in 



BLI.N'D, CENSUS OF THE. 



BLIND, EDUCATION OF THE. 



too 



fa found. The four division! in which the lowe*t proportion* prevail 

 present a very striking contort with the above. In the West Riding 

 of Yorkshire, the proportion per cent, of the population aged 60 yean 

 and upward* is only 6, while the proportion of the blind of the *ame 

 age i* 43 per cent In Cheshire and Lancashire, the proportion on the 

 whole population is 6, that of the Wind 31 per cent lu Durham, the 

 proportion on the population is 6 per cent. ; on the blind, 52. In 

 Staffordshire, the proportion <>f the jx>]>iiLition is 6 per cent., and of 

 the blind 42. 



In the early age* of life the numbers of the blind are not large. Of 

 the 21,487 blind peraon* in Great Britain, only 2929, or less than 

 14 per cent., are under 20 year* of age, a circumstance tending to 

 how that cases of blindnem at birth are not common. Between 20 

 and 60 year* of age there are 8456 person*, or about 39 per cent of the 

 whole number; while 10,102 person*, or 47 per cent, are at the 

 advanced ages above 60. These facts point to the conclusion that blind- 

 new, in many cases, may have arisen as a natural infirmity attendant 

 upon old age, and also show the great longevity of the blind, notwith- 

 standing the accidents to which they are liable. 



It is clearly shown in one of the tables comprised in the Registrar- 

 General'a returns, that this affliction in not confined chiefly to jorticular 

 "I"*"* and trades, but exists amongst all ranks and in a great variety 

 of employments. None of the great branches of manufacturing 

 industry seem to be peculiarly liable to it ; indeed, the small num- 

 bers returned against cotton, linen, silk, woollen cloth, iron, and 

 earthenware, are remarkable when the immense amount of labour 

 employed in these manufactures is considered. Factory workers are 

 however mostly young persons, and none would be employed in the 

 midrt of machinery with any defect of vision. Amongst the items 

 which present the largest numbers in the classification of employments, 

 are (in Great Britain) : agricultural labourers, 907 ; labourers not other- 

 wise described, 512 ; Chelsea pensioners and soldiers, 586 ; Greenwich 

 pensioners, 70; farmers, 505; domestic servants (chiefly females), 438; 

 weavers, 295 ; coal-miners, 195 ; copper- and lead-miners, 68 ; stone 

 and limestone quarriers, 51. Of the class described as " annuitants," 

 and " living on alms," there are 1062 ; and 2833 blind paupers are 

 returned in workhouses without any statement as to previous occu- 

 pation. Of the blind following employments presumed to have been 

 acquired after loss of sight, there are : musicians and teachers of music, 

 535 ; mat- sacking- and net-makers, 127, and knitters, 92. With respect 

 to 2853 males and 5960 females, no returns as to their actual or previous 

 pursuits are made. 



Of the persons returned ax blind in Great Britain, 11,273 are males 

 and 10,214 females. Accidents and diseases resulting in loss of sight 

 are more likely to arise in the employments followed by males than in 

 those of females. The proportions in England and Wales are 113 

 males to 100 females ; in Scotland the difference is slighter, a result 

 probably traceable to the preponderance of aged women in that 

 country. 



The Census Report of the Commissioners on ' The Status of Disease ' 

 iu Ireland is one of the most valuable documents ever published in this 

 kingdom on the amount and distribution of disease. The inquiry wa< 

 conducted with much intelligence, and with such precautions as are 

 not usually manifested in matters of this nature. As a frit contri- 

 bution on the permanent maladies to which the inhabitants of a 

 country are liable, its importance can scarcely be over estimated, while 

 it has opened a field for investigation which will hereafter prove a source 

 of lasting benefit to science, and which cannot fail to be a means of 

 directing attention to the afflicted classes whose position it exhibits. 



According to the returns made to the Census Commission Office, 

 there were 7587 persons (3588 males and 3999 females) totally deprived 

 of nght resident in Ireland on the 30th March, 1851. Of thin num- 

 '' ber, 1672 were in the civic and 4920 in the rural districts, the former 

 localities including the different asylums and public institutions for 

 the blind ; and 995 persons (373 males and 622 females) were in the 

 various workhouses and auxiliary workhouses at the time specified. 



Without an accurate medical examination and special inquiry into 

 the circumstances of each case, it would not be possible to define or 

 tabulate the dims so* or accidents which produced the large amount of 

 blindnea* ascertained. How many were born blind there are no mean* 

 of knowing : congenital cataract, the most frequent cause of blindness 

 from birth, i* not very common ; loos of sight from purulent ophthal- 

 mia and uloeration of cornea is the most common ; and in some dis- 

 trict*, particularly in the west of Ireland, internal inflammations of the 

 eyes of a rheumatic character prevail to a great extent, and are a 

 frequent cause of blindness. 



The limited space we can devote to this subject prevents us from 

 giving Uw important Tables included in the Report, from which we 

 have drawn the above fact* and observations. To that Report all who 

 are interacted in the state of the blind in Ireland may be referred. We 

 give the bead* of the** Table*. 



Table I. shows th* number of blind in the civic and rural district* 

 and the workhouie*, together with the proportion of males to females, 

 and proportion to the population in the several province*, counties, 

 titi", and town* in Ireland. 



