203 Account of two Children 



dc'i^bt.eJ was the boy with sceino;, that he again immefli- 

 ately rem weJ it. This circumstance distressed the house- 

 sui-geon, who had been directed to i)vevenl him from look- 

 ing at any thing i»t: the ne:t day, when the experiment was 

 to be repeated. Finding that he could not enforce his in- 

 structions, he thought it most adviseable to repeat the ex- 

 periment about !". o hours after the operation. At first the 

 boy called the different cards round ; but upon being sliown 

 a square, and asked if he could find aqy corners to it, he was 

 very desirous of touching it. This being refused, be exa- 

 mined It for some time, and said at last that he had found a 

 comer, and then readily counted the four corners of the 

 square ; and afterwards when a trianale was shown him, he 

 •counted the corners in the same way; but in doing so his e\e 

 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 ii» 

 the morning had marched past the hospital with their band ; 

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

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

 the musquets, he must in his mind have connected thera 

 with the sounds which he heard, and mistaken them for mu- 

 sical instruments. On examining the eye 24 hours after the 

 operation, the pupil was found to be clear. A pair of scis- 

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

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

 moment he touched them he said they were scissors, and 

 seen)ed delighted with the discovery. On being shown a 

 gninca at the distance of 15 inches from his eve, 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 expeiinient was repeated. 



From this time he wasconsequentlv improving himself by 

 looking at, and examining with his hands, every thing with- 

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

 On the 10th I saw him again, and I told him his eye was so 

 well that he might go about as he pleased without leaving 

 the room, ile ininKdiatcly went to the window, and called 



out. 



