Sensory Organs and Intelligence 153 



" Immediately she realised this her counte- 

 nance beamed with human reason ; she could no 

 longer be compared to a parrot or a dog." 



Another remarkable case of a similar kind to 

 the above is reported by Mr. E. Chamberlain, 

 and subsequently by H. Keller herself. 1 



H. Keller when she was nineteen months 

 old was seized with a fever, through the effects 

 of which she completely lost her sight and 

 hearing. Her other special senses were un- 

 impaired. From the time, of this illness until 

 she reached the age of seven years, H. Keller 

 states that her life was a blank, meaningless, 

 and concerning the events which took place 

 before she reached the age when her regular 

 education commenced she remembers little or 

 nothing; she lived during this period, as she 

 expresses it, in a condition of mental fog. 

 Those who knew H. Keller during these years 

 state that the predominant features in her char- 

 acter were her excitable, passionate nature and 

 love of mischief. When she was rather over 

 seven years of age she came under the influence 

 of a wise and experienced teacher, and under 



1 The Story of the Life of Helen Keller, by H. Keller, 1903. 



