50 Notices respecting New Books. 



the pupil, without observing the slightest sensation in the eye. 

 Mr. Thomas assured me, he has more than once put his finger 

 on the cornea itself, which then appeared insensible; but when 

 he touched the eyelid or evelash, she was instantly sensible of it. 

 I have sat for a C()nsiderai)Ie time attending to her sewing, but 

 apparently indifferent about it ; and during these visits 1 have 

 examined her every action as minutely as possible, and I have 

 been satisfied she could not see. 



" August 31. I was induced to visit her again with Mr. Thomas 

 (from hearing from her step -father, Mr. Hughes, that she had 

 recently found herself possessed of certain powers of an extraor- 

 dinary nature), and took considerable pains in examining the 

 eyes; but we found little or no alteration in their general ap- 

 pearance, except that the pupil was not quite so much dilated as 

 before ; but the light of a candle appeared to have no influence 

 upon it. We found her father's account very accurate, and that 

 she really could read by the application of the finger to the 

 letters with considerable fluency. As it wjis probable any other 

 person who had not the same opportunity of judging with Mr. 

 Thomas and me, might think it possible she could see, I thought 

 it right to bind something over the eyes, and I made use of a 

 Manchester cotton shawl which went twice round the head, 

 crossed at the eves, and was tied at the back of the head as 

 firmly as she could bear it. I placed in her hand a number of a 

 folio bible, and she read very correctly one verse of a chapter in 

 Genesis. I then requested to have another book, which hap- 

 pened, to be a volume of the Annals of the Church. I opened 

 it, and she read to me several lines, with the alteration in a pro- 

 per name of onlv one letter, which upon being desired to read 

 over again she corrected. I then turned to a few lines of errata, 

 and she read them correctly, only reading the letter I as an i and 

 a dot. The mode she follows^ is to place her fingers upon the 

 book, and, when she feels the letters, to proceed from the begin- 

 ning to the extremity of the word, and back again, until she 

 names it ; and so on, to the next word. She often makes use 

 of the fingers of both h.ands, particularly the fore-fingers, and 

 when they are in good order, she will read from twenty-five to 

 thirty words in half a minute. 



" On the following dav, I mentioned the circumstance to a 

 friend who was anxious to see a phaenomenon of this kind, and 

 he met me in St. Paul's square. Miss MacAvoy again read 

 over to us a verse in the Bible ; a iew lines in the Annais of the 

 Church, and tlie title-page, mottoes, and several lines in a 

 r2mo edition of Grahames Sabbath. I placed her fingers upon 

 a bbnk leaf, and desired her to read. The attempt was made, 

 but she said she could not feel any letters. Her fingers were 



then 



