U.S., makes use of the small Eoman 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 in tention of printing on a large scale in this type. In Germany vari ous 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. All these modifications are sugges tive 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 pionaer 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 full written system introduced by Mr Moon, in which the Roman letter is retained in a more or less modified form when ever he considered this could be done compatibly with easy recog nition, 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 follow ing particulars : (a.) As respects the shape of the letter ; (b.) As respects the advantage of conformity with the Roman letter ; (c.) As regards the reading from right to left and from left to right alter nately ; (d.) Advantage of a shorthand as contrasted with a full written system.
(a.) As respects the shape of the letter.—M r 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 l.yavery 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 4^-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 3-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 smallest.
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 select ing 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.
(b.) As respects the advantage of conformity with the Roman letter.—Much has been said and written on this subject. A favourite argument with the advocate of the R oman 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 experi ments 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 all 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 which 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 short hand 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
