Produced by Bryan Ness, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY FIVE LECTURES ON BLINDNESS By KATE M. FOLEY Home Teacher of the Blind California State Library CALIFORNIA STATE PRINTING OFFICE SACRAMENTO 1919 Copyright 1919 By the California State Library. CONTENTS PHOTOGRAPH 4 FOREWORD 5 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BLINDNESS 6 THE BLIND CHILD AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 14 THE RE-EDUCATION OF THE BLIND ADULT 23 THE ATTITUDE OF THE PUBLIC TOWARD THE BLIND 32 PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS AND CONSERVATION OF VISION IN ADULTS AND CHILDREN 40 * * * * * [Illustration: Miss Foley teaching a class of men at the Industrial Home for the Adult Blind, Oakland, California.] * * * * * FOREWORD. The following lectures were written primarily to be delivered at the summer sessions of the University of California, at Berkeley and at Los Angeles, in the summer of 1918. We are printing them, however, so that the information in them can be more widely distributed, since they are the outgrowth of almost a quarter of a century spent in work for the blind, and were written from the standpoint of a blind person, seeking to better the condition of the blind. They were addressed not to the blind, but to the seeing public, for the benefit that will accrue to the blind from a better understanding of their problems. The successful work of Miss Foley as a student in the California School for the Blind, as a volunteer teacher, and in recent years as home teacher for the California State Library, makes these lectures particularly important and authoritative. MILTON J. FERGUSON, State Librarian. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BLINDNESS. In view of the widespread interest now manifested in the blind and their problems--an interest deepened by reports from the warring countries--I feel that a knowledge of the psychology of blindness should prove of great help to those wishing to take part in the re-education of the war-blinded soldiers. As early as 1773, Diderot wrote an essay on the psychology of blindness, and, as this essay was written at the very beginning of blind education, it is interesting to note that his ideas coincide with the most advanced deductions on the subject today. However, as these deductions are not very numerous, and as the available literature is very scant, I shall be obliged to draw largely from my own experience and that of other blind persons, in presenting the subject to you.