<8 ACCOUNT OF A BOY 



" It was difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain with preci- 

 sion, the degree of sight which he enjoyed ; but from the 

 preternatural acuteness which his senses of touch and smell 

 had acquired, in consequence of their being habitually employ- 

 ed to collect that information for which the sight is peculiarly 

 adapted, it may be presumed with confidence, that he derived 

 little, if any assistance from his eyes, as organs of vision. The 

 appearances of disease, besides, in the eyes, were such as to 

 render it in the highest degree probable, that they enabled him 

 merely to distinguish colours, and differences in the intensity 

 Of light." 



From this history of the patient's previous situation, it ap- 

 peared evident that his case was not of such a sort as to afford 

 an opportunity of bringing Cheselden's conclusions to the test. 

 On the contrary, his habits of observation, and even of experi- 

 ment^ on his visual sensations, combined with the singular 

 acuteness and discrimination of his olfactory perceptions, ren- 

 dered it almost certain that the results of a successful operation 

 on his eyes would be similar to those described in Mr Ware's 

 paper. Such, accordingly, has, in point of fact, been the issue 

 of this new experiment ; — in describing which, however, I 

 must remark, to the honour of Mr Wardrop, as a cautious and 

 philosophical observer, he has abstained from drawing the 

 slightest inference to the prejudice of Cheselden's statement ; 

 — a statement which nothing can disprove till a case shall oc- 

 cur of a patient cured of total, or almost total blindness ; and 

 till this case shall be observed and examined with all the 

 nice precautions which so delicate and complicated a pheno- 

 menon demands. 



