sition of Euclid,-whereas the smaller the diagram is made, the more easily is it felt and studied, and the less does it cost. The blind are indebted, we think, to the Rev. Mr. Taylor, of York, in England, for a plan of embossing mathematical diagrams :* but even his are larger than they need to be, and many of the problems would be more rapidly learned by the blind student, were the diagrams so small that he could feel the outlines of them with his fingers, without moving his hands.

The children are taught arithmetic, not merely orally, but the use of the slate is supplied to them by a very clumsy contrivance similar to that of Saunderson: a board is filled with numerous square holes arranged symmetrically; and into these holes types are made to fit, on the ends of which are the shapes of the figures of the units, as one, two, three, &c. so that when the learner wishes to put down 25, he searches among the types for the one which has the figure 2 upon the end; this he places upright in the square hole so that the figure is above the surface of the board, and then he searches for the figure 5, which he places in the hole to the right of it, and then, feeling of both, he reads 25. And thus any number or any combination of numbers may be put down, and any arithmetical process may be performed. This method, however, has been much simplified by a contrivance of one of the pupils in the Edinburgh school, where they use but two types instead of ten. There the types, instead of having the form of the figures at the end, have a point on one corner; and if the type is placed in the square hole, in such a way that this point is felt on the left hand corner of the upper line, it signifies one, if the type is turned, and the point is on the right hand corner of the upper line, it signifies three, if on either of the other two corners, it signifies the other two odd numbers: thus we have four figures with one type. Now there is on the other end of this type a point in the middle of one of its edges, instead of being on the corner, and this, turned to one or the other of the four sides, signifies one or the other of the four even numbers-two, four, six, eight; thus we have four odd and four even numbers with one type turned to different

-if

* 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. By the Rev. W. Taylor, Vicar of Bishop Barton. York, 1828.

sides of the square hole. Then there is a second type which has a point in the centre of one end, to signify, five, and which is smooth on the other end to signify zero. Now suppose one wishes to express 5073; he searches for the type with a point in its centre, and puts it into the square hole, so that the point is felt above the surface of the board; he then finds another type of the same kind, and putting it into the hole, the other end first, he has the smooth end of the type above the surface, which is zero, he then has down, 50; now he takes one of the other kind of type, and feeling for the point at the corner he places it in the hole, so that the point is felt in the right hand corner of the lower side, or the side towards him, to the right of the zero, it then reads 507; then taking another of the same kind of type, he puts the other end down and leaves above the surface the point in the middle of the upper side, in the situation in which it signifies 3.

Now it is evidently a very great advantage to be able to work with only two kinds of type, instead of selecting from ten; but the Parisians never dream of adopting the Scotsman's improvement; and perhaps the Scotsman will be as slow in adopting an improvement of his method by an American, but which is as evident as his improvement of the Frenchman's. It will be perceived that in running the fingers over the surface of a number of types, it may be difficult to ascertain whether the point is upon the corner, or in the middle of one edge of the type; and a mistake in this respect will ruin the whole process. In the Institution in this city, this is obviated by having an entirely different mark on the end of the type; instead of distinguishing the sign 3 from the sign 4 by its being on the corner instead of the middle of one side of the type it is marked by two points on the surface of the type; and the figure for 5, instead of being marked by a type which differs only from the rest by having its point in the centre, instead of on the corner, is marked by a sharp line drawn diagonally across it, so that the types differ from each other not only by their position, but by such a marked difference in the feeling of them, that they cannot be confounded. The arithmetical board itself has been improved by being made much more compact, by the holes being brought much nearer together, and the bulk and weight of the whole apparatus considerably diminished.

Printing for the use of the blind is carried on in the establishment at Paris, and the composition, the press work, the

stitching and the binding are all performed by the pupils, with very little assistance from les clairvoyans. In setting up and distributing the types, they are very expert, and though in the first, they require to have a seeing person to read to them, (unless they reprint from a page in relief,) yet in the latter they work perfectly well without any assistance.

The books printed by the blind have attracted much attention, and excited much observation; but to us it is really astonishing, that so little should have been done towards improving them; indeed we cannot perceive, that they are in any respect superior to those issued from the press in the very infancy of the art. It is a beautiful and most valuable invention, which enables the blind

