of the Royal Commission on the Blind, the Deaf and the Dumb was published, and it would appear that the Elementary Educa- tion (Blind and Deaf Children) Act, 1893, was passed as a result. The Act made compulsory the education of blind children be- tween the ages of 5 and 16, the responsibility falling upon the local Education authority for the district in which a blind child resides. The Education of Blind and Deaf-Mute Children (Scotland) Act was passed three years prior to the English Act. Powers in respect of the continuation of the education of the blind over the age of 16 are conferred on Education authorities under the Education Act, 1902, Part II., and the Education Act, 1918. The Post Office Act, 1908, provides that a warrant may fix special postal rates for embossed literature. Regulations making ophthalmia neonatorum notifiable came into force in 1914. In May 1914 Mr. (later Sir) Herbert Samuel, as president of the Local Government Board, appointed a " Departmental Committee on the Welfare of the Blind " to consider the con- dition of the blind in the United Kingdom and the means avail- able for (a) their industrial or professional training, and (V) their assistance, and to make recommendations. This committee's report was issued in July 1917. As a result a special department dealing with the welfare of the blind was set up in the Ministry of Health, and an advisory committee appointed.
In 1920 the Blind Persons Act came into operation in the British Isles. It secures to blind persons in indigent circum- stances, on attaining the age of 50, " old-age " pensions of los. per week; it places the responsibility for the general care of the blind upon county and county borough councils and makes the registration of all charities for the blind compulsory. In Sept. 1920, the Ministry of Health appointed a committee to in- vestigate and report on the causes of blindness, including de- fective vision sufficient to impair economic efficiency, and to suggest measures which might be taken for the prevention of blindness.
In the United States statutory provision for the blind may be divided into four divisions:
(1) Laws affecting the education of the blind.
(2) The action, to be taken by the State in the creation of special commissions to be concerned in their general welfare.
(3) Various forms of relief.
(4) All other relations of the law to the blind, most of these being of an indirect character.
In most civilized countries State provision for the blind exists in a more or less adequate degree.
Statistics. Dr. Harry Best has estimated that the blind pop. of the world in 1920 numbered at least 2,390,000 persons, exclusive of those blinded in the World War of 1914-8, and he gives the following ratios per million of the pop. as far as ascertainable: Canada 449, Mexico 782, Argentina 892, Chile 800, Austria 694, Belgium 435, Denmark 527, France 706, Germany 609, Hungary 895, Ireland 982, Italy 1,175, Netherlands 463, Norway 926, Russia (European) 2,016, Sweden 664, Switzerland 722, India 1,416, Egypt 13,251, Australia 705, New Zealand 478.
The blind pop. of England and Wales, as given by the Ministry of Health, July 1920, was 30,785, or 853 per million of the population.
Education. The education of very young blind children has lately received closer attention in England by the establishment of kinder- garten schools and classes notably a model school at Birmingham, and the provision by the National Institute for the Blind of the first home in the British Empire for blind babies at Chorley Wood, Herts. This was to be followed by similar homes elsewhere. It is a fact that very few parents of blind children know how to treat them. Either they are spoiled by mistaken kindness or they are greatly neglected ; in either case the result is thoroughly bad hence the necessity of their removal to homes where they may live under the best con- ditions and may, in the hands of experts, receive a training suited to their disability. The percentage of blind children under the age of five who are mentally defective is very high, ranging from 33!% to 50%. They are unsuitable for schools for normal blind children, but are eligible for special schools for the blind at St. Leonards-on- Sea at the age of three, and at Rhyl at the age of four.
A great impetus was given to the education of the blind in England by the founding of the College of Teachers of the Blind in July 1907. The objects of the college are primarily to promote and encourage the training of teachers of the blind, to improve their status and to afford them opportunities for submitting their qualifications to the scrutiny of an accredited examining body. The status, qualifications, training, remuneration and recruitment of craft teachers of the blind receive the careful attention of the college, the question of
training being the most important. Great difficulty is experienced in securing good craftsmen who are well educated and apt at imparting their knowledge to their pupils. Until better facilities are available it is suggested that the ranks may best be filled by making careful selections from among the most expert craftsmen, and then imposing the art of teaching upon their craftsmanship. The office of the col- lege is c/o National Inst. for the Blind, 224, Gt. Portland St., W. I.
