It may be interesting, in conclusion, to mention some of the names of
prominent blind people in history:--
Timoleon (c. 410-336 B.C.), a Greek general.
Aufidius, a Roman senator.
Bela II. (d. 1141), king of Hungary.
John, king of Bohemia (1296-1346), killed in the battle of Crecy.
John Zizca (c. 1376-1424), Bohemian general.
Basil III. (d. 1462), prince of Moscow.
Shah Alam (d. 1806), the last of the Great Moguls.
Diodorus, the instructor of Cicero.
Didymus of Alexandria (c. 308-395), mathematician, theologian and
linguist.
Nicase of Malines (d. 1492), professor of law in the university of
Cologne. The degree of doctor of divinity was conferred on him by the
university of Louvain, and the pope granted a dispensation suspending
the law of the Church, that he might be ordained as a priest.
Ludovico Scapinelli (b. 1585), professor at the universities of
Bologna, Modena and Pisa.
James Schegkius (d. 1587), professor of philosophy and medicine at
Tubingen.
Franciscus Salinas, professor of music at the university of Salamanca,
in the 16th century.
Nicholas Bacon (16th century), doctor of laws in the university of
Brussels.
Count de Pagan of Avignon (b. 1604), mathematician of note.
John Milton (1608-1674), the poet.
Rev. Richard Lucas (1648-1715), prebendary of Westminster.
Nicholas Saunderson (q.v.; 1682-1739).
John Stanley (1713-1786), Mus. Bac. Oxon., was born in London in 1713.
At seven he began to study music, and made such rapid progress that he
was appointed organist of All-Hallows, Bread Street, at the age of
eleven. He graduated as Mus. Bac. at Oxford when sixteen, and was
organist of the Temple church at the age of twenty-one. He composed a
number of cantatas, and after the death of Handel he superintended the
performance of Handel's oratorios at Covent Garden. He received the
degree of doctor of music, and was master of the king's band.
Leonard Euler (1707-1783), the celebrated mathematician and
astronomer.
John Metcalf (b. 1717), road-builder and contractor.
Sir John Fielding (d. 1780), eminent lawyer and magistrate.
Thomas Blacklock (q.v.; 1721-1791), Scottish scholar and poet.
Francois Huber (1750-1831), Swiss naturalist, noted for his
observations on bees.
Edward Rushton (b. 1756). At six years of age he entered the Liverpool
free grammar school, and at eleven shipped for his first voyage in a
West India merchantman. On a later voyage he was shipwrecked, and owed
his life to the self-sacrifice of a negro. Rushton and the black man
swam for their lives to a floating cask; the negro reached it first,
saw Rushton about to sink, pushed the cask to the failing lad, and
struck out for the shore, but never reached it. This incident made
Rushton an enthusiastic champion through life of the cause of the
negro. During a voyage to Dominica malignant ophthalmia broke out
among the slave cargo, and Rushton caught the disease by attending
them in the hold when all others refused help. This attack deprived
him of sight, and cut short a promising nautical career at the age of
nineteen. He struggled bravely against difficulties, and besides
entering successfully into various literary engagements, maintained
himself and family as a bookseller. A volume of his poems containing a
memoir was published in 1824.
Marie Therese von Paradis (b. 1759), the daughter of an imperial
councillor in Vienna. She was a godchild of the empress Marie Therese,
and as her parents possessed rank and wealth, no expense was spared in
her education. Weissembourg, a blind man, was her tutor, and she
learned to spell with letters cut out of pasteboard, and read words
pricked upon cards with pins. She studied the piano with Richter (of
Holland) and Kozeluch. She was a highly esteemed pianist, and Mozart
wrote a concerto for her; she also attained considerable skill on the
organ, in singing and in composition. She made a concert tour of
Europe, visiting the principal courts and everywhere achieving great
success. She remained four months in England, under the patronage of
the queen. On her return to Vienna, through Paris, she met Valentin
Hauy. Towards the close of her life she devoted herself to teaching
singing and the pianoforte with great success.
James Holman (q.v.; 1786-1857), traveller.
William H. Prescott (q.v.; 1796-1859), the American historian.
