382 THE BLIND OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES. EUROPE. As no census is taken of the blind in Russia, their total number, and the ratio they bear to the general population, cannot be accurately ascertained. It has, however, been estimated by statisticians of eminence, that the average number of the blind in countries possessing the same general characteristics as the Russian empire is one in every eight hundred of the population; and as the inhabitants of Russia in Europe exceed sixty-four millions, the blind cannot be fewer than eighty thousand. To meet the wants, and alleviate the privations of this large number of sightless ones, next to nothing has been done by the paternal government of the autocrat of All the Russias, and as the union of individuals for the promotion of schemes of benevolence is almost unknown, the state of the eighty thousand blind Muscovites must be pitiable in the extreme. In 1806 the Emperor Paul, having entered into a close alliance with Napoleon, and declared war against England, wished to imitate the French in every possible way; and among the numerous things introduced into Russia from "La Belle France," was a school for the instruction of the blind, which was established at St. Petersburg by Valentine Haüy in the year above named. Haüy, when he accepted the imperial invitation, took with him one of his blind pupils, named Faurnier, who married, and spent the remainder of his life at St. Petersburg. In 1825 an institution was founded at Warsaw. One has also been established at Helsingfors, the capital of Finland, and at Gatchina, a small town about thirty miles from St. Petersburg. We believe that there is also an establishment at Riga. When Holman, the blind traveller, visited St. Petersburg in 1822, he found the Blind Institution of that city in a most flourishing condition. Reading by touch was practised extensively, and the inmates were enabled to print their own books. Music was cultivated to a considerable degree, and the pupils were largely engaged in manufacturing baskets, mats, and ropes. Holman says that he "left the place highly gratified and deeply impressed with the benevolence of the Emperor, under whose especial patronage it was conducted." It is much to be regretted that we have no later accounts of any Russian establishment for the blind, but the general advancement that has of late years taken place in the empire of everything which tends to ameliorate the condition of the humbler classes warrants the assumption that at least the Institution for the Blind at St. Petersburg has not retrograded. Sweden and Norway. These countries, although united under one monarch, and possessing similar characteristics with regard to race, soil, climate, language, and social habits, yet with respect to the proportion which the number of the blind bears to the general population, differ as widely as any two parts of the world well can, for whereas in Sweden the blind are as 1 in every 1419 of the inhabitants, in Norway the ratio is as great as 1 in 540. This wide difference affords matter for very interesting inquiries for ethnologists, and its solution may some day produce important results. The number of the blind in Sweden is 2,536 in a population of 3,641,011, whereas Norway, with only a population of 1,490,047,has no fewer than 2,759 persons without sight, which is a relative proportion of nearly three blind persons in Norway to one in Sweden. There is a school for the blind in Sweden, which was established at Stockholm. in 1806, in which books embossed in the Roman type are used, and where a modification of Moon's type is also employed, the books being printed on that mode at the institution. The pupils also use a Swedish invention for embossing in Roman type by hand, an apparatus for pencil writing, and an arithmetical board with common figures, but none of these contrivances possess special merit. We believe the principal trades carried on are those of basket-making and knitting. At Christiania (the capital of Norway) an institution has been founded during the last few years, but we are not aware that it possesses any feature of interest. Denmark. According to a census taken before the separation of the German Duchies from Denmark, it was found that there was one blind person in every 1,523 of the population, and taking the Danish kingdom as now only comprehending the peninsula of Jutland, and the adjacent islands, and assuming the population to be about 1,800,000, the number of the blind in the country cannot be less than 1,200. In 1811, a school for the blind was established at Copenhagen, by a body of persons called the Society of the Chain, which organization seems to resemble very much that of the Freemasons. The institution continued under the management of this society until 1857, when it received State patronage, was reorganized, and named the Royal İnstitution for the Blind, placed under the able management of Her Moldenhaver, and had a sum allowed it from the Royal Treasury of two thousand dollars per annum. When the institution was transferred to the State, the Society of the Chain endowed it with eight thousand dollars, by which it obtained the privilege of constantly having the power of nominating two directors out of the five, to whom the management of the charity was committed. The Society of the Chain, however, still seems to have had a small charity for the blind under their own management, which, in 1864, extended assistance to thirteen old men and four children, and the Royal Institution for the Instruction of Children had at the same date about sixty inmates. In 1862, an Association for Promoting the Industrial Welfare of the Blind was founded at Copenhagen, somewhat on the plan of the London Association, and two years later it had thirty blind persons connected with it. At the Royal Institution, both sexes are admitted, and the common alphabet is employed for reading, the Danish and Norwegian Bible Societies having contributed toward the embossing of some of the books of the Holy Scriptures. They have at Copenhagen a very efficient mode of pencil writing, which is an improvement on Gall's Typhlograph, and also a useful contrivance for embossing the common letters by hand, but the expense and weight of the latter invention interfere greatly with its usefulness. We believe that basket-making is the principal handicraft carried on, and that rope-making, shoe-making, brush-making, and knitting are also taught, and it is to be observed that music is cultivated to a considerable extent. In Denmark, blindness very frequently results from scrofula, produced, it is said, by the use of impure virus in the vaccination of children. Before quitting this subject, we may remark that in Iceland (which is a dependency of Denmark) there is the large proportion of one blind person to every 292 of the inhabitants. This high ratio is almost unprecedented, but the island being on the Arctic circlefully accounts for the circumstance, as the reflection of the moon upon snow is very prejudicial to sight. THE GERMAN EMPIRE. The ratio which the number of the blind bears to the general population of this extensive country varies considerably in the different states, for while in Bavaria it is 1 in 1986, in Hesse Darmstadt it is as great as 1 in 1231; taking, however, as a general average, that it is 1 in 1600, and accepting the population of the empire as 43,000,000, we find that the total number of the blind is about 27,000. The first institution for the blind in Germany was commenced at Berlin by Valentine Haüy, in 1806, when Herr Zeune, the celebrated inventor of relief maps and globes, was appointed director. The example of Berlin was followed by Dresden, 1809; Königsberg, 1818; Breslau, 1819; Ymund, 1823; Munich, 1825; Weimar, 1825; Bruchsal, 1826; Friesenberg, 1828; Brunswick, 1829; Hamburg, 1830; Halle, 1832; Mannheim, 1846; Stettin, 1851; Magdeburg, 1853; Posen, 1853; Wolstein, 1853; Wurzburg, 1853; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1856; Illzach, near Mulhausen, 1856; Wiesbaden, 1861. There are also institutions at Düen, Ellwanger, Frankfort, Freiberg, Freidberg-Hesse, Hanover, Harbertusberg, Kiel, Leipzig, Metz, Nuremberg, Soest, and Stuttgart. In these thirty-three institutions the mode of reading adopted, almost without a single exception, is that of the common Roman alphabet, although at Berlin, Hanover, etc. other systems are tolerated. The Bible Society of Stuttgart has contributed largely to the production of the embossed German Bible, the greater part of which was printed at the Institution for the Blind at Illzach, near Mulhausen or Mulhouse, and which owes its completion chiefly to the labours of M. Koechlin, the blind director, and founder of the Illzach Institution; in connection with this matter it may be stated that the distribution of the embossed German Bible was greatly aided by a large donation from a philanthropic Russian. The apparatus for writing and performing the operations of arithmetic, etc. and the maps, are similar to those described in |