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representation, by the projection of the burs where the points 

 have penetrated, and this embossed character may be distin- 

 guished, and consequently read by the touch.' In its out- 

 ward appearance, the whole apparatus of Mr. Gibson forms a 

 small piece of cabinet furniture. When the top is thrown 

 open an even surface of cushion presents itself. Upon this 

 there is a Hat piece of mahogany about an inch broad, which 

 can be moved from one notch to another, to any part of 

 the desk. This is for the letters to lie against, like the com- 

 posing-stick of a printer. The letters he uses are a com- 

 position of tin and lead ; the upper surface is elevated so 

 that he can distinguish the letter, and the under surface has 

 inserted in it needle-points of the shape of the letter on the 

 upper surface. In writing the Lord's Prayer, after the 

 paper is placed, he takes O out of its division, and puts it at 

 the beginning of the line, then U, then R, gently pressing 

 each letter down, as he puts it next the preceding one. At 

 the end of a word he inserts a small mahogany space, and 

 proceeds till his performance is complete ; whether it be a 

 copy of any thing which he wishes to make, or an original 

 piece of composition. It will be observed that, by putting two 

 or more pieces of paper underneath his pointed types, copies 

 will be multiplied. The letters are in small divisions, which 

 occupy side-drawers in his printing cabinet. The use of 

 this machine implies more knowledge than the uneducated 

 blind possess, as they must know how to spell. However, it 

 is a part of its object to teach spelling. For this communi- 

 cation to the London Society for the Encouragement of 

 Arts, &c., Mr. Gibson was presented with the gold Vulcan 

 medal of the Society. Another of Mr. Gibson's inventions, 

 which has not been made public, may be here noticed. It 

 forms a drawer of the cabinet above-mentioned, and is in- 

 tended for working the rules of arithmetic. This Mr. G. calls 

 his slate. It is divided into rows by elevated slips of wood, 

 along which the figures are to slide. Like the types they 

 are formed of metal, but have no needle-points underneath. 

 We have seen him perform examples in multiplication and 

 other rules by this apparatus, which is simply and beauti- 

 fully conceived. It is obvious that all the elementary opera- 

 tions in arithmetic may be performed by it, and that by the 

 union of this and the writing apparatus, a blind person may 

 write his own letters, and keep his own accounts. We 

 have dwelt upon the subject of reading and writing for the 

 blind, feeling that they are deserving of all the importance 

 which can be attached to them. We return to the early 

 methods pursued in this art. 



Embossed maps and globes for teaching geography would 

 naturally be suggested to those persons who were engaged 

 in teaching reading to the blind by raised figures. M. 

 Weissembourg, a blind man of Mannheim, appears to have 

 been the first person who made relief-maps ; up to which 

 time the instruction given to the blind on geography was j 

 merely oral. Various methods for producing maps of this 

 character were employed, but at first without success ; after 

 a time however the chief difficulties were conquered, and a 

 process which is minutely described by Dr. Guillic has sup- 

 plied all the maps which have been in use at the Parisian 

 institution to the present time. The map of a country is 

 pasted upon thick pasteboard, a wire is then bent round the 

 curves of the coast, and along the courses of the rivers ; these 

 wires are fastened down, and a second map in every respect 

 similar to the first is pasted over it ; when this is pressed, the 

 windings of the wire will be easily traced by the touch. It 

 is stated in the ' North American Review,' No. Ixxx., that an 

 improvement has been made in the manufacture of maps 

 for the blind, which 'consists in having a metal plate en- 

 graved with all the lines, elevations, boundary-marks, posi- 

 tions of towns, &. ; from this plate impressions are struck 

 in pasteboard, which produce a perfect embossed map.' It 

 has sometimes occurred to us that the geographical reliefs 

 of Kummer, of Berlin, might be rendered useful in the 

 instruction' of the blind. The wider a useful invention can 

 be spread, the cheaper it will be afforded. There is a short 

 notice of Kummer's reliefs in the first Number of the 

 ' Quarterly Journal of Education,' p. 190. 



