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 EDUCATION

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EDUCATION

publication of books as was made by the United States Government, when by an act of Congress (3 March, 1879) the sum of §250,000 was set apart as a perpetual fund, the interest of which (§10,000) is expended each year in printing and distributing suitable books among the institutions for the blind in the United States. Mainly as a result of this provision, the number of volumes distributed among the thirty-nine school libraries amounts, according to the Annual Report of the Department of the Interior for 1902, to 105,804 volumes, an average of 2713 volumes per school. In France and in England, it must be admitted, there is far greater individual co-operation and a more gen- erous interest displayed in furthering the extension of libraries for the blind than in the United States. Thus the " Association Valentin IIauy"of Parishad,in 1905, on its list of voluntarj- writers of books for the blind the names of 1 150 persons who embossed in Braille and donated in that year to the "Bibliotheque Braille", for its forty-nine travelling libraries, 1533 volumes. In the same year the British and Foreign Blind Asso- ciation of Loniion was indebted to 574 generous per- sons who gave valuable time in writing Braille books for the blind.

Cntholic Literature for the Blind in the United States. — Before 1900, with the exception of a small catechism and Cardinal Gibbons' "Faith of Om- Fathers", there were no Catholic books for the blind to be had in this country. To supply this long-felt want, which, with the dearth of Catholic schools for the blind, has re- sulted in the loss to the Church of thousands among the Catholic blind, the writer of this article foimded, in January, 1900, a society whose aim it is to place gratuitously within the reach of the blind throughout the United States Catholic literature embossed in the Wait, or New York Point, print. With the assistance of a few devoted ladies, who helped to raise the neces- sary funds, a printing plant was equipped and has been in operation ever since. The society was incorpo- rated in March, 1904, untler the name of " The Xavier Free Publication Society for the Blind of the City of New York". Although from its inception the society has been dependent for the maintenance of its work upon donations and annual subscriptions, still, with the encouragement and blessing of the Catholic hier- archy, the deep appreciation and gratitude of thou- sands of Catholic blind throvighout the country, and the generous help of its benefactois, it has been enabled to pursue its beneficent object for the moral and intellectual elevation of the Ijlind. Since its foun- dation, thousands of volumes of Catholic literature, embracing a.scetical. Biblical, biographical, doctrinal, and historical works, as well as works of general litera- ture, of fiction, and of poetry, have been placed in up- wards of thirty-seven state, city, or institute lil)raries for general and free circulation among the blind. The publications of the society are also circulated through- out the country from its own central library. " The Catholic Transcript for the Blind", a monthly maga- zine, published by the Xavier Free Publication So- ciety for the Blind since 1900. is so far (1909) the only Catholic periodical embossed in the English language.

Catholic Literature in England. — It is only within the last five years that, through the initiative of the Hon. Mrs. G. M. Eraser, who taught Braille to most of the writers, upwards of four hundred liooks ha\'e been hand-tj'ped by voluntary workers and placet! at the disposal of the Catholic Truth Society of London for circulation among the Catholic blind in Great Britain. This work would*not have been undertaken had it been po.ssible to get Catholic books at the great English libraries for the blind.

The Blind-Deaf. — .\ccording to the special reports of the Ignited States Census Office for 1900, of the 64,703 persons reported as blind, 2772, or nearly 43 per 1000, were fovmd to be also deaf. The age of the oc- currence of these two defects cannot be stated exactly,

except for those blind and deaf from birth, of whom there are 7G. Between birth and five years of age are 04; between five and nine, 54; between ten and four- teen, 37 ; between fifteen and nineteen, 24. That the public, and even professional educators, entertain in- correct views on the education of this class of sufferers has been sho'mi by Mr. William Wade in his interesting monograph, ''The Blind- Deaf". For this excellent publication, and still more for his widespread and munificent charity to the blind-deaf, and particularly to the deaf and dimib and blind of this country, Mr. Wade's name deserves to be forever enshrined in the hearts of this doubly and trebly afflicted class. The knowledge by the public that the education of the blind-deaf is by no means the difficult task cominonly beheved, and the fm-ther knowledge of the number of those who have been educated and of their advanced position in mental attainments, will do much, it is contended by the author of the monograph, to advance the interests and the happiness of the blind-deaf. " In the early education of the blind-deaf", we are told by Dora Donald, "there are three distinct periods. In the first the pupil receives impressions from the mate- rial world. The mind of a blind-deaf child does not differ from that of a normal child ; given the same opportunity, it will develop in the same way. Whilst the normal child discovers the world through the five senses, the world must be brought to the blind-deaf child and imparted by the teacher through the sense of touch. During the second period the child is taught to give utterance to his conceptions. This may be done either through the sign language, the manual alphabet of the deaf, or through one of the systems of raised print for the blind, if articulated speech cannot be taught the child. The third and bj' far the most difficult step is that of procuring mental images from the printed page. If the child has been thoroughly trained in the habit of personal investigation, if he has been taught to express freely the results of such in- vestigation by means of the manual alphabet and to record them in print, he will eventually be able to reverse the process and to build about him an imagi- nary existence that will cause the printed page to teem with life and to glow with the charm of actual existence. At this stage of the child's education, he may enter either a school for the deaf, a school for the blind, or the common school for normal children. Supplied with the necessary apparatus and accompanied by a teacher who will faithfully translate all that he might obtain through sight and hearing, he may be taught by the same methods used for normal children, ever keep- ing in mind this one point of difference — touch must take the place of sight and hearing; the manual alpha- bet or embossed page being substituted for speech."

Neovin, Cwcus de Colore Judicans (Jena, 16S2); Trink- Husius, Dissertaliuncula dc CfBcis (Genoa, 1672); Guilbeac, Histoire de V Instilution Nationale des Jeunes Aveuffles (Paris, 1907); Arnould, Une dme en prison (Paris, 1904): de la SizER.^NNE, Les sacurs aveugtes (Paris, 1901), tr. by Leggatt, The Blind Sisters of St. Paul (New York, 1907); Id., Les aveugtes par un aveugle (Paris, 18S9): Buisson, Dictionnaire de pedagogic (Paris, 1887); Mell. Encyklopadisches Handbuch des Blinden- wcsens (\'ienna. 1900); JIerle, Bas Blinden BUdungs-Wesen (Norden, 1887); Heller. Studien zur Blindcnpsychologie (Leip- zig, 1904); VlGNALi. La Educazione del Ciechi (Florence, 1903); Lana-Terzi, Prodromo alV .\rte ilacstra (Brescia,1670); Illings- woRTH. Past and Present Methods of Educating the Blind; Levy, Blindness ami the Blind (London. 1872); Gall, Literature for the Blind (Edinburch, 1834); Report of the Conference on Matters Rrlaling to the Blind (Westminster, 1902); Armitage, The Edu- cation and Emploijmcnt of the Blind (London, 1886); Ann}tal Reports of .American Institutions for the Blind; Report of the .\'ew York Slate Cammi.<sion to Investigate the Condition of ttir Blind (Albaiiv. 1906); Anagnos, Education of the Blind (Boston, 18S2); \Vade, The Blind-Deaf (2nd ed., Indianapolis, 1904).

Joseph M. Stadeljian.

Education of the Deaf and Dumb. — Education essentially inclutlcs tlic process of encouraging, strengthening, and guiding the faculties, whether of mind or body, so as to make them fit an<l ready instru- ments for the work they have to do; and, where the