General Science. 
195 
BO supposable system of tangible figures significant of thought^ 
that is not more or less liable to the same objection. The in- 
ventors are aware, that among the different methods by which 
.people at a distance might be enabled to hold mutual intercourse 
through the medium of a language addressed to the touch, there 
are some that would doubtless bp more expeditious than theirs ; 
.but they flatter themselyes, that when nil the adyantages and 
disadyantages of each particular method are duly considered, 
the plan which they haye been led to adopt will appear, upon 
ihe whole, decidedly the best. There can scarcely be any sys- 
tem, of tangible signs, which it would be less difficult either to 
learn or to remember ; since a person of ordinary intellect may 
easily acquire a thorough knowledge of the string-alphabet in an 
hour, and retain it for eyer. Yet the iny enters can assure their rea- 
ders, that it is impossible for the pen or the press to cony ey ideas 
with greater precision. Besides the highly important properties of 
simplicity and accuracy which their scheme unites, and in which 
it has not been surpassed, it possesses various minor, nor yet in- 
considerable, advantages, in which, it is presumed, it cannot be 
equalled by any thing of its kind. For example, its tactile re- 
presentations of articulate sounds are easily portable,-— the ma- 
terials of which they are constructed may always be procured 
at a trifling expence, — and the apparatus necessary for their 
construction is extremely simple. In addition to the letters of 
the alphabet, there have been contrived arithmetical figures, 
which, it is hoped, will be of great utility, as the remembrance 
of numbers is often found peculiarly difficult. Palpable com- 
mas, semicolons, .&c. have likewise been provided to be used, 
when judged requisite. The inventors have only to add, that, 
sensible of the happy results of the invention to themselves, and 
-commiserating the fate of their fellow-prisoner^ of darkness, 
they most earnestly recommend to all entrusted with the educa- 
tion of persons deprived of sight, carefully to instruct them in 
the principles of orthography, as the blind beipg in general un- 
able to spell, is the chief obstacle to their deriving from the new 
mode of signifying thought, the much wanted benefit which it 
is designed to extend to their melancholy circumstances. — Such 
as are desirous of further information respecting the String Al- 
phabet, &c, may obtain it by applying to David Macbcath, 
