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Taking as its starting point the establishment, in the late eighteenth century, of philanthropic institutions for the blind, this book traces the development and conduct of voluntary charities for the visually impaired to the first decades of the twentieth century. As well as examining the policies and administration of charitable bodies, it also considers external influences - intellectual, social and economic - which shaped their character and practice. Through this detailed study of a single class of disabled person, a considerable contribution is made to the wider literature on the 'mixed economy of welfare' and the history of charity generally. The proper place of the disabled in their society was an issue under discussion throughout the period covered by this book; and it was a question that always aroused uncertainties and disagreements. A systematic historical study of attitudes towards the blind reveals much about the experience of physical disability and society's shifting responses to it.