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APPENDIX A.

INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND,

Boston, January 5, 1848.

TO THE TRUSTEES.

GENTLEMEN, -- There are several subjects connected with the education of the blind, and touching closely their welfare as a class, about which I desire to submit to you my views more fully than I have been able to do in my Monthly Reports. I will, therefore, take the opportunity of doing so at this, the last meeting of your Board. If the subjects touched upon are more numerous, and the remarks more diffuse, than is agreeable, you will bear with them in consideration of their object and intentions. It is the duty of those connected with institutions for the blind to obtain and distribute all the information which they can respecting that interesting class of persons. The public and men of science naturally look to institutions such as ours for correct information, and the more minute this is, the better. Every thing should be done that can be done with fairness to inspire people with some of the interest which we feel in those whom we have selected as objects of care; we may set forth the touching nature of their infirmity, -- the dark and dreary places in which the lines of life have fallen to them; we may show their good qualities, their high capacities, their pressing need of aid and comfort; we may appeal to justice and humanity in their behalf; but we may keep back no truth and no knowledge which will tend to a perfect understanding of the subject. It is natural that individuals and institutions, when they first undertake the care and instruction of a class of unfortunate persons who had been forgotten and neglected, should look upon them with partiality, should disregard all obstacles and difficulties in their path, and think only of final success. Their enthusiasm extends to the public, and the interest in the class of unfortunates increases, until they almost begin to be considered as objects of envy, instead of pity. But the pendulum never swings too far one way without going back about as far the other way.

The history of the institutions for the blind in this country has been the same in many respects. The blind were considered as necessarily uneducated, helpless, and wretched. People recognized the peculiar and touching nature of their infirmity, and, while they forbade all others to beg in the street, they tolerated the blind man, and dropped an alms into his hat to keep him a little longer out of his last dwelling on earth, -- the almshouse. This was all wrong; -- the pendulum had swung too far one way. Then came along men and showed that the blind could he taught to read and write, and to acquire various kinds of knowledge, and also to work at many trades; and people were greatly interested, and built up schools, and began to think that the sightless scholars in them could learn faster and more thoroughly than seeing children, and that they would become teachers, preachers, musicians, and artisans, and that the beggar's hat was to be changed for a purse of gold. This, too, was wrong; -- the pendulum had swung too far the other way; and it behooves us to counteract, as far as possible, the bad effects which always follow the momentary prevalence of error.

Within ten years after the organization of this Institution, others were established in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia; the first two almost simultaneously with this. In all of them, the powers and capacities of the blind seem to have been overrated, and fond expectations to have been formed, that the great majority of them would he able to support themselves by filling some desirable and responsible posts in society, and that the rest could do so by manual labor.

I think that most of those who have had the charge of those institutions will confess that their expectations have been disappointed; that many of the blind will say their hopes have been cruelly dashed to the ground; and that some of them will exclaim, in the bitterness of their hearts, that it would have been better to leave them in ignorance than to enlighten and cultivate their minds, so as to make them more sensible to the stings of poverty and the shame of dependence. This is the natural reaction; let us see how to correct it.

The institutions for the blind in this country have already done great good; this cannot be denied or gainsaid. On the other hand, they have not fulfilled the expectations and prophecies of their friends; and perhaps one reason of this is, that those expectations were unreasonable, and their very unreasonableness has made the partial success seem even less than it would otherwise have done. I cannot hide from myself, and I would not hide from others, my own disappointment in this respect. My own feelings and views have been so modified by experience, that I see how many things could have been done better than they were done. My wish is to extract from the experience of the past a benefit for the future. I believe that greater good would have followed our efforts for the elevation of the blind to their proper sphere, if they themselves had better understood their powers and capacities, and we had better known their real wants, and their fitness for different stations in life.

In my remarks about the character and capacity of the blind as a class, I must be understood, of course, to speak generally. The exceptions may be numerous. There are many blind persons to whom the remarks will not apply, -- persons of high natural endowments, of energy, and perseverance; all such will know how to make the necessary allowance; I think, too, they will generally confirm my statements and opinions.

