ce des Quinze-Vingts,
increased by subsequent additions to its funds, still assists the adult
blind of France. The pensioners are divided into two classes--those who
are inmates of the hospital (300), and those who receive pensions in the
form of out-door relief. All appointments to inmates or pensions are
vested in the minister of the Interior, and applicants must be of French
nationality, totally blind and not less than forty years of age.

From the time of St Louis to the 18th century, there are records of
isolated cases of blind persons who were educated, and of efforts to
devise tangible apparatus to assist them.

Girolamo Cardan, the 16th-century Italian physician, conceived the idea
that the blind could be taught to read and write by means of touch.
About 1517 Francesco Lucas in Spain, and Rampazetto in Italy, made use
of large letters cut in wood for instructing the blind. In 1646 a book,
on the condition of the blind, was written by an Italian, and published
in Italian and French, under the title of _L'Aveugle afflige et
console_. In 1670 a book was written on the instruction of the blind by
Lana Terzi, the Jesuit. In 1676 Jacques Bernoulli, the Swiss savant,
taught a blind girl to read, but the means of her instruction were not
made known. In 1749 D. Diderot wrote his _Lettre sur les aveugles a
l'usage de ceux qui voient_, to show how far the intellectual and moral
nature of man is modified by blindness. Dr S.G. Howe, who many years
after translated and printed the "Letter" in embossed type,
characterizes it as abounding with errors of fact and inference, but
also with beauties and suggestions. The heterodox speculations contained
in his "Letter on the Blind" caused Diderot to be imprisoned three
months in the Bastille. He was released because his services were
required for the forthcoming _Encyclopaedia_. Rousseau visited Diderot
in prison, and is reported to have suggested a system of embossed
printing. J. Locke, G.W. Leibnitz, Molineau and others discussed the
effect of blindness on the human mind. In Germany, Weissembourg had used
signs in relief and taught Mlle Paradis.

Prior to the 18th century, blind beggars existed in such numbers that
they struggled for standing room in positions favourable for asking
alms. Their very affliction led to their being used as spectacles for
the amusement of the populace. The degraded state of the masses of the
blind in France attracted the attention of Valentin Hauy. I