

' 





594 



BLIND. 



Blind. 



Problem of 

 Molineux. 



XJLIN'D, an epithet applied to a living creature en- 

 tirely deprived of the sense of sight. It belongs to 

 medicine to point out the method of curing or alle- 

 viating this malady, in cases where it admits of cure 

 or palliation. What we propose in this article, is, 

 to examine the mental, rather than the bodily state 

 of those individuals of the human species, who have 

 been destitute of eye-sight from earliest infancy ; to 

 estimate the privations under which they labour, 

 and the expedients by which these may be most suc- 

 cessfully compensated ; to inquire into their capacity 

 of enjoyment, and of mental improvement ; and the 

 proper means of rendering them comfortable in them- 

 selves, and useful members of society. 



It was put as a question, by Mr Molineux to Mr 

 Locke, whether a person, blind from his birth, 

 would, upon being suddenly restored to sight, be 

 able to distinguish, by his eyes alone, a globe from 

 a cube, the difference of which he was previously 

 aware of by feeling ? Both these gentlemen were of 

 opinion, that the distinction could not be made by- 

 such a person by the sight till first assisted by the 

 touch ; and their conclusion seemed amply confirmed 

 by the experience of several persons, who, having 

 been afflicted with cataracts from their earliest years, 

 and afterwards receiving their 6ight by the opera- 

 tion of couching, appeared at first unable to distin- 

 guish any one thing from another, however different 

 in shape and magnitude. A very remarkable case of 

 this kind has been detailed by Mr Cheselden, the ce- 

 lebrated anatomist, in No. 402. of the Philosophical 

 Transactions, of a young gentleman, who was 

 couched by him in the 13th year of his age. As it 

 tends greatly to illustrate our present subject, as 

 well as the general nature of vision, we shall insert 

 its most interesting particulars, in Mr Cheselden's 

 own words. 



" Though we say of this gentleman, that he was 

 blind, as we do of all people who have ripe cata- 

 racts, yet they are never so blind from that cause, 

 telden. " but tnat tne y can discern day from night ; and, for 

 the most part, in a strong light, distinguish black, 

 white, and scarlet : but they cannot perceive the 

 shape of any thing. For the light by which these 

 perceptions are made, being let in obliquely through 

 the aqueous humour, or the anterior surface of the 

 crystalline, (by which the rays cannot be brought 

 to a focus upon the retina,) they can discern in no 

 other manner, than a sound eye can through a glass 

 of broken jelly, where a great variety of surfaces so 

 differently refract the light, that the several distinct 

 pencils of ray3 cannot be collected by the eye into 

 their proper foci ; wherefore, the shape of an object 

 in such a case, cannot be at all discerned, though 

 the colour may : And thus it was with this young 

 gentleman, who, though he knew these colours 

 asunder in a good light, yet, when he saw them af- 

 ter he was couched, the faint ideas he had of them 

 before, were not sufficient for him to know them by 

 afterwards ; and, therefore, he did not think them 



Account of 

 the young 

 man couch- 



the same which he had before known by those names. 

 Now scarlet he thought the most beautiful of all co- v 

 lours, and of others the most gay were the most 

 pleasing ; whereas the first time he saw black it gave 

 him great uneasiness, yet after a little time he was 

 reconciled to it ; yet some months after, seeing, by 

 accident, a negro woman, he was struck with great 

 horror at the sight. 



" When he first saw, he was so far from making 

 any judgment about distances, that he thought all 

 objects whatever touched his eyes, (as he expressed 

 it,) as what he felt did his skin ; and thought no ob- 

 jects so agreeable as those which were smooth and 

 regular, though he could form no judgment of their 

 shape, or guess what it was in any object that was 

 pleasing to him. He knew not the shape of any 

 thing ; nor any one thing from another, however 

 different in shape or magnitude ; but, upon being 

 told what things were, whose form he before knew 

 from feeling, he would carefully observe, that he 

 might know them again ; but having too many ob- 

 jects to learn at once, he forgot many of them, and 

 (as he said) at first he learned to know, and again 

 forgot, a thousand things in a day. One particular 

 only, though it may appear trifling, I will relate. 

 Having often forgot which was the cat and which 

 the dog, he was ashamed to ask ; but catching the 

 cat, (which he knew by feeling,) he was observed to 

 look at her stedfastly, and then, setting her down, 

 said, .So, puss, I shall know you another time. 



" He was very much surprised, that those things 

 which he had liked best did not appear most agree- 

 able to his eyes ; expecting those persons would ap- 

 pear most beautiful that he loved most, and such 

 things to be most agreeable to his sight that were so 

 to his taste. We thought he soon knew what pic- 

 tures represented which wefe shewed to him, but we 

 found afterwards we were mistaken ; for, about two 

 months after he was couched, he discovered at once 

 they represented solid bodies ; when, to that time, 

 he considered them only as party-coloured planes, or 

 surfaces diversified with variety of paint ;. but, even 

 then, he was no less surprised, expecting the pictures 

 would feel like the things they represented $ and was 

 amazed when he found those parts which, by their 

 light and shadow, appeared now round and uneven, 

 felt only flat like the rest ; and asked, which was 

 the lying sense, feeling or seeing ? 



" Being shewn his father's picture in a locket at 

 his mother's watch, and told what it was, he acknow- 

 ledged a likeness, but was vastly surprised ; asking, 

 how it could be that a large face could be expressed 

 in so little room, saying, it should have seemed as 

 impossible to him, as to put a bushel of any thing 

 into a pint. 



"At first, he could bear but very little light, and 

 the things he saw he thought extremely large ; but 

 upon seeing things larger, those first seen he con- 

 ceived less ; never being able to imagine any lines be- 

 yond the bounds he saw. The room he was in, he 



Biind. 



