469 

 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



iii«i«i^ »>i(il. Mechanical Science. 



1. Singular ^CaiSe 6f inverted Vision. — Dr. Goodman relates in the 

 American Journal (of Medical Sciences ?) an instance of a boy, 

 seven years of age, to whom every object appeared inverted. The 

 fact was communicated to Dr. Goodman by the uncle of the boy. 

 ** When his father, who was a distinguished artist, began to give 

 him lessons in drawing, he was very much surprised to find that 

 whatever object he attempted to delineate, he uniformly inverted; 

 if ordered to make a drawing of a candle and candlestick set be- 

 fore him, he invariably drew it with the base represented in the 

 air, and the flame downwards. If it was a chair or table he was 

 set to copy, the same result was the consequence ; the feet were 

 represented in the air, and the upper part of the object, whatever 

 it might be, was turned to the ground. His father, perplexed at 

 what he considered the perverseness of the boy, threatened, and 

 even did punish him for his supposed folly. When questioned on 

 the subject, the youth stated that he drew the objects exactly as 

 he saw them ; and as his drawings were, in other respects, quite ac- 

 curate, there was no reason to doubt his statement. Whenever 

 the object was inverted previous to his drawing it, the drawing 

 was made to represent it in its proper position, showing that the 

 sensations he received from the eye were exactly correspondent 

 with the inverted pictures formed upon the retina. This condition 

 of his vision was observed to continue for more than a year, when 

 his case gradually ceased to attract attention, which was when he 

 was eight years old ; since that time he has imperceptibly ac- 

 quired the habit of seeing things in their actual position. — Med. 

 Rep. vi. 372. 



If this case be correctly described, it is unfortunate that the facts 

 were not more closely examined, and their number multiplied. 

 There is nothing extraordinary in the inverted position of the 

 boy*s drawing corresponding with the inverted figure of the object 

 formed on the retina ; the extraordinary fact is that, of the objects 

 external to the eye, some seemed to the lad in the right position, 

 and others inverted j for from the description it would appear, 

 that the boy saw the upright object to be drawn, and the inverted 

 drawing of it in the same position. Query, Wniat would he have 

 done, if he had been told to make a drawing of his drawing ? that 

 is, to copy his own drawing. The only way in which the state- 

 ment can be really true is, that the boy saw objects, erect or in- 

 verted, according as they were farther from or nearer to the eye. 

 The inverted drawing should have been carried from the eye imtil 

 by the side of the object, and then the effect on the lad compared ; 

 and if, in the course of that passage, it seemed to change its po- 

 sition so as to beconie inverted, as compared to the original object, 



