1 16 On the Restoration of Vision. 



perceive light from darkness, but could not discriminate any ob- 

 ject; with the left I found him capable of seeing objects at a 

 distance indistinctly, and of distinguishing large-sized letters 

 when held in an oblique direction within two inches of his eyes, 

 and with his back turned to the light. If, however, he attempted 

 to read facing the light, he entirely lost this power ; and un- 

 der the most favourable circumstances, the sphere of vision was 

 so circumscribed, that it did not include above three or four let- 

 ters at a time. To mv surprise, as soon as the eye had recovered 

 from the operation, he was able, without spectacles, to see both 

 near and distant objects with a degree of precision quite unusual 

 without their aid. He returned home at the end of ten weeks 

 (a fortnight only after a second operation, which was performed 

 on one eve), and I did not again see him for about nine months, 

 when I found him capable of reading and writing with both eyes, 

 without the assistance of glasses, although with one of them he 

 had never, previous t,o the operation, been able to discern objects 

 from his birth. 



I now engaged him as a footman, being perfectly competent 

 to execute the usual duties attached to this station, except to 

 judge accurately of distances ; he could not at this time snuff a 

 candle with certainty, or pour liquids into a small glass. He 

 neither used spectacles to see near or distant objects by night or 

 day, but he always held small ones more than usually near to his 

 eves when he wished to view them attentively; in doing which he 

 knit his brows, and appeared strongly to exert the powers of the 

 eye. He saw,' to all appearance, at as great a distance as any 

 other person, and was fond of viewing extensive prospects. The 

 scenery about the Irish and Scottish lakes seemed to delight 

 him exceedingly. Finding him however incorrigibly idle and 

 inattentive, I was oliliged to discharge him at the end of the first 

 year, when his knowledge of distances was so much improved, 

 that in the service where he afterwards lived in the country, he 

 for some time acted as coachman. 



Two very extraordinary facts occurred in this case : first, the 

 patient's immediate capability of adjusting his eyes in viewing 

 different distances ; secondly, his having so soon established the 

 susceptibility of the retina of that eye in which he had not seen 

 previously to the operation. The first may, I think, be satis- 

 factorily explained by supposing that in his best eye, the power 

 of ada])tation had been acquired previously to the performance 

 of the operation; for the crystalline lens having been opake, and 

 nearly absorbed, was not only useless in effecting the natural-re- 

 fraction of the rays of light but also actually impeded them in 

 their progress to the retina, the only^ssage by which they 

 could make their way to the bottom of the eye, being through 



the 