Several early 19th-century musicians held situations as organists in
London; among them Grenville, Scott, Lockhart, Mather, Stiles and
Warne.
Louis Braille (1809-1852). In 1819 he went to the school for the blind
in Paris. He became proficient on the organ, and held a post in one of
the Paris churches. While a professor at the Institution Nationale des
Jeunes Aveugles, he perfected his system of point writing.
Alexander Rodenbach, Belgian statesman. When a member of the chamber
of deputies, in 1836, he introduced and succeeded in establishing by
law the right of blind and deaf-mute children to an education.
Dr William Moon (1818-1894), the inventor of the type for the blind
which bears his name.
Rev. W.H. Milburn, D.D. (1823-1903), the American chaplain, known in
the United States as "The Blind Man Eloquent." He often travelled from
thirty to fifty thousand miles a year, speaking and preaching every
day. He was three times chaplain of the House of Representatives, and
in 1893 was chosen to the chaplaincy of the senate.
Dr T.R. Armitage (b. 1824). After spending his youth on the continent,
he became a medical student, first at King's College, and afterwards
at Paris and Vienna. His career promised to be a brilliant one, but at
the age of thirty-six failing sight caused him to abandon his
profession. For the rest of his life he devoted his time and fortune
to the interests of the blind. He reorganized the Indigent Blind
Visiting Society, endowed its Samaritan fund, founded the British and
Foreign Blind Association, and, in conjunction with the late duke of
Westminster and others, founded the Royal Normal College.
Elizabeth Gilbert (b. 1826), daughter of the bishop of Chichester. She
lost her sight at the age of three. She was educated at home, and took
her full share of household duties and cares and pleasures. When she
was twenty-seven, she began to consider the condition of the poor
blind of London. She saw some one must befriend those who had been
taught trades, some one who could supply material, give employment or
dispose of the articles manufactured. In 1854 her scheme was started,
and work was given to six men in their own homes, but the number soon
increased. In 1856 a committee was formed, a house converted into a
factory, and the Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the
Blind was founded.
Rev. George Matheson, D.D. (b. 1842), preacher and writer of the
Church of Scotland. The degree of D.D. was conferred on him by the
university of Edinburgh in 1879, and he was appointed Baird Lecturer
in 1881, and St Giles' Lecturer in 1882.
Henry Fawcett (1833-1884), professor of political economy at
Cambridge, and postmaster-general.
W.H. Churchman of Pennsylvania, who was instrumental in establishing
the schools for the blind in Tennessee, Indiana and Wisconsin.
H.L. Hall, founder of the workshops and home for the blind in
Philadelphia; by his energetic management he raised the standard of
work for the adult blind throughout America.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See also W.H. Levy, _Blindness and the Blind_ (1872);
J. Wilson, _Biography of the Blind_ (1838); Dr T.R. Armitage,
Education and Employment of the Blind (2nd ed., 1882); R.H. Blair,
_Education of the Blind_ (1868); M. Anagnos, _Education of the Blind_
(1882); H.J. Wilson, _Institutions, Societies and Classes for the
Blind in England and Wales_ (1907); Guillie, _Instruction and
Amusements of the Blind_ (1819); Dr W. Moon, _Light for the Blind_
(1875); R. Meldrum, _Light on Dark Paths_ (2nd ed., 1891); Dr H. Roth,
_Prevention of Blindness_ (1885), and his _Physical Education of the
Blind_ (1885); _Report of Royal Commission_ (1889); Gavin Douglas,
_Remarkable Blind Persons_ (1829); John Bird, _Social Pathology_
(1862); M. de la Sizeranne, _The Blind in Useful Avocations_ (Paris,
1881), _True Mission of Smaller Schools_ (Paris, 1884), _The Blind in
France_ (Paris, 1885), _Two Years' Study and Work for the Blind_
(Paris, 1890), and _The Blind as seen by a Blind Man_ [translated by
Dr Park Lewis] (Paris, 1893); Dr Emile Javal, _The Blind Man's World_
[translated by Ernest Thomson] (Paris, 1904); Prof. A. Mell,
_Encyklopadisches Handbuch des Blindenwesens_ (Vienna, 1899).
(F. J. C.)