Braille, Louis

Louis (1806-1852), a French educator of the blind. He was blind almost from birth, but was educated at the Institute for the Blind at Paris. As a lad he developed wonderful proficiency in music. He illustrates the principle that a person deficient in one of the senses may become unusually proficient in the others. Young Louis developed remarkable delicacy of ear and touch. At twenty he was the most remarkable organist in France. He invented the system of writing with points. Braille, as his system is known, is now used almost entirely in institutions for the blind. Braille point has superseded the raised letter entirely for purposes of correspondence. The entire system is based on point pricks in paper. Forty-three letters and ten numerals are based on ten fundamental arrangements of from one to four point pricks in a square. A point prick in the upper left hand corner, and another immediately beneath in the lower left hand corner, B; four pricks, one in each corner, represent G, etc. See Blindness