The blind are those who want, or are deficient in, the sense of sight. Blindness may vary in degree from the slightest impairment of vision to total loss of sight; it may also be temporary or permanent. It is caused by defect, disease, or injury to the eye, to the optic nerve, or to that part of the brain connected with it. Old age is sometimes accompanied with blindness, occasioned by the drying up of the humours of the eye, or by the opacity of the cornea, the crystalline lens, etc. The blind are often distinguished for a remarkable mental activity, and a wonderful development of the intellectual powers. Their touch and hearing, particularly, become very acute.
As early as 1260 an asylum for the blind (L'hospice des Quinze-Vingts) was founded in Paris by St Louis for the relief of the Crusaders who lost their sight in Egypt and Syria; but the first institution for the instruction of the blind was the idea of Valentin Hauy, brother of the celebrated mineralogist. In 1784 he opened an institution in which the blind were instructed not only in appropriate mechanical employments, as spinning, knitting, making ropes or fringes, and working in paste-board, but also in music, in reading, writing, ciphering, geography, and the sciences. For instruction in reading he procured raised letters of metal; for writing he used particular writing-cases, in which a frame, with wires to separate the lines, could be fastened upon the paper; for ciphering there were movable figures of metal, and ciphering-boards in which the figures could be fixed; for teaching geographymaps were prepared upon which mountains, rivers, cities, and the boundaries of countries were indicated to the sense of touch in various ways, etc.
Similar institutions were soon afterwards founded in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dresden, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Vienna, and in many towns of the United States. By 1900 there were comparatively few large cities that did not possess a school or institution of some kind for the blind.
At the start of the 20th century the attitude towards the blind was rather patronising, and one source may be quoted as saying 'the occupations in which the blind are found capable of engaging are such as the making of baskets and other kinds of wicker-work, brushmaking, rope and twine making, the making of mats and matting, knitting, netting, fancy work of various kinds, cutting fire-wood, the sewing of sacks and bags; the carving of articles in wood, etc'. However, it was also recognised that more skilled tasks could also be performed by blind persons, and the same source notes that 'Piano-tuning is also successfully carried on by some, and the cleaning of clocks and watches has even been occasionally practised by them'.
Around 1900 an impetus was given, in Britain, to the higher education of the blind by the formation of the British and Foreign Blind Association, the establishment of a college for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen at Worcester, and the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind, Upper Norwood.
Various systems were devised for the purpose of teaching the blind to read, some of which consisted in the use of the ordinary Roman alphabet, with more or less modification, and some of which employ types quite arbitrary in form. In all systems the characters rise above the surface of the paper so as to be felt by the fingers. The type adopted by Hauy was the script or italic form of the Roman letter. This was introduced into England by Sir C. Lowther, who printed the Gospel of St. Matthew in 1832 with type obtained from Paris. Before this Gall of Edinburgh made use of an embossed alphabet based on the ordinary Roman small letters, in which all curves were replaced by angular lines, and in 1834 he published the Gospel of St John in this character. Subsequently he introduced various improvements, and in particular the letters were produced with serrated surfaces, thus giving greater distinctness. Alston of Glasgow, Howe of Boston, and others also used the Roman form; but the former (who was the first to print the whole Bible, in 1840) adopted the Roman capitals, while the latter adopted the small letters, printing in this type the Bible and many other books. Of alphabets deviating entirely or nearly so from the Roman letter, one consists of a stenographic shorthand invented by Lucas of Bristol; another was a phonetic shorthand devised by Frere of London. In Dr. Moon's alphabet some of the characters are Roman, others are based on or suggested by the Roman characters. The Braille system, widely adopted by the laye 20th century, is one in which the letters are formed by a combination of dots. Dr. Moon's system from its simplicity and the size of its characters is in very general use in books for the blind. There are also systems by which the blind are enabled to write, and the writing may be either in relief so as to be read by the blind, or in characters that may be read by those who see. Research Blind
There is evidence of the use of crystal balls as a means of divination in medieval times, and 'scrying' in some of its many forms was by no means rare in the Greek and Roman periods. The essential requisite for the exercise of this species of divination is a polished surface of some sort upon which the scryer shall gaze intently; for this purpose mirrors, globules of lead or mercury, polished steel, the surface of water, and even pools of ink, have been employed and have been found to ensure quite as satisfactory results as the crystal ball. The points of light reflected from the polished surface serve to attract the attention of the gazer and to fix the eye until, gradually, the optic nerve becomes so fatigued that it finally ceases to transmit to the sensorium the impression made from without and begins to respond to the reflex action proceeding from the brain of the gazer. In this way the impression received from within is apparently projected and seems to come from without.
