BORN BLIND AND DEAF. S 



A repetition of such observations and experiments as Che- 

 SEi-DEV made, would, I imagined, be greatly facilitated 

 by the total dtafness of the patient in question ; the judg- 

 ments which a blind man is enabled to form of distances 

 (at least of smatl distances) by the ear, approaching, in 



A 2 point 



operation, the handkerchief which was tied over his eyes having slipped upward,, 

 he distinguished the table, by the side of which his mother was sitting. " It 

 was about a yard and a half from him ; and he observed, that it was covered 

 with a green cloth, (which was really the case), and that it was a little far- 

 ther off than he was able to reach.'" 



Mr Ware afterwards informs us, that " he held a letter before his patient, 

 at the distance of about twelve inches, when he told him, after a short hesita- 

 tion, that it was a piece of paper ; that it was square, which he knew by its 

 corners, and that it was longer in one direction than it was in the other." — 

 " I then (says he) shewed him a small oblong band-box, covered with r'ed lea- 

 ther ; which he said was red, and square, and pointed at once to its four cor- 

 ners. The observation, however, which appeared to me most remarkable, 

 was, that which related to a white stone-mug ; which he first called a white 

 bason, but, soon after, recollecting himself, said it was a mug, because it had: 

 a handle." 



Of the correctness and fidelity of this statement, I have not the slightest 

 doubt. But the only inference which can, with certainty, be deduced from it 

 is, that the patient saw too well before the operation, to make his perceptions ojf- 

 terwards of any value for deciding the point in question. If he was able to re- 

 cognise a green cloth, and a piece of white paper, the very moment that the ban- 

 dage was removed, the degree of sight which he possessed previous to Me 

 Ware's acquaintance with him, must have been such as to furnish him with a va- 

 riety of sensations, quite sufficient to serve as materials for an imperfect visual 

 language ; — a language, if not accurately significant of comparative distances 

 from the eye, at least fully adequate to convey, through the channel of that or- 

 gan, the intimation of distance in general, or of what Berkeley calls outness ; — 

 perhaps, also, some indistinct perception of diversities of visible figure. The 

 slightest, and, to us, the most evanescent shades of difference in these sensations, 

 win, we may be assured, become in the case of such an individual, signs of all 

 the various changes in the state of surrounding objects, with which they have 

 any connection. 



Having mentioned, on this occasion, the name of Mr Ware, I think it but 

 justice to him to add, that he does not appear to me to be himself disposed to 



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