210 PSYCHOLOGY. 



determinations the blind man's space is very different from 

 our space, yet a deep analogy remains between the two, 

 * Big ' and ' little,' * far ' and * near,' are similar contents of con- 

 sciousness in both of us. But the measure of the bigness and 

 the farness is very different in him and in ourselves. He, for 

 example, can have no notion of what we mean by objects 

 appearing smaller as they move away, because he must 

 always conceive of them as of their constant tactile size. 

 Nor, whatever analogy the two extensions involve, should 

 we expect that a blind man receiving sight for the first 

 time should recognize his new-given optical objects by their 

 familiar tactile names. Molyneux wrote to Locke : 



" Suppose a man born blind, and now adult, and taught by his touch 

 to distinguish between a cube and a sphere, ... so as to tell, when he 

 felt one and the other, which is the cube, which the sphere. Suppose 

 then the cube and sphere placed on a table and the blind man to be 

 made to see ; query, whether by his sight, before he touched them, he 

 could now distinguish and tell which is the globe, which the cube ?" 



This has remained in literature as ' Molyneux's query.' 

 Molyneux answered ' No.' And Locke says :^ 



" T agree with this thinking gentleman whom I am proud to call my 

 friend, and am of opinion that the blind man at first sight would not be 

 able to say which was the globe, which the cube, whilst he only saw 

 them ; though he could unerringly name them by his touch and 

 certainly distinguish them by the difference of their figures felt." 



This opinion has not lacked experimental confirmation. 

 From Chesselden's case downwards, j^atients operated for 

 congenital cataract have been unable to name at first the 

 things they saw. " So, Puss, I shall know you another time," 

 said Chesselden's patient, after catching the cat, looking at 

 her steadfastly, and setting her down. Some of this inca- 

 pacity is unquestionably due to general mental confusion at 

 the new experience, and to the excessively unfavorable con- 

 ditions for perception which an eye with its lens just extir- 

 pated affords. That the analogy of inner nature between 

 the retinal and tactile sensations goes beyond mere exten- 

 sity is proved by the cases where the patients were the most 

 intelligent, as in the young man operated on by Dr. Franz* 



* Essay cone. Hum. Und., bk. ii. chap. ix. § 8. 



