Methods Of The Blind

The blind man has to depend almost entirely on the accuracy of his ears to guide hun wherever he may wish to go, and it is remarkable in what a short time he becomes familiar with a new locality and fresh surroundings. Few people are aware of the powers of the ear, but the blind, through constant exercise of that organ, are able to discover objects almost as rapidly as a seeing person. For instance, when walking in a perfect calm, he can ascertain the proximity of objects by the feeling of the atmosphere upon his faca It would seem at first that the echo given back, were it only from his breathing, might be sensible to his ear, but it has been ascertained by experiment that a blind man with his ears stopped can teil when any large object is close to his face, even when it approaches so slowly as not to cause any sensible current of air. When he is walking along the street, he can teil whether it is wide or narrow, whether the houses are high or low, if any opening which he may be passing is a court closed np at the end or whether it has an outlet to another street, and he can teil by the sound of his footsteps in what lane, or court, or square he is. He goes along boldly, seeming to see with his ears and to have landmarks in the air. Of course no blind man likes to go over a new route unattended, but af ter he has traversed it once he knows every point of importance to him. -