BORN BLIND AND DEAF. 11 



ances being made, 1st, for the visual sensations which were fa- 

 miliar to the patient from his infancy, and, 2dbj, for the in- 

 timate and accurate acquaintance which he had acquired of 

 things external, by a comparison of the perceptions of smell 

 and of touch, the result appears, on the whole, as favourable 

 as could reasonably have been expected, to the Berkeleian 

 theory of vision : Nor am I able to observe a single circum- 

 stance of any importance, which is not perfectly reconcilable 

 with the general tenor of Cheselden's narrative*. 



B2 The 



* I have said, the " general tenor of Chbselden's narrative,'" — for there are 

 some expressions ascribed by him to his patient, which must, in my opinion, be 

 understood with a considerable degree of latitude. And, indeed, if we reflect 

 for a moment on the astonishment and agitation likely to be produced by the 

 sudden acquisition of a new sense, we cannot fail to be satisfied, that the autho- 

 rity of the narrative rests much more on the conviction which the whole circum- 

 stances of the case had left on Cheselden's own mind, than on the verbal an- 

 swers (intelligent and satisfactory as most of these are), which his patient gave 

 to the queries of his attendants. It was for this reason, among others, that I 

 before hinted at the advantages which he would have enjoyed, in observing and 

 describing the facts before him, if his patient had been deaf as well as blind) like 

 the subject of this memoir. 



Of one expression employed by Cheselden's young man, I think it proper to 

 take some notice here, on account of the stress which Mr Ware seems disposed 

 to lay upon it, as at variance with the language used by his patient Master W. 

 " When the young gentleman first saw, (says Cheselden), 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." It seems to 

 me inconceivable, that Cheselden could have meant this last phrase to be inter- 

 preted literally ; for the thing which it implies is altogether impossible. The 

 most obvious meaning which the words convey is, that the object seemed to be 

 contiguous to, or in contact with, the cornea ; whereas the truth is, that the office 

 of the cornea is merely to transmit the rays to the retina, which it does without 

 itself receiving any sensible impression of which we are conscious. Mr Smith, 

 too. has objected to this mode of speaking, though on grounds somewhat different. 

 f{ When the young gentleman said, (I quote Mr Smith's words), that the objects 



which 



