'23() PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I 7'28. 



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 objects 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 on 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 objects 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, Mr. C. relates: 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 agreeable to his eyes, expecting those persons would appear 

 most beautiful that he loved most, and such things to be most agreeable to his 

 sight that were so to his taste. They thought he soon knew what pictures re- 

 presented, which were showed to him, but they found afterwards they were 

 mistaken : for about 2 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 shown his father's picture in a locket at his mother's watch, and told 

 what it was, he acknowledged 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 sight, and the things he saw, he 

 thought extremely large ; but on seeing things larger, those first seen he 

 conceived less, never being able to imagine any lines beyond the bounds he 

 saw ; the room he was in he said, he knew to be but part of the house, 

 yet he could not conceive that the whole house could look larger. Before 

 he was couched, he expected little advantage from seeing, worth undergoing 

 an operation for, except reading and writing ; for he said, he thought he 

 could have no more pleasure in walking abroad than he had in the garden. 