If we find that the condition and circumstances of any class of persons, whose welfare we would fain promote, are such as to cause undue development of any part of their character, we should strive in the spirit of kindness to correct them. A just degree of self-esteem is very important for success, especially in this country, where every man pushes his own claims; but if it is excessive in an individual, while the obstacles to his advancement are insurmountable, it becomes a source of pain and mortification.

The condition and treatment of the blind when children are such as to develop this feeling, and also the love of approbation, very strongly; and if their treatment and training during youth go to strengthen such feelings still more, and afterwards it is found impossible to obtain the desired advancement and consideration, pain and mortification surely follow. My meaning will be more clearly shown by considering how the development of these mental qualities operates upon the character of blind persons at different ages. A blind child is very much noticed on account of his blindness; every thing which he does or says is considered as remarkable; his blindness brings gratification to his love of approbation, which, with its twin sister, self-esteem, is rapidly developed, and he becomes proud of being blind. As he grows older, and begins to think of playing his part in the drama of life, he finds that the higher parts are closed to him; he finds that what was considered in a child as an object of interest and endearment is looked upon in a young man as a cause for pity and aid; but he has passed the age when childish endearments are needed, -- he wants independence and superiority, not pity and aid; he no longer likes the notice which his infirmity calls out, and he becomes ashamed of being blind. This feeling is very strong and very general. Of course, the first wish would be for sight, --
"Give us to see, -- we ask no more"; --
but next to this would come the wish to be thought to see, and to be considered equal in this respect to other persons. To many the simple fact of blindness is a small affair, but to be considered blind is an important and vexatious one. Now this shows something wrong, either in their training, or in the condition of society in which they live, and probably in both.

It is desirable on every account, then, that the real condition and capacities of the blind should be known by those who have to train them and those who have afterwards to live with them; and that the blind should know what they have to expect in life. It is well, in a word, that we comprehend the full measure of the infirmity of the blind, and the disabilities which it necessarily brings. The nearer we can arrive at a true knowledge of the case, the better. The blind, as a class, will be more kindly and justly treated, if it is known that the infirmity of blindness is really greater than it has been supposed to be.

It is my purpose to contribute the result of my experience and my reflections towards a just knowledge of the case. I cannot, perhaps, do this without offending some in the tenderest points, their self-esteem and their love of clan. My consolation for this must be the consciousness of good intent, and confidence of good results. However it may offend some to unveil the shield of truth, it never kills any but the progeny of error.

THE BLIND, AS A CLASS, ARE INFERIOR TO OTHER PERSONS IN MENTAL POWER AND ABILITY.

The truth of this will not be readily admitted. The opinions put forth in almost every Report of the institutions for the blind in this country, in almost all books upon the subject, and even in my own earlier writings, may be brought to disprove it; nevertheless, it will be found true.

The early Reports of this Institution represented the scholars as being, for the most part, very intelligent and promising, not only as compared with other blind persons, but as compared with seeing persons; and they certainly were more so than any succeeding classes have been. The same thing has been remarked in other schools; the first scholars received are usually the best, and there are some reasons why they should be so. To say nothing of the zeal with which both teacher and scholars usually set out upon a new enterprise, there are some other reasons why the first class in a new establishment should be of superior ability. The proposal to teach a class of persons who had never been taught in schools, especially so novel and extraordinary a proposal as that of teaching blind children to read and write, would appear to most people extravagant or absurd; while others would look upon it with distrust and suspicion. The intelligent parents of blind children would alone comprehend the possibility of the thing; and even they would not think of trying the experiment, except upon a child of more than ordinary ability. Then the character of the children would have some influence; the bold and enterprising, and those who possessed a strong desire for knowledge, would alone be eager to accept an opportunity of leaving home to make the doubtful experiment of learning by a new system.

As soon, however, as the school succeeds and becomes known, the blind, without distinction, -- the bright and the backward, the bold and the timid, -- resort to it, and then we have an opportunity of judging the whole class. Now it will be found, that, while the schools for the blind present a certain number of children who make more rapid progress in intellectual studies than the average of seeing children, they also present a much larger number who are decidedly inferior to them in physical and in mental vigor. If an exception be found to this, it will be in the Royal Institute at Paris, which has, within a few years, by means of the liberal patronage of the government, and the zeal and ability of its Director, Monsieur Dufau, resumed the place which it originally held in the front rank of excellence among establishments of this kind. But in that school a singular advantage is enjoyed, as far as the appearance of things goes; -- the scholars are received only at the age of twelve years; and a selection of less than two hundred is made from the great number of applicants which must be found in the whole population of France, for no other establishment exists there, while in the United States there are eight. We might as well take the average of bodily and mental vigor among the cadets at West Point as the standard whereby to measure the youth of the United States generally, as judge of the blind of France by the inmates of the Royal Institute of Paris.

