BLINDNESS 770 



Accidents. Eye injuries in industrial plants 

 occur in largest numbers among workmen in 

 the iron and steel industries. Small slivers of 

 <truck off from large pieces under tin- 

 blow of the hammer, are a fruitful source of 

 trouble. If these tiny particles fly into the 

 eye and are left there they may cause serious 

 trouble, even loss of sight. Workmen thus in- 

 jured should have the particle located by 

 means of the X-ray, and see that it is imme- 

 \ extracted. In many cases these tiny 

 pieces of metal can be drawn out with a mag- 

 net. Those who have made a study of the 

 subject believe that the wearing of protective 

 glasses should be made obligatory upon all 

 workmen exposed to injuries of this nature. 



In blasting operations the premature explo- 

 sion of charges is a common cause of injury 



BLINDNESS 



to the eye. Such accidents may be due to too 

 short fuses, also to delay in explosions. In the 

 latter case the workman goes to the charge 

 to find the source of the trouble and the blast 

 meets him square in the face. Similar acci- 

 dents occur in hunting and in Fourth of July 

 celebrations, though the latter are each year 

 becoming more infrequent. Forethought and 

 ordinary care will prevent nearly all disasters 

 of this nature. 



Everyone is liable to eye injuries from dust 

 particles in the air, cinders, etc. The great 

 lesson for all is not to neglect the organ that 

 gives the priceless possession of sight. Here, 

 as in so many cases, "an ounce of prevention 

 is worth a pound of cure." Prompt measures of 

 relief should be the rule whether the eye is 

 attacked by disease or is harmed. E.E.A. 



Education of the Blind 



Sad as is the condition of the blind to-day, 

 it is happiness itself when compared with that 

 of even a hundred years ago. Up to that time 

 almost no attempt had been made to educate 

 the blind. It was assumed that they must go 

 through life dependent, unoccupied and rest- 

 less; while they may have resented the fact of 

 their blindness they could see no way to fight 

 against its consequences. 



Beginning of Movement for Education. But 

 all people everywhere could not be content 

 thus to take for granted the misfortune of the 

 blind, and in 1646 an Italian writer published 

 a book which brought to the front the question 

 whether something could not be done for them. 

 The interest aroused by this book led for a 

 long time to nothing practical and to no really 

 systematic attempt to give instruction, but in 

 1784 a Frenchman, Valentin Haiiy, opened in 

 Paris the first school for blind youth. He also 

 invented books with raised letters, which could 

 be read by the sense of touch, for investigations 

 had long before revealed the fact that this 

 sense wcs likely to be highly developed in the 

 blind. England soon took up the work, though 

 the English schools aimed at first to give 

 manual rather than literary instruction, and 

 this is still a prominent aim. 



The movement spread rapidly over Europe 

 during the early years of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, until now practically every country has 

 its schools for the blind, nearly all of them 

 residential. To-day there are over 150 such 

 institutions on the continent of Europe, largely 

 in France and Germany. 



Growth in the United States. The United 

 States schools have from the first been on a 

 somewhat different basis from those of Europe, 

 forming a part of the regular educational sys- 

 tem provided by the states, though instruction 

 is also given in special residential schools. The 

 blind have come to look upon themselves not 

 as a class apart, but as simply one division of 

 the great school-going public. Some authori- 

 ties believe that whenever possible the blind 

 should be taught with the seeing; that it is ad- 

 vantageous both to the blind and the other 

 children to be brought together at an early 

 age. Accordingly, several cities conduct day 

 school classes for their blind children. 



Education has been for the most part along 

 three lines: literary, including the branches 

 taught in most grammar and secondary schools, 

 and some not commonly taught there, such as 

 typewriting and simple business; musical, in- 

 cluding voice training and instruction on the 

 piano or other instrument, with special training 

 toward composition or teaching if the talent of 

 the pupil seems to warrant this; and industrial, 

 beginning with general manual training and 

 including training in those occupations in which 

 the blind can successfully engage, such as cane- 

 seating, broom-making, basket-making, knit- 

 ting, crocheting, housework, carpet-weaving and 

 piano-tuning. Since the sense of hearing is 

 unusually acute in the blind, they often become 

 expert in this last operation; for years the 

 pianos in the public schools of Boston have 

 been kept in tune by graduates of the Perkins 

 Institution, a school for the blind. 



