sease, and
may be avoided by a proper diet, and by active mental and bodily
employment. Slovenliness we may of course avoid, whenever there is a
wish to do so, and an abundance of water.

But the sense of feeling, or especially that accumulation of it which we
call TOUCH, and which seems to be specially located in the balls of the
fingers and on the palm of the hand, is susceptible of a degree of
improvement far beyond what would be the natural result of cleanliness,
and freedom from plethora or corpulence.

I have already alluded, in my general remarks at the head of this
chapter, to the acuteness of this sense in the blind, as well as in the
dealer in cloths. I might add many more illustrations, but a single one,
in relation to the blind, which was accidentally omitted in that place,
will be sufficient.

The blind at the Institution in this city, as well as in other similar
institutions, are now taught to read and write with considerable
facility. But how? Most of my readers may have heard how they read, but
I will describe the process as well as I can. A description of their
method of writing is more difficult.

The letters are formed by pressing the paper, while quite moist, upon
rather large type, which raises a ridge in the line of every letter, and
which remains prominent after the paper is dry. In order to read, the
pupil has to feel out these ridges. A circular ridge on the paper he is
told is O; a perpendicular one, I; a crooked one, S; &c. They read music
and arithmetic printed in a similar manner. A few months of practice, in
this way, will enable an ingenious youth to read with considerable ease
and despatch.

Now if nothing is wanting but a little training to render the touch so
accurate, would it not be useful to train every child to judge
frequently of the properties of bodies by this sense? And cannot every
one recall to his mind a thousand situations in which a greater accuracy
of this sense would have saved him much inconvenience, as well as
afforded him no little pleasure?

I shall conclude this section with a few remarks on the HAND. The custom
of neglecting, or almost neglecting the left hand, though nearly
universal, in this country at least, appears to me to be
wrong--decidedly so. For although more blood may be sent to the right
arm than to the left, as physiologists say, yet the difference is not as
great at birth as it is afterward; so that education either weakens the
one or strengthe