After experience has shown us a fact, it is easy to see how we ought to have inferred its existence beforehand by a priori reasoning. The human mind is first developed solely by means of stimulus or excitement derived through the senses. Some of the senses excite only particular faculties of the mind, which cannot be excited and developed by any other sense; thus, the musical taste is developed by action of the hearing alone, nor can any other organ of sense do the duty of the ear by vicarious action.

Now the sense of sight is very important to our mental growth. In its direct action it is even more important than hearing, the chief action of which is indirect, giving us language, the most important tool for the mind to work with.

Sight not only contributes to the growth and development of the mind generally, but it addresses itself to several faculties in particular, which without it would never awake in this stage of being. Thus, the aesthetic sense, or taste for the beautiful in color and light and shade, with all the consequent pleasure and refinement which it gives, must ever lie as dormant in the mind of a blind man as in a tortoise. Nor is the effect of this confined to the mere knowing faculties, but it extends more or less to all the intellectual and even moral character; for who shall say how much our disposition to adore the Creator is strengthened by contemplation of the beauties and glories of his creation?

Blindness, then, always and necessarily cuts off some of the means by which alone certain intellectual faculties are developed and some mental qualities are formed. To suppose there can be a full and harmonious development of character without sight is to suppose that God gave us that noble sense quite superfluously.

But it is said, and with much plausibility, that the loss of one sense makes us exercise the others so continually and so effectually, as to acquire a power quite unknown to common persons. This is true, and it goes far to compensate the blind man whose pursuit is knowledge. He may learn vastly more of some subjects than other men, but there are capacities of his nature that can never he developed; perfect harmony can never be there, any more than perfect physical beauty and proportion.

This, however, is somewhat speculative reasoning, and there is no need of such to prove the proposition, that the blind, as a class, are inferior in mental power and ability to ordinary persons. It is useless to say one single word about the dependence of the mind upon the body in this state of existence; there can be no continuous mental health and vigor without bodily health and vigor. By comparing the mortality among 617 blind persons, and among 1380 young men in college, during a period of ten years, I find that the difference is as 98 to 44; that is to say, taking 1000 persons of each class and about the same age, and watching them through life, we shall find that when all the blind have died, there will still be about half of the seeing ones alive. In other words, the chance of life among the blind is only one half what it is among the seeing.

The data from which these inferences are drawn are indeed few, and perhaps are somewhat unfavorable to the blind, because the persons whom they are compared with, students in colleges, are generally select youth; but, after making all allowances, they fully confirm what would be the a priori inference, and what must be the opinion of observing persons, that sickness and mortality among the blind are much greater than among the seeing.

The standard of bodily health and vigor, then, being lower among the blind, the inevitable inference is, that mental power and ability will be less also.

In answer to a series of questions put to a most intelligent blind man, who has had ample means of knowledge, and whose deep interest in the welfare of his fellows would prevent him from having any unfavorable bias, the following information has been obtained: --

"The number of males from which I make my estimate is one hundred. Of these, fifty are decidedly inferior in mental ability to the average of persons of their age and condition, and of these fifty, twenty-five are bordering on imbecility. Of the one hundred, three only could be considered superior, in point of bodily health and strength, to the average of seeing persons of their age and condition in life. Fifteen of the one hundred may be considered superior to the in mental ability to the average of seeing persons of their age. Of these fifteen, six were born blind."

Questions put to teachers have been answered in about the same way: -- "Of a class of thirty-four boys, nineteen were pronounced decidedly inferior in mental ability, seven to be almost imbecile or silly, and only three to be slightly above the average of intellectual powers: of the three, two were born blind. Not one of the thirty-four was above the average of seeing boys in physical health and strength."

A female teacher says, -- "Out of forty-seven blind persons under my care, sixteen were decidedly inferior in mental powers to the average of seeing persons of their age and condition in life; and of these sixteen, five were bordering upon imbecility."

