Bew on Blindness. loi 



in Manchester before Dalton came ; the other is of John 

 Metcalf, a man connected with the neighbourhood, and 

 certainly wonderful as being a surveyor of hill roads, 

 a blind man dealing with distances and precipices. 



The following is from Mr. Bew's paper, vol. i. p. i68, of 

 the ' Memoirs of the Society.' 



* I pass over a number of instances that might be 

 offered to your notice, and proceed to give some account of 

 Dr. Henry Moyes, the elegant reader on philosophical 

 chemistry, whose lectures the greatest part of this Society 

 had the satisfaction of attending, and whose personal ac- 

 quaintance several of us have enjoyed. 



* Possessed of native genius, and ardent in his application, 

 he made rapid advances in various departments of erudition, 

 and not only acquired the fundamental principles of 

 mechanics, music, and the languages, but likewise 

 entered deeply into the investigation of the profounder 

 sciences ; and displayed an acute and general knowledge 

 of geometry, optics, algebra, of astronomy, chemistry, 

 and, in short, of most of the branches of the Newtonian 

 philosophy. 



* Mechanical exercises were the favourite employments 

 of his infant years. At a very early age he made himself 

 acquainted with the use of edged tools so perfectly, that 

 notwithstanding his entire blindness, he was able to make 

 little windmills ; and he even constructed a loom with his 

 own hands, which still show the cicatrices of wounds he 

 received in the execution of these juvenile exploits. 



* By a most agreeable intimacy and frequent intercourse 

 which I enjoyed with this accomplished blind gentleman 

 whilst he resided in Manchester, I had an opportunity of 

 repeatedly observing the peculiar manner in which he 



