104 CHILDREN BORN BUND RESTORED TO SIGHT. 



Sense of vi>ion an d he was put to bed, and told to keep himself quiet, but 

 af tfr the oper- , ■ . r ! ' 



ation. upon the house-surgeon going to Intn half an hour after- 



wards, his eye was found uncovered, and he was looking at 

 his bed curtains, which were close drawn. The bandage 

 was replaced, but so delighted was the boy with seeing-, that 

 he again immediately removed it. This circumstance dis- 

 tressed the house-surgeon, who had been directed to pre- 

 vent him from looking at any thing till the next day, when 

 the experiment was to be repeated. Finding that he could 

 not enforce bis instructions, he thought it most advisable to 

 repeat the experiment about two hours after the operation. 

 At first the boy called the different cards round ; but upon 

 being shown a square, and asked if he could rind any cor- 

 ners to it, he was very desirous of touching it. This being 

 refused, he examined it for some time, and said at last, that 

 he had found a corner, and then readily counted the four 

 corners of the square; and afterwards when a triangle was 

 shown him, he counted the corners in the same way; but in 

 doing so his eye went along the edge from corner to corner, 

 naming them as he went along. 



Next day, when I saw him, he told me he had seen " the 

 soldiers with their fifes and pretty things." The guards in 

 the morning had inarched past the hospital with their band; 

 on hearing the music he had got out of bed, and gone to the 

 window to look at them. Seeing the bright barrels of the 

 musquets, he must in his mind have connected them with 

 the sounds which he heard, and mistaken them for musical 

 instruments. On examining the eye 24 hours after the ope- 

 ration, the pupil was found to be clear. A pair of scissors 

 was shown him, and he said it was a knife. On being told 

 he was wrong, he could not make them out; but the mo- 

 ment he touched them he said they were scissors, and 

 seemed delighted with the discovery. On being shown a 

 guinea at the distance of 15 inches from his eye, he said it 

 was a seven shilling piece, but placing it about 5 inches from 

 his eye, he knew it to be a guinea; and made the same mis- 

 take, as often as the experiment was repeated. 



From this time he was constantly improving himself by 

 looking at, and examining with his hands, every thing 

 within his reach, but he frequently forgot what he had learnt. 



Ou 