The superintendent of one of our chief institutions writes to me as follows: -- "The number of our pupils is one hundred and thirty-five; of these there are seventeen in possession of 'superior talent,' thirteen of whom were born blind. Of 'inferior talent' there are thirty-five, of whom twenty-two were born blind. There are also TEN of a very low grade of intellect, hardly rising above imbecility; and of these, eight were 'born blind.' Of vigorous and well-developed forms there are thirty-one, nine of whom were born blind. Of weak and puny frames, there are FORTY-FOUR, of whom thirty-one were born blind."

He says, -- "I should think that a comparison of all others who have ever been connected with the Institution would not materially vary the above results."

This gentleman adds, very justly, -- "I send replies to your queries as well as I am able, but in this mental mensuration you must look only for approximate results. I cannot vouch, in all cases, for the accuracy of my calipers."

It is evident that this gentleman, with his usual kindness of heart, inclined the balance toward the side of his charge as much as he could with justice; for he says, -- "In enumerating those of ' superior talent,' I have included three noted for little else except musical talent." Now it is very common to find that persons who have what is called "musical talent," especially where it is confined to excellence of time, tune, and voice, have no other talent, and rank below mediocrity in point of intellect.

Taken, however, in its most favorable light, the comparison made by this gentleman furnishes a melancholy confirmation of the truth of the opinion I have expressed above, concerning the blind as a class. In what common school of one hundred and thirty- five scholars, will there be found FORTY-FOUR children of puny and weak frames, thirty-five of inferior talent, and ten ranking little above idiots?

In reply to questions addressed to a gentleman who has had much experience in teaching, and who was for some time at the head of one of our best institutions for the blind, the following opinions are obtained.

"My observation has resulted in the belief, that, where blindness comes on naturally, at an early age, though it may not be called hereditary, yet it is either the effect of some hereditary disease, as scrofula, for instance, or of some physical deficiency, which, though manifested chiefly in the visual organs, affects the whole system, and greatly reduces the amount of vital energy. Such children will be found equally deficient in intellectual power. All that the most judicious training can do will never so develop the physical powers they do possess, much less will it so supply a defective physical organization, as to make these children, aside from their blindness, sound in body and mind. They are generally short-lived, unless early placed under the judicious and fostering care of some well-managed institution, expressly adapted to their peculiar condition and wants. Even then, as they grow up, the vast difference between them and seeing children, in vital energy and intellectual power, becomes more and more apparent. The inference, then, is plain, that the naturally blind must be, as a class, far inferior physically and intellectually to the seeing; and experience confirms this view of the case.

"A person of sound constitution and well-developed powers may lose his sight by accident, and yet, in an institution for the blind, may be forced to take such exercise as will keep his physical energies unimpaired. A young man, thus circumstanced, though his mind should lack its wonted elasticity, might even excel the seeing. This is confirmed by my own observation. Such cases are exceptions, however.

"If the accidental loss of sight occurs in manhood, or at a more advanced age, the mind will seldom be roused to much action, and the capacity for receiving instruction will be small indeed.

"Those who have been accidentally deprived of sight while very young, especially if left to the injudicious kindness of their parents, suffer from want of suitable exercise and training, and the lack of mental energy is proportionate to the physical deficiency.

"An institution for the instruction of the blind, one of the great benevolent enterprises of the nineteenth century, has a claim on the public never again to be overlooked. But in providing instruction for the blind, only a small part of our duty is done. Humanity and justice call upon the seeing to give their blind brethren a 'home,' where those who are capable may find a field for their industry, and where all may contribute to the enjoyments, and share in the comforts, of a fireside peculiarly their own."

Thus we see that the blind, as a class, do not labor under the disadvantage of want of sight alone, but that, as compared with others, they have less bodily health and vigor, and less mental power and energy; consequently, their great infirmity is more grievous to them, and is a more serious burden to society, than it would otherwise be.

The knowledge of this truth, instead of making the blind less interesting, makes them more so. They have a right, not only to more sympathy, but to more aid and assistance. They are our brethren by their birthright; their infirmity is no fault of their own; and they may claim at the hands of society, not only education, but the means and opportunity of useful and honorable occupation.

