THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.
History of the Education of the Blind. By W. H. Mingwortla F.C.T.B. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—This is a treatise intended chiefly for the use of students at the College lately opened for training teachers of the blind, and full or interesting details concerning the development of methods of teaching, and inventions and appliances, especially those which now enable the blind to acquire literary and musical proficiency. The book contains biographical notices of a few eminent blind inventors and benefactors; it shows also how many of the sighted have devoted themselves to the same work. Mr. Illingworth, who has had a quarter of a century's experience, endorses the opinion expressed by others that blind as well as sighted teachers should be employed: the sighted for supervision of behaviour, the blind for comprehending sympathy and encouragement. Some interest- ing remarks are made on the cultivation of the ear, which a blind friend has explained to be the habit of listening, and, by the presence or lack of reverberation, judging of one's whereabouts, of the nearness of solid objects, the emptiness or otherwise of a room. Mr. Illingworth's statement that Braille is found to be the best system of reading_and writing is upheld by general consent; not so his regret that England has, declined to adopt the Boston Braille alphabet, used in the United States, and but partially even there,—preferring to remain in touch with the rest of Europe, with the Colonies and India; indeed, so far as we know, with the blind of the whole Eastern Hemisphere. The description of the difficulties which the blind have to surmount in music-reading only enhances the merit of their success. For the number and variety of the handicrafts acquired we must refer the reader to the book itself.
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