Palpable methods have also been adopted for making the 

 blind acquainted with different branches of astronomical 

 knowledge, and, in addition to raised maps of the heavens, 

 various ingenious instruments have been contrived to further 

 their progress in the science of astronomy. The application 

 of such apparatus to the purposes of teaching has been at- 

 tended with encouraging success. We shall detail some of 

 the methods pursued in teaching arithmetic when we speak 



of the Edinburgh Institution, where the well- known inven- 

 tion of Dr. Saunderson has been so much improved that, 

 by its means, any operation may be readily performed. For 

 a description of the original invention, which was the 

 united work of Dr. Moyes and Dr. Saunderson, we refer to 

 the article ' Blind ' in Refes's Cyclopedia, or in the Ency- 

 clopaedia Britannica. By the improvements which we 

 shall describe, it will be seen how greatly the simplicity of 

 the contrivance has been increased. Previous to these tan- 

 gible methods of teaching arithmetic the blind were in- 

 structed on this subject orally, the process on their part being 

 entirely mental. A publication of late years, which is in- 

 tended exclusively for the blind, is of a higher character and 

 aim than any that have preceded it, though not one which 

 will generally be considered as equal to many of those men- 

 tioned, in point of utility. The work to which we allude is an 

 elementary treatise on mathematics by the Rev. William 

 Taylor of York, called 'The Diagrams of Euclid's Elements 

 of Geometry, arranged according to Simpson's edition in an 

 embossed or tangible form, for the use of blind persons who 

 wish to enter upon the study of that noble science,' York, 

 1828. As a means of leading to the acquisition of a science 

 for which some blind persons have shown a predilection, we 

 welcome the appearance of this beautifully-executed work, 

 and we hope that the blind generally who show a superior 

 aptitude for the exact sciences, even though instructed in a 

 degree at the public expense, will have all the advantages 

 which works like Mr. Taylor's aided by good instructors can 

 confer. ' 



Several centuries ago the blind were sufficiently taught 

 to show that the privation under which they labour is no 

 considerable obstacle to high attainments. Manual helps 

 were contrived by some of the earliest learners to assist 

 them in obtaining various kinds of knowledge ; but it would 

 be more curious than useful to trace the progress of the art 

 during its infant state. It will be enough for us to refer to 

 the period when public interest was excited, and when 

 public beneficence promised to confer enduring advantages 

 on those whom accident or disease had deprived of sight. 

 The instruction of the blind, as an art, is of very modern date, 

 and all the improvements which have been effected on the 

 earlier methods are the work of our own days. The blind, 

 as a body, can scarcely be considered as having derived much 

 benefit from the means which have been taken to ameliorate 

 their condition. Several causes have contributed to prevent 

 the diffusion of that experience which has been found suc- 

 cessful. Among these may be mentioned the want of a 

 union of purpose and principle among those persons in 

 whom the management of asylums has been vested, the 

 distance of the various asylums from each other, the small 

 number of such establishments, and an ignorance of the fact 

 that so large a number of the blind are intermingled with 

 our seeing population. But there is reason to hope that 

 some of these causes will not exist much longer. Within 

 the past year two new institutions have been announced in 

 populous districts of our own country, and several abroad ; 

 and two of our older asylums are extending their benefits to 

 a greatly increased number of objects. 



Institutions of a philanthropic tendency have frequently 

 originated with members, individual or collective, of learned 

 societies ; and such societies have lent their assistance and 

 patronage to various efforts for advancing the condition of 

 mankind, and removing the obstacles to improvement. The 

 attempts of M. Haiiy to systematize a plan for the education 

 of the blind are the first which are deserving of especial 

 notice. His methods were submitted to the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris, where they received all the encourage- 

 ment he looked for. The commissioners chosen to report upon 

 the means which he proposed to employ suggested to the 

 Academy not only to bestow its approbation upon M. Haiiy, 

 but also to invite him to publish his methods, and to assure 

 him of their readiness to receive from him an account of his 

 future progress. It appears that many of the plans recom- 

 mended by Haiiy in his ' Essay on the Education of the 

 Blind' were not so much his own inventions as adaptations 

 of the ingenious contrivances of individuals of different 

 ages, and in different countries, who had preceded him in 

 this benevolent work. The celebrity of certain blind indi- 

 viduals, partly the result perhaps of pains-taking teachers, 

 and partly of their own highly-gifted minds, had reached 

 the ears of Haiiy. By a happy exercise of benevolence and 

 talent, aided by that enthusiasm without which the greatest 

 labour is ineffectual, he formed the outline of a system of 



