302 THE BLIND 



blind, and give them an opportunity of submitting their qualifications to the judgment 

 of an accredited body, for the purpose of examination. The College is recognised by the 

 Board of Education, and certificates are issued to successful candidates. Each year the 

 executive committee choose a board of examiners from those who are recognised ex- 

 perts in teaching the blind. The College of Teachers has raised its standard of examina- 

 tion each year, and soon the children in all schools for the blind will receive an education 

 equal, or superior, to that given to normal pupils in elementary schools. 



The progress in musical education is shown by the increasing number of students who 

 take advanced musical examinations. Since 1909 two have received the Degree of Bachelor 

 of Music at Durham, and five have taken the first musical examination preparatory to this 

 degree. Seven have received their diplomas as Fellows, and fourteen as Associates of the 

 Royal College of Organists. Seven have passed the licentiate examination of the Royal 

 Academy of Music in pianoforte playing. 



A notable change in recent years has been the separation of the children of school age, 

 from the adults employed in workshops on the same premises. In several instances this 

 has meant the removal of the school from its contracted city quarters where there were no 

 playgrounds, to large open sites in the country. The "School for the Indigent Blind," 

 established in Southwark in 1799, has been removed to fine new buildings with ample grounds 

 at Leatherhead, while the workshops for adults remained in London. The Elementary 

 Department of the "Bristol School of Industry" was removed to new premises at West- 

 bury-on-Trim in 1911. In Manchester and Birmingham it was found more convenient to 

 remove the adult inmates to the country, and remodel the existing premises for the Element- 

 ary Department. 



The counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge opened a new School for the Blind 

 and Deaf-Mutes at Gorleston in 1912. 



The Kindergarten Branch of the Birmingham Institution at Harborne, and the Stafford- 

 shire Council School at Stoke-on-Trent, have erected shelters for open-air classes. 



On account of the Employers' Liability Act, it is undesirable that any child who is to be 

 regarded as weak-sighted rather than as blind, should be educated in a blind school. It is 

 also a waste of time for such children to learn to read and write by the Braille system. There- 

 fore, the London County Council have established experimental classes for children suffer- 

 ing from high myopia, the teaching being carried on jointly by the staff of the elementary 

 schools and a special teacher. In the special class, the reading, writing and arithmetic are 

 taught by means of large characters, written on a blackboard which runs round the class- 

 room. The lid of each desk forms a smaller blackboard on which the children write their 

 exercises, holding the chalk at arm's length. For oral teaching, they join with the normal 

 children in the elementary schools; their manual training is given partly by the special 

 teacher, and partly in the centres for cooking, carpentering, etc. of the Council Schools. 

 In the scheme of work provided in these experimental classes, all work likely to be detri- 

 mental to the eye is eliminated. 



There are at present 39 schools for blind children in England and Wales certified by the 

 Board of Education, with accommodation for 2,355; the total number of day schools on the 

 register for the year ending July 31, 1911, was 550. 



The British and Foreign Blind Association has done new and valuable work since Mr. 

 Henry Stainsby was appointed Secretary General in 1908. Mr. Stainsby was connected 

 with the Birmingham Institution for the Blind for 28 years, as Secretary and General 

 Manager. He brought to the work in London a comprehensive knowledge of the needs of 

 the blind, an indefatigable zeal, and great organising and business capabilities. He has 

 introduced many improvements in the method of printing books, which have largely in- 

 creased the output. Formerly each page was damped before printing, and the drying process 

 was cumbersome and lengthy. The books are now printed on specially made paper, which 

 softens as it comes in contact with the electrically heated plates, and quickly hardens as it 

 leaves them. When the first copy of the English Bible was printed in Braille (39 large fools- 

 cap volumes) every dot of the 6,000,000 letters was punched by hand on metal plates, but. 

 these plates are now produced by stereotype machines. The printing presses are driven by 

 an electric motor, and the embossed plates open and close automatically to receive the paper. 

 By the new method 6,000 pages can be embossed per hour, as against 320 by the old. 



Mr. H, M. Taylor, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, a member of 

 the Executive Committee, has established a fund for the production of scientific books; 

 each book is profusely illustrated by diagrams prepared under Mr. Taylor's supervision. 

 The cost of a set of plates for one book averages 30 which shows the great expense incurred 

 in producing books for the special needs of the blind. The recent publications include works 

 on Astronomy, Botany, Geology, Physiology, Psychology, Chemistry, Electricity, Magnet- 

 ism, Heat, Mechanics, and Acoustics. The Association issues four embossed Magazines, 

 (Progress, a Literary Journal, a Musical Magazine, and Comrades for the Juveniles); the 

 books, pamphlets, magazines, and papers published in 1911 amounted to 150,189. 



In this connection must be mentioned the great increase in the circulation of books by 