I shall show, in speaking of the Work Department, that the infirmity of blindness prevents men from entering into fair competition with others in the mechanic arts, and how this disadvantage may be compensated for by special provisions. In the mean time, let us inquire briefly into the causes of blindness, and of the inferiority of the blind in bodily health and vigor, in the humble hope that the inquiry may tend to lessen the evil.

In doing this we shall not transcend our office, because public charitable institutions have other duties besides the care and culture of their immediate inmates, and among those duties is the gathering of knowledge upon all subjects closely or remotely connected with the infirmity under which those inmates labor. The discharge of our duty to our pupils does not discharge the wider duty to humanity; much less does it call upon us to keep out of sight any facts which may tend to make those pupils less interesting, at first blush, to those who take a false view of things.

In the first place, let us distinguish between those born blind, and those who become blind by accident in early life; as for those who become blind from old age, they form a class apart.

Upon superficial inquiry, it would seem that very few persons are born blind. Parents dislike to suppose their offspring are imperfect in any way. The mother refuses to admit that her child is deaf and dumb, and fondly clings to the hope that he will yet speak, though he has been silent for two, or even three or four years, among his younger companions, who prattle around him. When, at last, the sad conviction forces itself upon her mind, that she can never hear him lisp her name, she tries to think that some accident after his birth brought on the infirmity. So it is in the case of a sightless child; unless the eyeballs are absolutely wanting (which is very rarely the case), the mother refuses to believe that her offspring is blind. If its eyes are in a state of violent inflammation, necessarily followed by destruction, or if they are opaque with humors which are reproduced as fast as removed, and she is at last forced to admit his blindness, she throws the whole blame on the luckless physician, for not undertaking the hopeless task of curing an incurable disease; or, if he did undertake it, for not using the right medicine. Some unfortunate poultice or powder is ever after regarded by her as the peccant cause of an infirmity which she herself entailed upon her offspring.

But I would include among the class of "born blind," many who lose their sight long after birth; that is, those in whom the original texture of the eye was so loose, and so predisposed to disease, that the slightest inflammation or accident would destroy the sight. Such persons, if not born blind, were certainly born to become blind. Now in these cases the blindness is prima facie evidence of an infirmity, -- a bodily infirmity, which, other things being equal, will lessen the sufferer's chance of healthy and vigorous mental growth. But there is a deeper consideration behind this. In most of these cases, the blindness is only a symptom or local manifestation of some general cause which vitiates, or affects unfavorably, the whole bodily organization. Call it weakness, or scrofula, or what we will, there it is, and it generally involves the brain and nervous system; they lack the natural tone and vigor, and consequently the sufferer cannot put forth the natural degree of mental and moral power; he is as weak and irresolute in thought and purpose, as he is feeble and flabby in fibre.

Those of the second class, that is, those who become blind by accident or violent disease, are of course affected in their mental development only so far as want of sight is want of an advantage for study or bodily exercise. This must ever be a positive disadvantage; it is one, however, which may be, and in some cases is, overcome by great resolution and perseverance. But all intelligent persons who have had the management of blind youth, if they will only reflect upon it, must admit the lamentable preva1ence among them of a low tone of the bodily organization, and the consequent want of persevering energy and resolution.

Doubtless this is often owing, in a great measure, to the habits of life into which their infirmity causes them to fall. They are but little in the open air; they are made tender by attempts to shield them from the changes of the atmosphere; they are too warmly clad; they enjoy the monopoly of the rocking-chair, and the warmest seat by the fire. The effect of all this mistaken kindness is seen afterwards in the effeminacy of body and feebleness of purpose which make the blind so fond of a sedentary life, and so much indisposed to active mental or bodily exertion. Add to this the real and positive difficulties which their infirmity puts in the way of locomotion, to overcome which would require more than common energy, and we have other incidental causes of feebleness of health and strength. But, over and above these, there is, in a great majority of cases, an original and constitutional feebleness of organization. If you look into any school for the blind, you will see a great number of pale, puny, slender youths, and though they and those about them think they are in tolerable health, yet a moment's comparison with a school for seeing children, where ruddy, plump, active children are the rule, and not the exception, will force you to conclude that want of sight is not the only disadvantage under which the former labor.

Now, whatever may be the case with particular individuals, as a general rule it must be true that persons of feeble health and imperfectly developed bodies are, and ever will be, inferior in mental health and vigor.

