TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 171 
The branches taught are English, reading, grammar, geography, 
history, elementary outlines of science, Bible training, writing, arith- 
metic, mental and by pen, mental and written correspondence, architec- 
tural drawing, to which are added in the private classes, Latin and 
practical mathematics. Fee for the infants, 2s. per quarter, and for juve- 
nile classes, 3s. per quarter. The private model class for the middle 
society, 1/. 1s.; initiating, and others more advanced, 2/. 2s. per 
quarter. 
The period of attendance by the teachers who receive instruction 
in the art of teaching is six months, but it is intended to extend it to 
twelve months; the average number attending is between forty and 
forty-five, and 602 male and female teachers have been instructed, and 
received appointments in Great Britain, Ireland and the Colonies. 
Fee, 3/. 3s. each student. 
The various classes are under the charge of masters, and a rector 
and four masters are specially appointed for the instruction and the 
training of the Normal students. The students are required, previous 
to admission, to produce certificates of moral character. 
The Normal Seminary is under the same superintendence in reli- 
gious matters as the parochial schools of Scotland, and the children 
of parents of all religious denominations are freely admitted, and no 
questions asked. 
The Normal Seminary has cost 15,000/., of which Her Majesty’s 
Government granted 4500/.; 3500/. has been obtained by private sub- 
scription, and the remaining 7000/. stands as a debt on the property. 
On the Glasgow Asylum for the Blind. By Mr. Auston. 
By the system of printing in relief in Roman letters, adopted in this 
institution, an easy method is opened of communicating information to 
the blind. After the pupils have acquired a knowledge of the shape of 
the letters of the alphabet, words of two or three letters are submitted 
to their touch. They are then made to feel the words with two or 
three of their fingers on adjoining letters, by which means they are 
able to decipher two or three letters at once, which, by practice, will 
give a dexterity and fluency to their reading. They are then taught 
orthography, and next proceed to study the derivation of words and 
their relation to each other. By this system of tuition, the sense of 
touch becomes the channel through which instruction is conveyed to 
the understanding and the memory. The branches of education taught 
in this Institution are reading, English grammar, arithmetic, geography, 
and the elements of astronomy and geometry, music, &c. At present 
there are above twenty individuals, whose ages vary from ten to 
twenty-two years, who can read; and the attainments of some of them 
will bear a comparison with those of the same age and time under 
tuition who are in possession of every natural advantage. One of these 
is a young woman, who, after being educated in the Institution for the 
