John Alston, a merchant of Glasgow, and director of the asylum for the blind in that city, died in 1846. In 1832 the society for the encouragement of the useful arts in Scotland offered a gold medal for the best form of letter adapted to relief printing for the blind. Mr. Alston and Mr. Taylor of Norwich were constituted referees. An alphabet in Roman capitals was, after some modification by Mr. Alston, adopted by the society. From this time Mr. Alston devoted himself to the work of supplying the blind with books. The cost of preparing these is very crreat, vet Mr. Alston, aided by con-tributions, succeeded in publishing the Scriptures in 19 volumes, and 23 volumes of miscellaneous works, besides maps and cards.