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
Caprification is a horticultural operation performed by the ancients upon figs. It consists in suspending above the cultivated figs branches of the wild fig covered with a species of gall insect, which carries the pollen of the male flowers to fertilize the female flowers of the cultivated fig. The term is also applied to the fecundation of the female date palms by shedding over them the pollen from the male plant. Research Caprification
A catechism is an elementary book containing a number of principles in any science or art, but originally particularly in religion, reduced to the form of questions and answers.
The first regular catechisms appear to have been compiled in the 8th and 9th centuries, those by Kero of St Gall and Otfried of Weissenburg being most famous. In the Roman Catholic Church each bishop has the right to make a catechism for his diocese. But in modern times Roman Catholic catechisms are generally a pretty close copy of the one drawn up by the Council of Trent and published in 1566, of which an English translation was issued in London in 1687 under the patronage of James II.
Among Protestants the catechisms of Luther (1518, 1520, and 1529) acquired great celebrity, and continue to be used in Germany, though not exclusively. Calvin's smaller and larger catechisms (1536-1539) never gained the popularity of those of Luther.
The catechism of the Church of England is contained in the Book of Common Prayer. In the First Book of Edward VI, 1549, it contained merely the baptismal vow, the creed, the ten commandments, and the Lord's prayer, with explanations, the part relative to the sacraments being subjoined during the reign of James I.
The catechism of the Church of Scotland is that agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, with the assistance of commissioners from the Church of Scotland, and approved of by the General Assembly in the year 1648. What is called the Shorter Catechism is merely an abridgment of the Larger, and is the one in most common nse. The best-known catechism among English Protestant Dissenters was that of Dr. Watts; but the use of catechisms is far from usual amongst them.
Catechisms remained quite rare, until the format was adopted by the computer industry in the form of the FAQ (frequently asked questions). Research Catechism
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
Bedeguar or Bedegar is a spongy excrescence or gall, sometimes termed sweet-brier sponge, found on various species of roses, and produced by several insects as receptacles for their eggs, especially by the Cynips rosae. It was once thought to be a diuretic and vermifuge. Research Bedeguar
The cherry gall wasp (Cynips quercusfolii) is a hymenopterous insect of the family Cynipidae widespread throughout Europe and Asia Minor, that produces spherical leaf galls on various species of oak. The galls are mostly to be seen between July and October and are attached to either the main leaf vein or one of the stronger side veins by a very short stem. The gall is at first green-yellow in colour later turning yellow and then red on the side facing the sun before becoming brown and wrinkled. The larvae develops within the gall, feeding upon the galltissue and pupates within the gall. Two generations appear within a year, the first all female that reproduce parthenogenetically the second male and female. Research Cherry Gall Wasp
Coccus is a genus of insects of the order Hemiptera, family Coccidae, or scale-insects. The males are elongated in their form, have large wings, and are destitute of any obvious means of suction; the females, on the contrary, are of a rounded or oval form, about an eighth of an inch in length, have no wings, but possess a beak or sucker, by which they suck up the juices of the plants on which they live. At a certain period of their life the females attach themselves to the plant or tree which they inhabit, and remain thereon immovable during the rest of their existence. In this situation they are impregnated by the male; after which their body increases considerably, in many species losing its original form and assuming that of a gall, and, after depositing the eggs, drying up and forming a habitation for the young. Some of these insects are troublesome in gardens, plantations, and hot-houses, while others are of great value. for example, kermes, cochineal, lac-lake, lac-dye, and gum-lac are either the perfect insects dried, or the secretions which they form.
Kermes consist of the dried females of Coccus ilicis, found in great abundance upon a species of oak (Quercus coccifera), a native of the Mediterranean basin, and gathered before the eggs are hatched. It was known as a dye-stuff in the earliest times, but has partly fallen into disuse since the introduction of cochineal. Cochineal consists of the bodies of the females of the Coccus cacti, a native of Mexico, which feeds on various species of cactus, particularly on one called nopal (Opuntia cochinillifera). Research Coccus
The Cola-nut Gall Wasp (Andricus lignicola) a hymenopterous insect of the family Cynipidae widespread through almost all Europe. The Cola-nut Gall Wasp produces very firm, woody, spherical galls which grow from axillary and sometimes terminal buds on the branches of various species of oak tree. Research Cola-Nut Gall Wasp
The Common Spangle Gall Wasp (Neuroterus quercusbaccarum formerly known as Neuroterus lenticularis) is a hymenopterous insect of the family Cynipidae found in Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa. The wasp develops on Oak trees, producing two different galls: a lens-shaped gall of about 5 mm diameter grown from July onwards on the underside of leaves, and a second generation of spherical juicy galls of about 7 mm diameter produced on the underside of the leaves and in male catkins during the spring. Research Common Spangle Gall Wasp
Abbreviations
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