lorn with Cataracts in their Eyes. 209 



out, ^*What is that moving?" lacked liim ;vhat he thought 

 it was ? He said, " A doe drawing a wheelbarrow. There 

 is one, two, thrc- dogs drawing another. How very pret- 

 ty !" These proved to be carts and horses on the road, which 

 he saw from a two pair of stairs window. 



On the igih, the different coloured pieces of card wepe 

 separateiv placed before his eye, and so little had he gained 

 in thirteen days, that he could not without counting their 

 corners one by one tell their shape. This he did with great 

 facility, running his eye quickly along the outline, so that it 

 was evident he was still learning, just as a child learns to 

 read. He had got so far as to know the angles, when they 



were placed before him, and to count the number belonging 



... < 



to any one object. 



The reason of his making so slow a progress was, that 

 these figures had never been subjected to examination by 

 touch, and were unlike any thing he was accustomed to see. 



He had pot so much the habit of assisting his eyes with his 



o . 



hands, that nothing but holding them could keep them from 

 the object. 



On the 26th the experiments were again repeated on the 

 couched eye, to ascertain the degree of improvement which 

 had been niade. It was now found that the boy, on looking 

 at any one of the cards in a good light, could tell the tbnu 

 nearly as readily as the colour. 



From these two cases the following conclusions may be 

 drawn : 



That, where the eye before the cataract is removed, has 

 only been capable of discerning light, without being able to 

 distinguish colours, objects after its removal will set m to 

 touch the eye, and there will be no knowledge of their 

 outline; which confirms the observations made by Mr. Che- 

 seldtn : 



That where the eye has previously distinguished colours, 

 there must also be an imperfect knowledge ot distances, but 

 not of outline, which however will afterwards be very soon 

 acquired, as happened in Mr. Ware's cases. This is proved 

 by the history of the first boy in the present paper, who be- 

 fore the operation, had no knowledge of colours or distances, 



Vol. 28. No. 111. .<4«^. 1807. O but 