Having arrived at this conclusion with regard to the causes, the question arises, Can any thing be done, either to lessen the number of blind persons born into the world, or to improve the physical condition of those who must be born? I think that much can be done in both ways. The number of persons born blind will be diminished when the hereditary transmission of tendency to bodily infirmities is well understood. Let us, therefore, consider that part of the natural law, which may be expressed thus: --

BLINDNESS, OR A STRONG CONSTITUTIONAL TENDENCY TO IT, IS VERY OFTEN HEREDITARY.

Men violate the natural laws; they "go out of the way" of nature. Nature would bring them back; she sends outward ailments as signs of inward infirmities; this not being enough, she says, I will visit these infirmities upon your children to the third and fourth generation; if ye will not mind for your own sakes, ye shall for theirs.

I believe that a general knowledge of the existence of this stern and inexorable law will do more to diminish the number of infirmities with which the human race is afflicted than any thing else can do, and I shall therefore dwell still longer upon it in reference to the blind.

The experience of many years, an acquaintance with several hundreds of blind persons, and much personal inquiry, have convinced me that when children are born blind, or when they become blind early in life, in consequence of diseases which do not usually destroy the sight, the predisposing cause can be traced to the progenitors in almost all cases. Moreover, I believe, that, where the predisposing cause cannot be so traced, it is only in consequence of our ignorance, and not because there are exceptions to the rule.

When the parents or relatives of blind children are questioned in a way which seems to imply the suspicion of the existence of some hereditary cause of the infirmity, they at first deny the possibility of such cause, and often repel the supposition indignantly, as something derogatory to the honor of the family. They usually do this, also, in all honesty and sincerity; for they are not aware of the number and extent of the causes.

A single case, which occurred recently, -- one out of a hundred similar ones, -- may illustrate my meaning. I was questioning a man as to the causes of the blindness of his son, about which he was not only in ignorance, but, much worse, in error; for he half believed that his wife having seen the eyes of a cat glittering in the dark had something to do with it. As for any hereditary cause, he never dreamed of it; and yet this man himself was exceedingly purblind; he could not see a thing without poking his nose into it and always went about with his eyes half shut, and winking and blinking, when the daylight was strong. I found, upon inquiry, that his own sister was as purblind as himself, and could never bear the strong light of day without half closing her eyes; and, moreover, that his father and mother were of feeble temperament, and full cousins.

The hereditary tendency to disease among the progeny of persons related by blood, or of scrofulous or intemperate persons, or of persons whose physical condition is vitiated in various ways, is not seen at once, and may be entirely overlooked, for various reasons. In the first place, there may be only a strong tendency or predisposition to some infirmity, as blindness, deafness, insanity, idiocy, &c., which is not developed without some immediate exciting cause. Thus, I have known persons of a particular family become blind of one eye in consequence of a slight blow from a chip; then, after some years, become blind of the other from a trifling injury with a finger; or from other causes, so slight as to be borne with impunity by ordinary persons.

Now, if some members of such a family should, by great regularity of life, or by rare good-fortune, escape all accidents or exciting causes which would bring on disease, they would probably never suspect the existence of their danger. Or if they were fearful of the tendency, and by great caution escaped the danger, it would be exceedingly difficult to prove the existence of any hereditary taint.

It is common to say of certain families, of which, perhaps, only one person was quite mad, that "there is something odd about all the members of it." Now, if we could see the manifestations of tendencies to a morbid condition of the body, as we see the tendencies to insanity in strange actions of men, we should discover them where none are supposed to exist.

In the second place, diseased tendencies in parents, whether derived from their ancestors, or planted in their constitutions by intemperance or abuse, do not always manifest themselves by the reappearance of the same infirmity or disease in the offspring. Scrofula, for instance, will reappear in a thousand forms; it may be blindness, it may be deafness, it may be white swelling, it may be something else. I have known cases where it was impossible to find any instances of blindness occurring in a family previous to the one under examination, and yet, upon further inquiry, learned that there had been cases of insanity and mutism among the immediate relatives. I am forced to conclude, in such cases, that there is some peculiarity in the physical organization of one of the parents or progenitors which entails upon the offspring strong morbid tendencies.

