41 



received no help from any glasses, till I took specta- 

 cles with the largest circles. Close to the upper se. 

 micircle on both sides, I cut the bone, and taking 

 out the glasses, put black Spanish leather, taper. wise 

 into the emptied circles. These took in my whole 

 eye at the wider end, and through the narrower end 

 I can read the smallest print. Into this end I can 

 only put my little finger, not quite to the first joint. 

 But they may be made wider or narrower^ and longer 

 or shorter, as best fits every eye. 



" At first I could not bear them above two hours 

 at a time : now I can use them above twelve hours in 

 four and twenty. Aiid they prove a great help to those 

 who are purblind, who have weak eyes or decayed 

 with age. But for the purblind they must be made 

 shorter, longer for eyes decayed with age. 



ft Instead of leather, they may be made of paper, 

 coloured black, and pasted on, and with inner folds 

 to be drawn out, Jrom one inch to three." 



In some men the iris has a faculty of darting out 

 light. .Dr. Willis mentions one, who after drinking 

 wine plentifully, could see to read in the darkest night, 

 And Pliny records of Tiberius Cesar, that if he waked 

 in the night, he could see every thing for awhile, a<s 

 in the broad day-light. Dr. Briggs gives a parallel 

 instance of a gentleman iu Bedfordshi're. 



iv G Shu various substitutes for the use of the eyes, 

 in many blind persons. In some the defect has been 

 supplied, by au excellent gift of remembering what they 

 had seen ; in some by a delicate sense of smelling ; iu 

 Others, by a fine sense of hearing. So Richard Clut- 

 tcrbuck of Rcdborough in Gloucestershire, who was 

 stone bliudj had so curious an ear, that he could hear 

 the fine sand of an hour glass full. In some it has 

 been supplied by an exquisite sense of feeling, so that 

 the same Richard Clutterbuck was able to perform all 

 sorts of curious works. He could not only take a 

 watch in pieces, and set it together again, but could 

 also make all sorts of stringed instruments of music* 

 He likewise played ou them by notes cut in their 