Employment. As a large percentage of blind persons had lost their sight in adult life, professional and handicraft training is necessary even up to the age of 50, after which it is rarely successful. It is generally agreed that, where practicable, blind persons should continue in the occupations which they followed before losing their sight, but where, as is usually the case, this is not feasible a selection from the occupations most suited to the blind has to be made. The following is a list of trades and occupations practised by the blind, some being suitable for the workshop, some for the home and some for either: brush-making, basket-making, mat-making, mattress- making and allied industries, cane and rush seating, boot-repairing and clog-making, carpentry and wooden-toy making, ships' fender making, netting and string-bag making, hand and machine knitting, weaving, poultry-farming, dairy work, pig-rearing, gardening, fruit- farming, news-vending, shop-keeping.
Every encouragement should be given to the employment of suitable persons in professional work; blindness obviously inflicts a lesser handicap upon the brain worker than upon the manual worker, hence the desirability of encouraging intellectual pursuits, of which the following are the most usual: Holy orders, law, politics, music, lecturing, teaching, coaching, journalism, business management, commercial travelling, organizing and secretarial work, shorthand and typewriting, insurance and other agencies, telephony, massage, and pianoforte-tuning.
Excluding professional careers it is generally agreed that the work- shop provides the best means of employing the blind, as they there obtain regular employment under skilled supervision and in many cases receive a substantial weekly bonus by way of augmentation of wages. Among the large workshops in the United Kingdom the following may be mentioned: Bradford Royal Institution for the Blind; Birmingham Royal Institution for the Blind; Bristol Resi- dential School and Workshops for the Blind ; Cardiff Institute for the Blind; Leeds Incorporated Institution for the Blind and the Deaf and Dumb; Henshaw's Institution for the Blind, Manchester; Royal Midland Institution for the Blind, Nottingham; Liverpool Workshops and Home Teaching Society for the Outdoor Blind; Royal Blind Asylum and School, Edinburgh; Royal Glasgow Asylum for the Blind; Incorporated Association for Promoting the Welfare of the Blind, Tottenham Court Rd., London.
Systems of Reading. The Braille system is used throughout the world, and can be adapted to any language or dialect. English- speaking countries use the British alphabet based on the original French alphabet devised by Louis Braille. In the United States some differences were introduced, but at the time of writing it seems most probable that a system almost identical with that common to all other English-speaking countries will rapidly come into vogue.
In addition to the Braille method of producing books for the blind the system invented by the late Dr. Moon is used to a considerable extent. It is easier to learn than Braille, but has the serious dis- advantages of occupying very much more space, and of not lending itself to the contractions which have been introduced into Braille, and which greatly add to the speed of reading. The Moon Society is now controlled by the National Institution for the Blind.
Embossed Literature.- -Great progress has been made in the methods of printing and illustrating books for the blind. In 1909 the National Institute for the Blind (then known as the British and Foreign Blind Association), through its secretary-general, Henry Stainsby, instituted exhaustive inquiries as to the best and quickest methods of printing Braille, with the result that the slow, cumber- some and unsatisfactory method of printing on wet paper gave place to the introduction of dry printing on special paper by means of fast-running electrically-driven and electrically-heated presses of the platen type. This new method of printing was found to be 15 times faster than the old method.
Book illustrations which are essentially diagrammatic rather than pictorial are printed on the same presses, the plates consisting of folded sheets of zinc upon which illustrations are embossed by means of a special machine and a variety of hand punches. The embossing through folded sheets of metal produces a perfect die and counter-die, between which the paper is embossed in the press.
The fact that many scientific books are produced in Braille must be laid to the credit of Mr. H. M. Taylor, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who invented the mathematical and chemical formulae which render their use possible. Blind students in all English-speak- ing countries owe much to Mr. Taylor for having enabled them to read by themselves books which otherwise they could only have mastered with the help of a reader.
Many magazines for the blind, designed to suit various classes of readers, are published in the United Kingdom, the principal being Progress, The Literary Journal, The Braille Musical Magazine, Comrades, The School Magazine, Nuggets, Hampstead Magazine, and Hora Jucunda. But the magazine which has the largest circula-
