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 EDUCATION

311

EDUCATION

cational value. Besides this, they were practically unwritable, and they provided no adequate means of musical notation. Fortunately, when the various line-types were found deficient, and a strong protest by the intelligent blind in Europe and in the United States was raised against them, a new system was dis- covered, which possessed all the requisites which were lacking in the line-letter prints. This new system is known as Braille. Its invention by Louis Braille, a blind pupil of the Institution des Jeunes Aveugles of Paris, marked a new epoch in the history of the educa- tion of the blind. The original idea of a point-print was derived by Louis Braille from Barbier, who sug-

gress in the education of the blind. From the day when the system was finally adopted in the schools of France, England, Germany, the United States, and other countries, the Braille has undergone various modifications; hence a variety of Braille systems, which have caused even greater confusion than the diversity of the earlier Roman styles of embossed lit- erature. As late as 22 April, 1902, in an addre.ss made at the conference held at Westminster on matters re- lating to the blind, Mr. William H. Illingworth, head- master of the Royal Blind Asylum and School, West Craigmillar, Edinburgh, spoke as follows regarding the diversity of Braille alphabets and the desirability of a

NEW YORK Point alphabet.

o •• b !•• c

d •: i

5 ..: (i .« I : J "* k

p •.. q :.. I* .: s •• t. u ... V V Number si'Sri ::: Numerals i :: i-

7 .- 8 *. 9 : • Wor*d and Pad

and •:. of .•: that *.*. i»i5 .:• cfi :•.

wd :•• Ph ::• 3Pi "' Explanation of Punctuation Marfcs Comma* Semi-colon. Colon:. In- tiVfo^cLtion ••■ Dash.... Pej'iod :•• Exclamcition .: Pafin- tPiisis :• Quotation :.. APostroPtif :•*; HVPtien :•:•

I ^ m :* n .. o ^ w ..• X J.: y .•. z

3 .: A " ^ '' 6 '

WofdSiSns tPt£.

oil "s Sfl .:. tfl :

gested a combination of points arranged in a rectangle ^twelve points in two vertical columns of six each. The most conspicuous, though not most radical, de- fect was the large and imwieldy size of the signs, which could not be covered with the finger. Another drawback was the great waste of space. As the " cell ", or rectangle, was of fixed size, if a letter was represented by a point in one corner, all the rest of the space was left blank. This was observed by Braille, who reduced Barbier's rectangle one-half; thus he limited the number of the points to six instead of twelve. The six points in Braille are arranged in two vertical rows of three each. By the omission of one or more of the points sixty-three distinct signs are formed, to represent the entire alphabet, accents, Arabic numerals, marks of punctuation, word- and part-word signs, as well as a system of algebraic and musical notation. Of these sixty-three characters, ten are called fundamental signs, and form the basis of all the rest by the addition of one point in some part or other of the " cell" either to the fundamental signs or to the series forined from them. The chief advan- tages of the Braille system are: (1) its simplicity and easy acquisition; (2) its "tangibility", orefTiciency in impressing the sense of touch, enabling the blind not only to read but also to write; (.3) its adaptability to both the writing and printing of a system of musical notation.

In spite, however, of its evident advantages, many years went by before the new system obtained recog- nition, even in countries where, for lack of " tangibil- ity" in the existing systems, the use of books in the class-room had been almost unknown. It is quite pos- sible that the slowness and reluctance in the adoption of Braille wcio due to the fact that institutions for the blind had been .so widely separated in dates of origin and in Ideality that the need of unityof action and conimu- iiily (if iiitcn-st was but slowly realized. In many cases prfjiKlicc, petty jealousy, and obstinate attachment to thtHiiies long since proved false, account for the un- yielding attitude towards improved methotls, which has often stood in the way of true and uniform pro-

uniform system: "Out of a chaos, born of conflicting opinions and petty jealousies, combined with an almost incredible amount of apathy, indifference and indecision such as exists in the Braille world, it would be impossible by any means short of a miracle to create or to formtilate such a scheme. . . . We hear often and are treated to examples of ' English as she is spoke', but I venture to think that for variety and specimens of the grotesque, this pales into insignifi- cance before 'Braille as she is wrote'. Though the time may be quite ripe for a serious attempt being made to improve the existing state of matters, it will require years of patient thought and interchange of opinion, absolute singleness of purpose and charitable, sympathetic self-abnegation to devise a perfectly uni- form and practical system, and make the Braille — if that system be the very best system — as perfect and simple as possible and as worthy to be the tangible exponent of the most powerful and imiversally spoken language of modern times."

New York Point (see cut). — The claim to being, in the words of the writer quoted above, a system " as perfect and simple as possible and as worthy to be the tangible exponent" of the English language can justly be made for the punctographic system known as New York Point, or the Wait system, unquestionably the most perfect form which the idea suggested by Bar- bier and rescuetl from oblivion by Louis Braille has as yet attained. This system is a genuine American product, the outcome of years of patient thought, of indefatigable labour, and of absolute singleness of pur- pose. To Mr. William B. Wait, for upwards of forty- three years at the head of the leading institution for the blind in the Ignited States, is due the creilit of the originat inn, development, const ruction, and application of the litiTary, iiuisical, and mathematical codes of (he New York Point System. The genesis of this new punctographic system is the result of a desire on the part of Mr. Wait to improve the Braille by remodel- ling it, on principles of compactness and economy of time and space. Careful study, however, of the struc- ture and application of Braille led to the conclusion