4S 



usual form, and set upon protuberant lines on the 

 wood. Yet evcu this hardly came up to the skill of 

 Van-Eyck, the organist of Utrecht, who, though he 

 had been blind from two years old, played on all 

 sorts of instruments. 



Others have been able to take a face by the touch, 

 and mould it in wax with the utmost exactness : as 

 was the blind sculptor, who thus took the likeness of 

 the Duke de Bracciano, and made a marble statue of 

 King Charles the first extremely well. 



26. But more than all this, some persons have been 

 able even to distinguish colours by the touch* Peter 

 t)f Maestricht, though perfectly blind, distinguished 

 l)y his touch the different colours of cloth. John 

 Vermaasen of Utrecht did the same; judging by the 

 different degrees of roughness which he felt. 



Yet blind persons. even though they distinguish them 

 by the touch, have no idea of Tisible objects. Thus 

 the gentleman couched by Dr. Chesselden : he had 

 no idea of distance, but imagined all the objects ho 

 saw, touched his eyes in the same manner as those 

 he felt did his skin. 



An extract from Dr. Chesscldcn's account of this 

 person, will not be unacceptable to the curious. 



u This young ger*$emn ecuhl ia ft strong light dis- 

 tinguish black, white, and scarlet, Yet the faint 

 ideas he had of them before he was couched, did not 

 suffice to make him know them after. He now thought 

 scarlet the most beautiful of all colours. Of others, 

 the most gay, were the most pleasing. But the first 

 time he saw black, he was very uneasy, yet after a 

 while lie was reconciled to it. When he first saw, 

 no objects was so agreeable to him as those that were 

 smooth and regular, although he knew not the shape 

 of any thing, nor could distinguish one from another, 

 either by its shape or size. Being told what those 

 things were, whose forms he knew by feeling, he 

 would carefully observe, that he might know them 

 again. - Thus, having often forgot which was the cat 



