104 Chapter VI. 



telligence, which was not impaired, the sense of touch 

 alone was left to the afflicted child. It is astonishing 

 what human intelligence was able to accomplish in her 

 case, even without the normal assistance of exterior 

 sense perceptions and speech. In spite of the extremely 

 limited means of communication by the sense of touch, 

 Dr. Howe succeeded in gradually leading the afflicted 

 girl to a perception and knowledge of surrounding ob- 

 jects, and even in teaching her to read and write by 

 means of embossed type. The following passage is 

 taken literally from Dr. Howe's report -, 1 



"The first experiment was made by taking the 

 articles in common use, such as knives, forks, spoons, 

 keys, etc., and pasting upon them labels, with their 

 names embossed in raised letters. These she felt care- 

 fully, and soon, of course, distinguished that the crooked 

 lines s-p-o-o-n differed as much from the crooked lines 

 k-e-y, as the spoon differed from the key in form. Then 

 small detached labels with the same words printed upon 

 them were put into her hands; she soon observed that 

 they were the same as those pasted upon the articles. 

 She showed her perception of this similarity by laying 

 the label k-e-y upon the key, and the label s-p-o-o-n 

 upon the spoon. 



"Hitherto the process had been mechanical, and the 

 success about the same as that of teaching a very know- 

 ing dog a variety of tricks. 2 



*) Taken from Sir John Lubbock, "On the Senses, Instincts and 

 Intelligence of Animals" (3d edition, London, 1889), p. 275. 



2 ) In reality Howe's success was decidedly greater. This will be 

 understood when we remember that the girl was entirely blind and 

 deaf. The clever poodle Van did not succeed to the same degree in 

 profiting by Lubbock's instructions, in spite of its excellent organs of 

 sense perception. 



