1853.] OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 291 
not injure the great cause, which he had for more than thirty years 
laboured to promote. 
France had the great merit of having established the first school 
for the blind, which was founded by Valentine Haiiy, at Paris, in the 
year 1784. This example, some seven or eight years after, was 
followed by Liverpool, Bristol, London, &c.; but it is supposed that 
there are more schools, &c. for the blind in the different German 
states than in all the known world besides. 
That the blind, like others, as rational beings, have a claim to be 
educated, is beyond a doubt. But the amount of education they are 
capable of, must depend upon many things. Till within about 
sixty or seventy years, the blind were thought incapable of learning 
anything ; now however experience has shewn that there is scarcely 
any branch of education beyond their reach. All blind persons, 
except idiots, may be taught enough to lessen their affliction, if not 
to make them useful and happy. 
It was also thought that this portion of instruction could be 
acquired only in institutions for the blind, where helps and tools 
adapted to their case, are provided; but, now they are better under- 
stood, they may be, partially if not wholly, educated in their own 
family circle; and through the help of various ingenious con- 
trivances used in teaching the blind, the difference between them 
and those who see, is reduced almost to a minimum. 
The Blind may be divided into various classes, viz : — Such as are 
born blind ; those who have become blind in after life; those who 
are totally blind; and those who have a glimmer of sight. These may 
again be subdivided into males and females; young and old; rich 
and poor ; and lastly, such as are deaf and dumb as well as blind. 
Those who are born blind are very few indeed. Most who are 
thought to be so have lost their sight soon after birth, generally 
from inflammation brought on either from careless or injudicious 
exposure to the light or cold; but now, from the improved’ manner 
of treating this disease, it does not so often terminate in blindness as 
it formerly did. Moreover the facility of procuring medical aid, by 
the poor, in such cases, is much greater than it was some years ago, 
and they are more inclined to seek it. These, together with the intro- 
duction of vaccination, have greatly lessened the proportion of those 
who are blind to those who see, not only in this country, but also in 
many others—so that, from some statistical enquiries made 
in Austria, Prussia, the canton of Zurich, &c., the blind in those 
localities may be about one in 1500 or 1600, and in England perhaps 
less. In Egypt it is said to be very much greater—even one in 200.* 
Those who possess a glimmer of sight, sufficient to enable them 
to avoid posts and other obstacles, are useful in an institution, as 
guides to others, but their small portion of vision is seldom of any 
use to them in learning a trade, &c. 
* “Volney says of every hundred you meet in the streets of Cairo twenty 
will be blind and thirty more with defective sight.” 