Table II. (how* by .-.* and aexe* the number and previous or 

 present occupations of the i 



Table III. show* by age* and *cxe* the state of education and 



marriage among the blind in workhouses and in the civic and rural 

 district*. 



Table IV. shows the number, distribution, means of support, date 

 of erection, and other circumstance* relating to the various asylums 

 for the blind in Ireland. 



Table V. (taken from the report* of St Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital, 

 Dublin, from 1844 to 1852) shows the varieties of disease* and acci- 

 dents of the eye in 11, 233 instances, together with the colour of tin- 

 eye in 7354 cases. 



(Compiled and extracted from the OjSrial Return* of the Gram* of 

 Gnat Britain in 1851, published under the authority of the Registrar- 

 General; and from The Cmnu of Inland for 1851, Rtfort 

 Stntut of Ditaue.) 



BLIND, EDUCATION OF THK. HlindneM perhaps meet > 

 more general sympathy than any other calamity. Our most beautiful 

 and correct perception* are derived through the medium of sight ; the 

 want therefore of such a medium is an evil for which no other possession 

 can compensate. Hence it is that we at first consider the bund a* an 

 unfortunate race, whose conceptions must not only be confined to that 

 narrow sphere in which they live and move, but, as far as a knowledge 

 of external objects is concerned, must be limited to that iin]>erfect 

 acquaintance which is obtained by the sense of feeling. Looking how- 

 ever further into the subject, we find that the sense of hearing in con- 

 stantly communicating knowledge to a blind person which helps him 

 to analyse and compare ; from which he draws inferences, and arrives 

 at conclusions more or less correct ; that constant experience enables 

 him to modify any false impressions which he may have received ; that 

 association, memory, and other powers of the mind are active ; that 

 the senses of smell and taste are continually contributing some small 

 additions to his stores of knowledge ; and that, by these united t 

 he may become well-informed on subjects of ordinary discourse, though 

 labouring under a disadvantage at first appearance insurmountable. 

 The self-education of a child born blind commences as soon as that of 

 one who sees ; and if parents in such cases would give themselves 

 trouble in its instruction , instead of looking upon their case as one < >f 

 despair, they would be amply rewarded by the improvement, surpassing 

 all expectation, which their child would make. They would find little 

 difficulty in communicating to him the names, shapes, and m .my other 

 particulars of objects ; and indeed language, with the exception of some 

 classes of words denoting colour, or other qualities which can only be 

 known by means of sight, might be as perfectly conveyed to him as to 

 the child possessing all its senses. They would find that they could 

 give correct ideas of numbers to a large amount by means of tamrilile 

 objects, and of still larger numbers by analogy ; that they could also 

 give ideas of time, space, distance ; so as to impress him with correct 

 notions of the earth, its size, inhabitants, productions, climates ; the 

 occupations, the pleasures, and the pains of mankind. All this in 

 knowledge of a useful and pleasing kind, and many parents w.nild 

 become highly interested in such a work ; they would soon find that 

 they might proceed still farther, and enable their blind child either to 

 attain a certain degree of perfection in some mechanical art, or. )>y 

 educating his higher faculties, train him to occupy a more intell> 

 and important station. 



The parent who reasons and acts thus upon his child's calamity, will 

 be supported and animated by the knowledge that he is supplying by 

 his <>\vn attention the defect of nature, and that he is educating his 

 child to fulfil important duties with the same pleasure to himself that 

 others have who possess a more perfect organisation, and that he is 

 ]>rmkling a most efficient check to listleasness and mental torpor. 



The ear has been happily called " the vestibule of the soul," and the 

 annals of the blind who have become illustrious confirm the remark, 

 for they show that few intellectual studies are inaccessible to them. 

 It has even been said, and has received a kind of universal assent 

 among those who have associated much with them, that in certain 

 branches of study they have a facility which others rarely posseas. 

 The blind appear to have immense advantages over the deaf ; their 

 intercourse with the outward world, by means of speech, is more direct, 

 and consequently more rapid, and their knowledge of passing events 

 is equal to that of mankind generally. The deaf and dumb tee indeed 

 all that passe* within their immediate sphere ; but owing to the cir- 

 cuitous mode of communication which they have to adopt, they can 

 know little beyond it, and enter very partially into the spirit of passing 

 events. In addition to this, finding that they do not always understand 

 perfectly, nor guess rightly, their temper becomes impatient, and their 

 countenance acquires an anxious or irritable expression, which is some- 

 times mistaken for cleverness. We know of no deaf persons who have 

 attained to any great degree of eminence, even under circumstances 

 favourable to the development of their powers ; but with regard to the 

 blind, they have enriched the art*, the sciences, and literature by their 

 succcessful pursuits, and not unfrequently under circumstances of 

 extraordinary difficulty. Viewing both these classes of men a* devoid 

 of education, dependent upon themselves for support, and for the 

 enjoyment of life, the blind are physically greater object* of compassion 

 than the deaf, because, without peculiar modes of education suited to 

 their privation, they cannot obtain a livelihood ; but so far as happiness 

 is dependent upon knowledge, and from this source some of the purest . 

 enjoyment* arise, they are nearly on a level with ordinary men. Through 

 the ear they can acquire knowledge of the highest order, and cannot 



