Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/742

 722 BLIND BLIND FISH complete. But no one who has ever really known an educated blind man in society will again incline to such an opinion. It is true that the deaf mute can see all that is going on around him, but he can mostly only take an im- perfect part in it. From the world of sweet sound he is utterly barred out, while the divine gift of speech is entirely denied him ; but the blind man enters into the society of his fellow men as freely as if gifted with the keenest vis- ion. The whole world of sound is open to him with all its special speaking, joy, and beauty ; the silver paradise of music opens to him her fairy gates, a new guide takes him by the hand, and under her glowing, joyous sway he travels swiftly to the land where faith is even greater than sight." In the cases of such men as Saun- derson, Huber, Zisca, Dr. Blacklock, and others, it may be believed that scarcely any calamity not involving the loss of mental health would have hindered the development of their innate greatness. That a blind boy should ever come to occupy the chair in a university once held by Newton, that a blind youth should successfully prosecute investigations in afield of natural his- tory which required the most careful observa- tion, or that it should be said of a man, as it was of Zisca, that "he was more dreaded by the ene- mies of his country after he became blind than before," must ever be matter of wonder and admiration. A list of the most famous blind persons mentioned in history and others of eminence will be found in the preceding table. Of the living blind men in the United States who have become distinguished as authors and teachers may be mentioned the Eev. William H. Milburn, a pulpit orator of much power, and author of a book called " Rifle, Axe, and Saddlebags," and several other popular works; William H. Churchman, the present able super- intendent of the institution for the blind at Indianapolis ; J. M. Sturtevant, superintendent of the institution for the blind at Nashville ; Otis Patten, superintendent of the institution for the blind at Little Rock ; the Rev. Patrick Lane, superintendent of the institution for the blind at Baton Rouge ; and the Rev. Adam McOlellan of Brooklyn. BLIND, Karl, a German political agitator, born in Mannheim, Sept. 4, 1820. While study- ing law in Heidelberg he was twice arrested for political offences, and spent several months in grison. He was banished from Germany for is participation in the republican rising under Hecker in the spring of 1848, and while plotting with Struve and other exiles, he was expelled from Alsace by order of Gen. Cavaignac on a charge of abetting the Paris insurrection of June. Joining Struve in the September move- ment, he was with him captured after the fight at Staufen, in S. Baden, and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment at Bruchsal. Liberated after eight months by a revolutionary mob, he went to Carlsruhe, whence the grand duke had fled ; but Brentano, whom he accused of secretly working for the restoration of the de- posed dynasty, soon got rid of him by sending him as a plenipotentiary of the provisional government of Baden and the Palatinate to Paris. There he was accused of encouraging the rising of June 13, 1849. Expelled from France in August, he went to Brussels, but was obliged to leave that city also in 1852, and established himself in London, where he for a long time continued his political agitations through the press of various countries. After the events of 1866, however, his revolutionary ardor abated. He was pardoned by the Baden government in 1867. In 1872 he published a pamphlet entitled "Away with the House of Peers," which was exclusively circulated in Berlin. lil.lM) FISH, the common name of several species of fish, of different genera, living in the subterranean waters of the United States and Cuba ; but especially of the amblyopsis spelceus (De Kay) of the Mammoth cave of Kentucky. In some of the lamprey-like fishes the eyes are Blind Fish (Amblyopsis spelseus). mere specks, serving only for the simple per- ception of light, without the formation of an image ; many catfishes (siluridai) have similar rudimentary eyes, entirely unfit for purposes of vision. In the Mammoth cave these fishes are nearly colorless, while the blind catfishes retain the general dark color of other members of the family. The common blind fish comes nearest to the cyprinodonts and the shore min- nows. They are rather solitary, difficult to capture by the net from the acuteness of their senses of hearing and touch, and look like ghosts in the water ; they are very active, tak- ing their food both at the surface and near the bottom, and are able to capture a rapid-mov- ing mudfish (melanura), having eyes, living in the same waters ; the blind fish, with its sen- sitive tactile organs, is able to pursue and over- take the fish with eyes, but without a highly developed sense of touch, and which con- stantly encounters obstacles in the darkness. They are viviparous, bringing forth their young in September and October; they vary in length from 2 to 4^ inches. The head of amblyopsis