The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-12
HOW THE BLIND READ.
The Sense of Vision Superseded
by That Of Touch.
Something About the Invention of EN-
bossed Printing The First English
Book in English Raised Letters
The Point" System of To-Day.
Especial Letter.l

!
| Especial Letter.l
| In this nineteenth century. that
! teens with the visible evidences Of
wonderful progress in all the arts and
sciences, when the products OF the best
genius and civilization of the world
| will be exhibited at the great Column
bian exposition, the grandeur and or
nate magnifcence of which the bright
est human eye is inadequate to per-
ceiye, it is pitiful to contemplate the
fact that there are thousands of hui
man beings who are bereft of the price
less boon CT seeing and must be con-
tent with the mental transports that
come through communion with those
who are permitted to see this revela-
ton of the centuries. The sun Of ma
ture never shines for them. They are
in perpetual darkness. They go in
and out and hold communication, with
varied forms and invisible speech, by
the way of the velvet road of feeling
or along the sounding strand of hear
ing, but the crystal gates are closed
With the eyes Of the understanding
they come down to the avenues OF en-
trance into the world of light, but
there they stand and wait and feel and
listen.
The genius Of man has been slow TO
grapple with the problem of devising
practical methods for the successful
instruction of the blind.
Manifestly the first consideration in
devising scheme that will enable the
blind to acquire knowledge is the con-
trivance of a system of printing and
writing that will enable them to read
and write without the sense of sight.
The sense of vision is a prerequisite
to an adequate conception Of the ma
ture and relationship of our environ
ments. It is the sense most frequently
brought into requisition by the human
mind, and contributes more largely
than any other to our happiness.
A close study of the natural laws that
govern the operation of the perceptive
faculties will reveal the fact that the
loss of this important sense of sight
sharpens and accelerates the mental
processes to phenomenal degree.
Bereft of the sense of vision the hu
man mind is forced to depend upon that
other most important function, closely
allied to it in our physiological econo-
my, the sense OF touch. 1t is beauti-
full and provident dispensation of the
all-wfse Father that the sense of touch
IN his slightest children should have
been endowed with susceptibilities of
high order. To the person that is
born blind the idea of something ex-
ternal to ourselves rests almost entire
" upon the sense of touch. The seat
Of this sense is the outaneous surface
of the body, which consists of concen-
trio rows of small, conical elevations
known as papillae, in which the nerve
fibers terminate. and which, when de-
veloped to condition of acute sensi-
bility, transmit to the brain the nature
of the object with which they come in
contact with the certainty and velocity
of the electric current. On the palmer
surface of the hand, particularly at the
tips of the fingers, these papillae are
more sensitive than at any other point
on the surface of the body, except at
the tip of the tongue.
It was d natural sequence of these
facts that the earliest efforts of the
educators of the blind were directed
toward the invention of a system of
raised, or embossed, letters, that would
enable the blind to read easily and
quickly by the sense of touch.
The earliest recorded instances of
reading by the sense of touch are
found in the history of some South
American tribes who read by a system
of strings tied with numerous knots OF
different sizes and at various distances
apart, all of which had some alpha
betical significance When the Span
iards invaded Peru they found these
masses of woole n strings and knots Sc
curely stored away in bstantially-
constructed boxes.
Instructors of the blind who have
made study of the advancement made
in systems of printing and writing are
pretty generally united in according to
the French people the honor of being
foremost in the work of embossed
printing. The ingenious French had
Drought IuiS dTG 10 q TcuidFhd Dte GS-
gree of perfection almost half CEN
fury before work of this kind was done
in England and at least quarter OF
century before any was done in Ger
many. The French schools for the
blind are the oldest and among the
best in the world.
The growth and gradual perfection
of a successful system of embossed
printing and writing precipitated a
never-ending controversy in regard to
the relative merits of various alpha
bets. Naturally the first thought was
to construct series OF raised letters
that should be similar in form to the !
letters OF the English alphabet but
with certain notifications that should /
simplify them and adapt them more /
readily 20 the sense of touch.
a brief reference to few of the more /
important efforts in the line OF en- /
bossed alphabets viii suffice for the 4
purposes of this paper. The honor Of !
doing the first embossed printing IS I
usually ascribed TO Valentine Haney, I
founder Of the first school for the blind .