MAGNITUDES AND DISTANCES OF OBJECTS. 177 



ors. When pieces of paper, one and a half inches 

 square, differently colored, were presented to her, she 

 not only distinguished them from one another, but gave 

 a decided preference to some colors, liking the yellow 

 most, and then pale-pink. 



When desirous of examining an object, she had con- 

 siderable difficulty in directing her eye to it, and finding 

 out its position, moving her hand, as well as her eye in 

 various directions, as a person, when blindfolded, in the 

 dark, gropes with his hand for what he wishes to touch. 



She saw objects upright as we do, and not inverted. 

 She seemed to have the greatest difficulty in finding out 

 the distance of any object, for when the thing was held 

 close to her eye, she would search for it, by stretching 

 her hand far beyond its position, while on other occa- 

 sions she grasped, close to her own face, for objects 

 far remote. 



From these cases, we may infer how faint the con- 

 ceptions of the unfortunate blind must be to the charms 

 and beauties of the external world, and yet having 

 never enjoyed the pleasures which we derive from 

 sight, and therefore being unable to compare their own 

 conditions with ours in this respect, they are far from 

 feeling that regret at their own situation, which we 

 should, if deprived of sight. Indeed, we believe that 

 most persons who never have enjoyed this sense, con- 

 sider their condition by far less deplorable than that 

 of the deaf and dumb. 



Insensibility to certain colors. Sir David Brewster 

 has collected a number of instances in which the eyes 

 of persons were either totally insensible to certain col- 

 ors, or mistook one for another, although in every other 

 respect, the visual organs were quite perfect. Some of 

 these cases are the following. 



Mr. Scott, who describes his own case in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions mistook pink for pale blue, and a full 

 red for a full green. This was a family defect, since Mr. 

 Scott's father, his maternal uncle, one of his sisters, and 

 her two sons all mistook these colors exactly in the same 

 manner. 



A Shoemaker, named Harris, could only distinguish 



