Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-10-27
AN OSsIFIKD MtE.
Account of a Man who Is Almost To.
tally OssIded---WhO fs Stone Blind
and Perfectly Helpless.

There was a strange spectacle at the De-
pot yesterday-a man, of whom accounts
were published, years ago, in newspapers
in this country and in medical journals in
England, who has been in state Q, almost
complete ossifcsticn for thirty years. His
name is Valentine Perkins he was born
fifty two years since in Henrietta, Munroe
county, New York, but has been resident,
for the last twelve years, of Mantua, Por
tage county, Ohio. At the age of eleven
years he was thrown from horse, and his
knee was injured by the fall. From that
time ossifeatiOn set in, and the process
made advancement, joint by joint, for if
teen years, when it had completed its work
He is thoroughly and totally ossifed, with
the Inception that he can move two of his
fng rs, and make the slightest per-
ceptible motion with one or two of his
toes. He has not opened his jaws for more
than thirty years, but still he can talk with
ease. Of course, he has to be fed-the food
being placed within his lips and left under
the guidance of mother Nature, who mys-
teriously ensures its safe conduct into the
stomach. He lies on his side upon low
bed or couch, which serves also as litter,
with his feet drawn up somewhat, and his
right hand csught-op near his shoulder
lies thus all day long, shifting his position
but once during the twenty four hours,
when he is turned over on the other side.
WhiIehe is thus completely ossifed-a hu-
IL
skin retains its normal character and con-
ditiOn, and discharges is functions per-
fectly, being, perhaps, more sensitive, how
ever. to the touch of any object, as that of
fly or d hair, than is usually the case.
When the light strikes the skin of his
hands or face, it looks like marble of yell
lowish tinge, brought up to the highest
possible state of polish. He lies there on
his couch like recumbent statue.
His health is good; he has an excellent
appetite, and lives withal a hearty life.
One Is naturally curious to know how his
mind is occupied through all the dreary
hours. He cannot read, for he has been to-
tally blind for thirty years. Cut of from
that resource, he is necessarily cast back
upon his memory, and he has a most won
derful devslopement of this faculty. It is
exceedingly tenacious. He remembers the
most minute and apparently trifing Incl
dent or circumstance, has the entire psst,-
every fact and event in his experience
before him, piled up like strata, and sum-
mons at will, or as occasion requires, occur
rences which have faded from the minds of
his friends. His recollection of localities is
wonderful. Places that he had visited
years ago, before struck with blindness, he
can now identify as he rides along,-so vivid
q recollection has he of the relative position
of things, as bridges. rivers, &C., &c.
b is possessed with much more intelli-
gence that we would suppose it possible
for one in his condition to have. He is very
expert at mathematical calculations, and
can with great readiness give, for example,
the number of square inches in an area the
number ofwhose square feet orrods is given
him.
Of course it must be world of work to
take care of this helpless man, but his
friends have eherfully borne the sad bur-
den for more than forty years. He has now
gone to Painesville as County charge.