But laying aside such cases, there are many where the hereditary tendencies to blindness are so manifest in parties who marry, that the probabilities of the offspring being blind are fearfully great. There are cases in which the parents are the authors of their children's blindness, as much as though they gouged their eyes out after they were born. They may sin in ignorance, but God will not remit the penalty of the sin because another had been committed in the neglect of mental culture.

A clear understanding of this law of the transmission of diseased tendencies, both of body and mind, will do much towards banishing disease and suffering from among the children of men.

It will be seen that the wit of man cannot devise a way of escape from the penalty of a violated law of nature; that not a single debauch, not a single excess, not a single abuse of any animal propensity, ever was or ever can be committed without more or less evil consequences; that sins of this kind are not and cannot be forgiven. There may be those who will harden their hearts and stiffen their necks, and be willing to bide the consequences to themselves for the sake of the sensual pleasures. But there will appear in the far-off and shadowy future the beseeching forms of little children, -- some halt, or lame, or blind, or deformed, or decrepit, -- crying, in speechless accents, "Forbear, for our sakes; for the arrows that turn aside from you are rankling in our flesh"; others, having the seeds of direful passions, -- envy, hatred, malice, uncleanness, -- say sadly, "O, bridle your passions, or they will tear us asunder like wild horses!" Then it shall be seen, that, if the fathers will eat sour grapes, the children's teeth shall be set on edge; that many a mother is responsible for the pride, the vanity, the lust of her daughter; that many a father is as guilty of the death of his son upon the gallows as though he twisted the rope about his neck with his own hands.

Then many a woman will rouse herself to the stern duty of observance of every law of health, of abstinence from all luxury and all slothfulness, for the sake of those dear ones that may be born to her; and many a man will abandon sensual indulgences which he would have clung to through life but for fear of cursing his future offspring with hellish passions.

Then will some soar to such an exalted pitch of virtue, as to forego their dearest hopes, and resolutely keep aloof from any relations of life that might cause them to hand down bodily or mental infirmities upon the innocent ones of the coming generations.

Then will light be thrown upon the laws of "the pestilence that walketh in darkness" from generation to generation, and the wisdom and goodness of God be made manifest even in them.

Then many a case of blindness, or deafness, or infirmity, instead of being looked upon as a mysterious dispensation of Providence, will be seen to be only the penalty of a violated law which was enacted in kindness and love.

Then the love of God to men will be manifested even in afflictions, and his praise will be perfected out of disease and suffering, as well as out of health and enjoyment.

Then it will be seen, that, if this world is a vale of tears, if it is full of deformity, and suffering, and sickness, and crime, it is man, and not God, that maketh it so.

Another way in which institutions for the blind can be useful to the community, and diminish the number of the class of persons whom they take under their care, is in spreading abroad a knowledge of the best means of preventing the calamity of blindness in those who are strongly disposed to it hereditarily. This has been done somewhat in former Reports. The means consist in avoidance of sedentary occupations, especially those which try the eyes; great care about reading or working for a long-continued time, or by a feeble light; strict temperance in food and drink; and constant and active exercise in the open air. By these means many a one will have tolerable eye-sight at threescore years, who would otherwise have been purblind at twenty, and quite blind at thirty.

Moreover, great good will be done, if persons having the care of the blind can be persuaded that the way to give them intellectual strength, vigor of purpose, and persevering courage, is to begin by training the body to hardihood and health.

It is not my purpose to dwell upon this subject now, nor, indeed, to lengthen out this already too long Report. I have shown that the infirmity of blindness is greater, even, than is generally supposed; not, however, directly as an affliction, not as a cause of repining and sorrow, but as an obstacle to the development of bodily and mental vigor; a serious and almost insurmountable obstacle, in most cases, to the independence of the sufferers.

It follows that we should do more for them than to teach and train them in schools; we should endeavour to provide them with means for putting themselves more nearly upon a footing with others in the struggle for a livelihood than they can be if dismissed to make their way unaided. I do not dwell now upon the duty of properly directing their moral and religious training, for this is not the place.

I close by earnestly recommending to your attention the suggestions in my Report upon the workshop, about providing aid to those blind who must depend upon the labor of their hands. Many of the considerations urged in this paper will strengthen those urged there.

Very respectfully,

S. G. HOWE.