It is easy to understand that the results must vary according to the idiosyncrasy of the various scryers; for everything depends upon the sensitiveness of the optic nerve. In many cases the effect of prolonged gazing upon the brilliant surface will simply produce a loss of sight, the optic nerve will be temporarily paralysed and will as little respond to stimulation from within as from without; in other cases, however, the nerve will be only deadened as regards external impressions, while retaining sufficient activity to react against a stimulus from the brain centres. It is almost invariably stated that, prior to the appearance of the desired visions, the crystal seems to disappear and a mist rises before the gazer's eye. The Achaians, as Pausanius relates, frequently used a mirror to divine diseases or to learn whether there was danger of sudden death. Research Crystal Gazing
Dexter's Laboratory is a children's animated cartoontelevision show created by Genndy Tartakovsky and commissioned by Turner Entertainment and Hanna-Barbera, about a little boy - Dexter - who creates bizarre inventions in his laboratory that usually work too well, and his annoying, brain-dead elder sister who usually manages to cause the invention to run amok. Research Dexter's Laboratory
Function is the specific office or action which any organ or system of organs is fitted to perform in the animal or vegetable economy. Vital functions are functions immediately necessary to life, as those of the brain, heart, lungs, etc. Natural or vegetative functions, functions less instantly necessary to life, as digestion, absorption, assimilation, expulsion, etc. Animal functions are those which relate to the external world, as the senses, voluntary motions, etc. Research Function
Head is the term applied to the anterior part of the body of an animal when marked off by a difference in size, or by a constriction (neck). A gradual increase of complexity in the structure of the head is observable as we ascend from the lowest to the highest forms of life. In the Protozoa, Infusoria, and Coelenterates nothing that can be regarded as a head is found, and it is not until we ascend to the worms proper, the articulated animals (crustaceans, myriapods, spiders, and insects), the land and fresh-water gasteropods (snails and whelks), and the cuttle-fishes, that a head proper is found.
The cuttle-fishes have a remarkable cartilaginous box, which, like a skull, protects their anterior nervous ganglia and gives support to the muscles. The head of the vertebrated animals presents a regular series of increasing complexity from the lancelet upwards, and as the anterior nervous mass enlarges, and its ganglia increase in complexity, so do the anterior vertebra change their character; as the brain becomes specialized, so does the brain-case or skull, attaining its highest development in man.
In man, and in the higher vertebrates, the head consists of an upper chamber, lodging the brain, the eyes, and other sense organs, and a lower, lodging the first portion of the alimentarycanal. In proportion as the vertebrates become developed, the brain increases in size, and its position advances anteriorly, until, in man, it comes to overhang the face.
Head is the unit of measurement of cattle. Thus a herd of 100 cattle is referred to as 100 head.
Phrenology (craniology) is the study of the external form of the humanskull, as indicative of mental powers and moral qualities. It was propounded by Franz Gall, a German physician around 1796, who enumerated some thirty faculties of the humanmind. He believed the configuration of the skull to correspond closely with that of the brain, and declared that mental characteristics are recorded in relief upon the outer surface of the cranial bones. Johann Spurzheim, a disciple of Franz Gall, constructed a scalp chart, showing thirty-five areas, each of which he supposed to be associated with a special faculty. In 1807 a commission appointed by the Paris Institute to investigate the claims of Franz Gall and Johann Spurzheim reported unfavourably; but Dr George Combe of Edinburgh became a convert, and contributed largely to the temporary popularity of Franz Gall's doctrines. Franz Gall was a skilful anatomist and a careful recorder of clinical and pathological observations, and his deductions stimulated research, and in a manner led to the more accurate localisation of brain functions. Research Phrenology
Sado-masochism is a form of sexual activity involving actual or simulated pain so as to enhance sexual pleasure. Various forms are common, including at the gentle end of the spectrum back scratching during intercourse, through corporal punishment (spanking) and flagellation, ranging to the use of devices such as nipple clamps, whips, and more severe forms of pain. It should be emphasised that the whole point of sado-masochism is not of pain, but of pleasure for all (usually two) parties involved. The popular misconception that sado-masochism is about hurting one's partner is a naive fallacy. Rather, due to the complex nature of the relationship between pain and pleasure centres in the brain, many people find a little pain during sexual intercourse enhances their pleasure - for example having their back scratched. Generally, parties involved in sado-masochistic sexual activities enjoy both the dominant and receptive roles, and may also partake of other associated sexual activities such as bondage, slave and master games, humiliation and so on. Flagellation as a means of sexual activity, either solo for masturbation or with other parties has been practised for thousands of years, and was formerly (and may still be) very popular with religious recluses and monks. Under current UK law, any form of sado-masochistic sexual activity partaken of between consenting adults, in private or otherwise is illegal, and constitutes assault (the law stating that one cannot consent to assault unless in a sports scenario, such as boxing). Research Sado-masochism
The Talgai skull is a fossil humancranium found in 1884 in the Darling Downs squatting district near Talgai, South Queensland, Australia. The fossil attracted no attention until the Sydney meeting of the British Association in 1914. A report presented by Dr S A Smith of Sydney to the Royal Society in 1918 showed the skull to belong to a male of about sixteen years old who was contemporary with Pleistocene marsupials now extinct. The skull's brain capacity was larger than that of modern Australian aborigines, and the enormous palate, while resembling that of the anthropoids more closely than any human jaw yet discovered, most closely resembled the palate of the recently extinct Tasmanians. In 1920 Dubois reported that two skulls found by him in Java in 1890, more primitive than the Australoid, supported the Queensland evidence that early man migrated from Asia into the Australian region in the distant past. Research Talgai Skull
The agnatha are a branch of the sub-Phylum craniata group of animals. They are the lampreys and hagfishes. These are the most primitive of the Craniates. The mouth is round and not bounded by jaws. The brain is primitive. Research Agnatha
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Blind
