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Art. XXXII. — Notice concerning David Gilbert Taie^ a lad 
born Deaf and Blind, in the Shetland Islands. By Samuel 
Hibbert, M. D. M. W. S., and Corresponding Member of 
the Philosophical Society of Manchester, &c. Contained in a 
Letter to Professor Jameson. 
Dear Sir, 
During a mineralogical excursion in the course of last 
summer, whilst I was engaged in examining the Island of Fet- 
lar, situated to the north-east of the Shetland group, I there 
learnt the existence of an adult born deaf and bhnd. Upon 
this information, I hastened to pay a visit to so remarkable an 
object, the knowledge of whom seems not to have extended 
beyond the insulated place of his nativity, where he has dragged 
on an unnoticed existence for 25 years. On my return to 
Edinburgh, the history of this unfortunate being having, exci- 
ted much interest among those to whom it has been communi- 
cated, I now take the opportunity, in conformity with your re- 
quest, of furnishing you with some of the most remarkable 
features of the case, regretting at the same time, that my en- 
gagements have hitherto precluded me from publishing a more 
finished statement of it. This I shall attempt in my first mo- 
ments of leisure; in the mean time, I shall be happy if the 
short rtotice now submitted to you, will prove acceptable. 
I must, at the same time, offer a caution against the expecta- 
tion of a case equalling in interest that of James Mitchell. The 
object of this notice, in addition to the loss of certain organs 
of sensation, appears to add that of his powers of comprehen- 
sion. The observer, though shrinking from an involuntary as- 
sociation of the name of man, with that of any earthly creature 
which may exhibit no emotions beyond those which are pro- 
duced by mere natural appetite, is still incapable of withhold- 
ing the confession, that, in an exclusion from all sound, in a 
deprivation of sight and intellect, this unfortunate object has 
an existence in no degree advanced above that of a race of ani- 
mals occupying the lowest scale of creation. 
David Gilbert Tate is the name of this singularly destitute 
being. He is said to be twenty-five years of age. His parents 
