Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/736

 716 BLIND TABLE OP INSTITUTIONS FOB THE BLIND IN GEEAT BRITAIN AND IBELAND. NAME OF INSTITUTION. School for the Blind. Liverpool Catholic Blind Asylum, Liverpool School for the Bund, St. George's Fields, London Society ibr Teaching the Blind, St. John's Wood, London, Alexandra Institute, Oxford street, London Henshaw's Blind Asylum, Manchester. . . . Royal Victoria Asylum, Newcastle Institute for the Blind, Bath Blind School Home, Bath Institute for the Blind, Birmingham Asvlurn for the Blind, Brighton Asylum for the Blind, Bristol West of England Institute, Exeter Institute for Indigent Blind, Norwich Midland Institution for the Blind. Notting- ham Yorkshire School for the Blind, York Asylum for Industrious Blind, Edinburgh School for Blind Children, Edinburgh. . . . Asylum for the Blind. Aberdeen Asylum for the Blind, Glasgow Richmond National Institution. Dublin.. . Molyneaux Asylum for the Blind, IJublin. Ulster Society for Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, Belfast Asylum for the Blind, Cork Total. When founded. 1791 1*41 1799 1838 1863 1827 183S I860' iavr 1845 1842 1798 1S3S 1805 1S44 1833 1798 1886 1812 18-27 1810 1815 1881 1840 No. of pupill. 67 44 160 56 20 84 44 9 12 75 50 46 47 80 54 71 29 84 12 42 20 60 88 1,178 In London 23 institutions for the benefit of the blind have been established by donations and bequests. Of these the following are the prin- cipal : West's charity for the blind, to grant pensions of 5 to blind persons over 50 years of age, was founded in 1718. It assists 331 persons, the annuities amounting to 1,655. Ilethermgton's charity for the aged blind era- powers the governors of Christ's hospital to pay annuities of 10 to blind persons " who have seen better days," and who are over 60 years of age. The income from the endowment is 7,522, and from legacies and donations in 1870 there was 2,100, making a sum of 9,622, which, after deducting certain payments to Christ's hospital, is distributed among 695 blind people. The painters' and stainers' company's charities for the blind give pensions of 10 each to blind persons over 60 years of age, granted under the wills of five persons (four of them women) dated from 1780 to 1808. The sum invested is 65,375. Came's charity dis- tributed pensions of 5 each to 110 blind per- sons in 1870. The Christian blind relief socie- ty distributes about 1,000 annually among 200 blind from donations and legacies. The blind men's friend, or Day's charity, founded by the late Mr. Charles Day, grants pensions of 12, 16, and 20 to deserving blind per- sons ; the number so benefited in 1 870 was 237. The indigent blind visiting society, founded in 1834, distributes 1,530 in instructing and otherwise aiding the blind. The Jews' society distributes 1,000 annually, paying 8s. per week each to indigent blind Jews. Reading is taught in various kinds of type, those of Alston (Ro- man), Lucas (stenographic), and Moon predom- inating in Great Britain. The institutions in England are all connected with the English church, with the exception of the Roman Cath- olic school at Liverpool, but there is no exclusion on account of creed. Generally persons are only admitted from certain localities, specified in the title of the institution. The schools are mostly supported by donations, annual subscrip- tions, and legacies ; and in general the friends or parishes of the pupils pay about 10 per annum toward their maintenance. The school for the indigent blind, St. George's Fields, however, boards, clothes, and educates 160 blind persons without cost to their friends for a period of six years. The education given in most of the schools in the United Kingdom consists in reli- gious training and instruction in reading, writ- ing, arithmetic, history, geography, and music, and to a great extent the arts of making bas- kets, brushes, matting, and mattresses, knitting, netting, &c. The information contained in the following notice of European blind institutions is chiefly derived from Die Fursorge far die Blinden, by Herr Pablasek, director of the im- perial institution for the blind at Vienna, and from the work of Mr. W. Hanks Levy, before cited. France has 13 schools for the blind and one asylum, the hospice des Quime Vingts. Of the schools there is one at Paris, the old school of Hauy, and one at each of the following places : Lyons, Chameliere, Arras, Lille, Fives, Nancy, Montpellier, Rhodez, St. M(klard-les- Soissons, St. Hippolite-du-Fort, Vienne, and Marseilles. All these schools, however, afford aid to only a small number compared to those in the United States. Braille's system of read- ing and writing, and of musical notation, is generally adopted. Instruction in tuning the pianoforte receives a good deal of attention, and it is said that there are in France about 200 blind organists holding situations. The general education is not very thorough, but the branches pursued are nearly the same as in Great Britain. The industrial employments of basket making, chair bottoming, knitting, and the making of list shoes are generally adopted ; and at Nancy the art of turning is carried on to a considerable extent, some of the workmen earning 5 francs a day. The first institution for the blind in Germany was the one com- menced at Berlin by Valentin Hauy in 1806, Ilerr Zeune, the inventor of relief maps, being appointed the director. The example was fol- lowed by Dresden in 1809, by Kdnigsberg in 1818, and by Breslan in 1819. There are also institutions for the blind at each of the following towns : Gmilnd, Munich, Nuremberg, Wurz- burg, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Bruchsal, Brunswick, Halle, Mannheim, Magdeburg, Posen, Woll- stein, Duren, Soest, Kiel, Hanover, Weimar, Hamburg, Leipsic, Friedberg, Metz, Wittstock, Paderborn, Barby, Wiesbaden, Illzach, Ellwan- gen, and Frankfort-on-the Main. There is also a primary school for children at Berlin, and one at Hubertsburg. In these 33 institutions the reading is principally in the raised type of the Roman alphabet. The Bible society of Stutt-