BLIND. 



lion which go to constittite the population of the 

 United Kingdom, 18,000 are blind. 



Institutions for educating and otherwise improv- 

 ing the condition of the blind, were first known in 

 FrHiice. The earliest idea of such an establish- 

 ment was conceived by Valentin Huiiy, brother of 

 Haily the celebrated French mineralogist; it was 

 suggested to him by his acquaintance with a blind 

 German lady, the Baroness von Paradis, of Vienna, 

 who visited Paris in the year 1780, and performed 

 on the organ with general applause. Haiiy repeat- 

 edly visited this ingenious lady, and was much sur- 

 prised to find in her apartments several contrivan- 

 ces for the instruction of the blind; for instance, 

 embroidered maps and a pocket printing apparatus, 

 by means of which she corresponded with von 

 Kempelen, in Vienna, the ingenious inventor of the 

 chess-player and speaking automaton, and with a 

 learned blind gentleman, named Weissenburg, at 

 Manheira. The philanthropic Haiiy compared the 

 high cultivation of these two Germans with the 

 degraded state of the blind in France, where at the 

 annual fair of St Ovide, an innkeeper had collected 

 ten poor blind persons, attired in a ridiculous man- 

 ner, and decorated with asses' ears, peacocks' tails, 

 and spectacles without glasses, to perform a bur- 

 lesque concert. Haiiy now turned bis attention to 

 the condition of the unfortunate blind, with a view 

 to its improvement. He examined the character 

 of an hospital for the reception of the blind in 

 Paiis, but found little in it to admire. This esta- 

 blishment, called the " Hospital Royale des Quinze- 

 Vingts," or the hospital of the fifteen score, was 

 instituted in 1260, by one of the kings of France 

 after his crusade to Egypt, during which so many 

 soldiers became blind by the ophthalmia prevailing 

 in that country. From the early period of 1280 

 till 1780, this institution had continued to afford a 

 refuge to never less than three hundred families of 

 indigent blind persons from all parts of France. 

 At the revolution, some of its endowments were 

 seized, and the institution threatened with ruin, 

 but it was afterwards re-established and still ex- 

 ists, on a somewhat improved plan. Besides sup- 

 porting the inmates of the hospital, two hundred 

 out-door pensioners are each allowed one hundred 

 and tit'tv francs, or Q. 5s. annually. When scru- 

 tinised by Haiiy, this large establishment did not 

 exhibit any system worthy of imitation. It was 

 little else than a charity work-house for the blind, 

 and formed, on the whole, a spectacle of dullness 

 and moral degradation. In 1784, Haiiy opened a 

 new asylum, under the patronage of the Societe 

 Pliilanthropique, and since called the " Institution 

 Royale des Jeunes Aveugles," or the Royal insti- 

 tution for the Juvenile Blind, in which he set on 

 foot that excellent course of instruction which has 

 since been copied in all quarters of the world. 

 The young inmates were instructed not only in ap- 

 propriate mechanical employments, as spinning, 

 knitting, making ropes or fringes, and working in 

 pasteboard, but also in music, reading, writing, arith- 

 metic, geography, and the sciences. For this pur- 

 pose he invented particular means of instruction, 

 resembling those with which he had become ac- 

 quainted by his intercourse with the two blind 

 Germans. For instruction in reading, he procured 

 raised letters of metal, from which, also, impres- 

 sions might be taken on paper, the impressions 

 being so' deeply sunk in the paper as to leave their 

 marks in strong relief, and which marks were felt 

 by the fingers of the pupils. For writing, he used 



particular writing-cases, in which a frame, with 

 wires to separate the lines, could be fastened ujion 

 the paper. For ciphering, there were movable 

 figures of metal and ciphering boards, in which the 

 figures could be fixed. For teaching geography, 

 maps were prepared, upon which mountains, rivers, 

 cities, and the borders of counties, were embroi- 

 dered in various ways. In the beginning, the 

 Philanthropic society paid the expenses of the in- 

 stitution, which was afterwards taken under the 

 protection of the state. 



The example thus set by France was followed 

 by Great Britain. In 1790, an institution for the 

 blind was established at Liverpool ; a second was 

 commenced at Edinburgh in 1792-3; one at Lon- 

 don HI 1800; and soon after, various other cities 

 were benefited by similar establishments. 



The Glasgow Asylum was begun as late as 1828, 

 by an endowment of 5000 by a benevolent indi- 

 vidual, (John Leitch, Esq.) It is for both young 

 and old, like that at Edinburgh, and gives a useful 

 education to a class of beings who would otherwise 

 be left without methodic instruction. It has gone 

 on, increasing in numbers and prosperity, ever since 

 its commencement, as the following table (ex- 

 tracted from the Report for 1839) will show : 



Number of Hind persons in the asylum, Glasgow, since 

 its establishment ; specifying the number each year, 

 and the proceeds for work : 



The male adults are employed in the weaving of 

 sacking-cloth, making baskets of various sizes, spin- 

 ningtwine, making and repairing mattresses, making 

 door-mats, hearth-rugs, door and table rugs, with 

 fringed rugs for parlour doors. The boys are em- 

 ployed in working nets for wall trees, sewing sacks, 

 and such work as they are found capable ot doing 

 till their education is finished, and they have ac- 

 quired strength sufficient to be put to regular 

 trades in the asylum. The female adults are em- 

 ployed in sewing, knitting, netting, spinning and 

 winding of pirns for the weavers. The girls as- 

 sist in the household work, and in addition to their 

 general education, they are instructed in knitting 

 silk purses, stockings, and caps. 



The wages are regulated in these departments 

 by the amount of work performed. They are 

 allowed the same rate that other workmen have 

 for the same kinds of work. It being ascertained 

 that a man can make seven or eight shillings per 

 week, he receives that as his weekly wages. At 

 the end of every four weeks, a statement of his 

 earnings is made up from the work-book, and what- 

 ever he has earned over that sum is paid him ; and, 

 as a reward to industry, he receives one shilling per 

 week of premium : but, if the weekly amount be 

 not kept up, or the work be badly done, there is 

 no premium allowed. 



Ever since this regulation has been adopted, a 

 marked improvement has taken place, both in the 