' to look

Along the pages of a book;'

but our admiration is qualified by regret, when we think of how much improvement they are susceptible,--to what a comparative degree of perfection they might be brought, and reflect that nothing has been done towards it. The books now used are exceedingly bulky and expensive, and the New Testament would be extended to at least ten volumes of folio size, if printed entire for the blind. The French seem to have been arrested in the progress of improvement, by a blind adherence to the false maxim established by the Abbé Haüy, that in all things, il faut autant que possible rapprocher les aveugles aux clairvoyans ;' hence, say they, we must make their books resemble those of seeing persons, and print them with the same shaped letter. Now this is a foolish adherence to the letter of the rule, without regard to its spirit, even were the spirit of it correct, which is not the case. It is not possible, as it respects their books, de rapprocher les aveugles aux clairvoyans: because a blind man never can read the books of seeing persons, and seeing persons never will read those of the blind, be they printed ever so like his own: it is therefore ridiculous to adhere to our clumsy and ill shaped letters in printing for the blind. They are quite aware of this in Scotland, and Mr. Gall of Edinburgh, with a praiseworthy zeal, and at great expense, has made many experiments, and succeeded completely in avoiding the error of the French, by running into one on the opposite extreme. He has succeeded in bringing the lines much nearer together, and saves something in space on each page; but he founds his principal claim for improvement, upon the change in the shape of the letters,

which he makes entirely angular; and distinguishes one from the other by the different positions of the angles,-for instance, a triangle with the acute point turned to the left, shall signify one letter, and the same shaped triangle, with the point turned to the right, shall signify another letter. Now in this way Mr. Gall overlooks what we maintain to be an indisputable maxim in printing for the blind,-viz. make the letters to differ as much as possible from each other in shape, and do not let the difference be in position merely; and for this obvious reason, that if an acute-angled triangle shall signify a when its angle is turned to the left, and signify b when it is turned to the right, -then you require two mental processes to be carried on in the mind of the blind man before he can tell a from b; first, he has to feel the shape of the letter, he finds it is an acute angled triangle,—and having ascertained this, he must feel whether the acute angle is turned to the right or to the left, before he knows whether it is a, or b. Now it is true that the operation is carried on in an inconceivably small space of time, but nevertheless it is a space of time, and if it be multiplied by the number of letters on a page, it amounts to something; the principal objection, however, is the double mental operation which is required. Mr. Gall asserts that he has tried the experiment upon blind children, and found that they could learn his system of letters much quicker than the common shaped ones; this may be, and still his system may be a very imperfect one; but we do not place much confidence in such experiments, unless they be tried upon great numbers, and with most marked results. We have also tried the two systems, and the children who learned only one each, seemed to learn them with equal rapidity, while those who learned both, declared that they learned them with equal ease. Let us grant, however, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Gall's angular characters may be more easily learned; this by no means proves that they should be adopted. It by no means lessens the regret which every enlightened friend of the blind feels, that so much expense has been incurred, and so much pains taken to introduce a system of printing, so manifestly imperfect, since this is an objection to changing it; and we think the persons connected with the Edinburgh Institution were right in withholding from Mr. Gall their countenance and support to his plan of printing the New Testament for the blind, in a character which supplied none of the desiderata. VOL. XXXVII.-NO. 80.

6

Another system of letters has been devised by Mr. Hay, a blind man, teacher of languages in Edinburgh; but there exist as powerful objections to it as to that of Mr. Gall, viz. the size and similarity of the characters; his may be called the right lined system, while Gall's is the angular one.

But the clumsiest and most uncouth system which ever was devised, is that practised in the Glasgow Asylum; where they have letters made by different kinds of knots tied on a string, which of course must be wound up in a ball, so that the pupil must unroll the whole ball, before he comes to the part he wants. A chapter of the Testament makes a ball as large as an eighteen pound shot; and the whole Bible would require a store room as large as a church.

The art of printing for the blind is a most important and interesting subject; and there is nothing on which the man of science and ingenuity can turn his thoughts with more hope of accomplishing a desirable end, and bestowing an immense benefit on an unfortunate class of persons. The principal objection to the books now in use is their bulk and consequent expense, and the grand desideratum is to condense them; now this can only be done by throwing away our common letter entirely, and adopting a system of stenography. In this system three principles must be kept in view; first, to make the letters differ from each other as much as possible in shape; secondly, to adapt those figures or shapes which most resemble each other, to letters which do not often come together in writing, as p, q; thirdly, to express the letters which occur most often, as a, e, i, by those signs which occupy the least space, as a point.

We look confidently for the time when books may be printed for the blind in the stenographic system, which shall be nearly, if not quite as commodious and portable as those designed for our use; and we would earnestly invite the attention of those who are so nobly and so eagerly engaged in putting the Scriptures within the reach of the benighted heathen, to the claims of hundreds and thousands in our own land, who are denied the privilege of reading the Word of God, and whose situation is much more forlorn than theirs. It may be said, that the blind can have the Scriptures read to them, and therefore that they have not so much need of having them printed for their own use; but such an excuse comes with an ill grace from those who object to the Catholic religion, for the reason that it does not put the Scriptures within the reach of every