BLIND 719 officially, be has not yet ceased to be its effi- cient friend. The first thought of building up special institutions for the instruction of the blind seems to have occurred to benevolent persons in New England, New York, and Penn- sylvania almost simultaneously, but without concert. In Philadelphia, the benevolent Rob- erts Vaux had been urging the matter for sev- eral years upon bis friends in that city before j they finally organized the excellent institution ; which has grown to be among the foremost in the world. The success of these institutions awakened an interest all over the United States. A detachment of pupils from the Perkins institute visited 17 states and were exhibited before the legislatures and people." The course of instruction in all the institutions for the blind in this country embraces nearly the same studies, and is of necessity chiefly oral. The primary instruction for the young is in spelling, reading, moral lessons, and arith- metic ; afterward come geography, arithmetic, history, grammar, writing, physiology, algebra, geometry, natural philosophy, mental philoso- phy, science of government, logic, chemistry, and moral philosophy. Conversation, reading, writing, and music are of course continually practised, and many of the pupils become adepts in the last named art, as they do in all parts of the world. Printing for the Blind. Attempts were made in the Kith century to print for the blind in intaglio, and afterward experiments were made with raised letters made to slide in grooves. In 1640 Pierre Mo- reau, a Paris notary, undertook to cast movable leaden letters, but the plan was not successful. In 1780 Weissenburg, a blind man of Mann- heim, made geographical maps in relief; and several blind Germans adopted the device of forming letters with pins in cushions. It is said that when Theresa von Paradis of Vienna returned to Paris from England in 1784, she represented musical notes with pins upon a cushion, and that from this her friend Hatty conceived the idea of embossing letters on stiff paper. As Mile, von Paradis also possessed the contrivances of Weissenburg and of Von Kem- pelen, it is probable that Hauy derived quite as many suggestions from them. It is generally stated that the first book in relief printing was Hatty's Estai ur V 'education des aveugles (Paris, 1786), which was translated into English by Dr. Thomas Blacklock, the blind poet. It ap- pears, however, from the "Annual Register" for 1762, that Mile. Salignac, a blind lady, re- ceived communications from her friends writ- ten by pricking the letters in paper with a pin, and Diderot says that Priault printed some books for her. Printing for the blind had been introduced in France for 43 years, and in Prus- sia 23 years, before it was used in England, although the mechanical arts were taught to the blind in Liverpool only seven years after the practice was commenced at Paris. James Gall of Edinburgh printed in 1827 the first book in English in relief for the blind. Mr. 98 VOL. n. 46 Gall visited London in 1829, and introduced his printing in that city. About 1832 he com- pleted at Edinburgh the Gospel of St. John, which is probably the first book of the Scrip- tures ever printed for the use of the blind. His alphabet is the common English lower case, or small letter, reduced to angles and straight lines, as follows : rStvvwxYZ. Numerals. I . In 1832 the society of arts in Scotland offered a gold medal, of the value of 20 sovereigns, for the best alphabet and method of printing for the blind. Twenty-one alphabets were submitted to the committee, 14 of which were for com- petition. Of these only four have survived. The one which obtained the medal was that of Dr. Fry, which, with slight modifications made by Mr. Alston, the treasurer of the asylum for the blind in Glasgow, are simply the Roman capitals very slightly altered, and nearly the same as those which have been until recently used at Philadelphia. One of the alphabets submitted to the committee was composed of stenographic characters, invented by Mr. T. M. Lucas of Bristol, as follows: '? c a b c (Cx< d e f O) -/ I -x" k I n fS o p q r Numer- . - als. f s t u v w x y s. J C J^^r 2 34567 890 S3 if th sh ph ch ng wh gh & This alphabet is principally used only in three of the schools in England, and partially in three others. It is said to be difficult. A few years later a phonetic alphabet was introduced by Mr. Frere, which is now taught only at Norwich. Mr. Levy remarks that "it is useful in enabling persons entirely uneducated to learn to read in a short space of time, but that it tends very much to vitiate pronunciation." Mr. Moon, who had been engaged in teaching Frere's system at Brighton, printed in 1847 a book in the following characters, which are exclu- sively used in one school in London, one in Brighton, one in Edinburgh, one in Aberdeen, one in Dublin, and one in Cork : ALC ;>rrioij<i_-i NO^- abode fghijk 1 m*h o p qrst uvwx yz chsh& 1234567 890
