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With a background of 20 years as director of the Perkins Institute, the author has presented the history of the care of the blind through the ages. This is not a treatise on the detailed training of the blind individual but rather a broad survey of the sociologic aspects and the history of the developments of institutions for the blind and the development of the various techniques for assistance of the blind. The attempt to develop a type to be read with the fingers, resulting in the modern Braille system, has been described in a most interesting fashion. Because of the variation in the definition of blindness in various countries, it is almost impossible to estimate the total number of blind in the world; but the author gives a figure of 6,700,000, which, even if only partially correct, emphasizes the tremendous importance of the problem of care and training. This