The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-11-17
An Ossified' Man,

< -tlIt FROM the cleveland Leader.
There was strange spectacle at the de.
pot yesterday--a man of whom account
were published years ago. in newspapers
10 TINS country and in medical journals us
England, who has been in a state of almost
complete ossihcation for thirty years His
name Is Valentine Perkins He was born
tltty-two years since in Henrietta, Monroe
county, New York, but has been resident
for the last twelve years of Mantua, Port,
age county, Ohio. AT the age of eleven
years he was thrown from horse, and his
knee was injured by the fall. troni chat
time ossification sci in, and the process
made advancement joint by joint, for ff-
teen, years, when it had completed its work.
He Is thoroughly and totally ossifed, with
the exception that he can move two of
his fingers, and make the slightest percept-
lble motion with one or two of his toes lie
has not opened his jaw for more than thir-
ty years, but still he can talk with ease.
OF course he has to be fed-the a food
being placed within his lips and left under
the guidance of mother Nature, who smys-
teriously ginsures its safe conduct into the
stomach. He lies upon his side, upon
low bed or couch which serves also as a
litter, with his feet drawn up somewhat,
and his right hand caught up near his
shoulder, lies thus all day long, shifting his
position but once during twenty-four hours
when he is turned over on the other side
While he lis thus completely ossifed--a
human block of limestone as it were---his (
skin retains its normal character and condi-
ton, and discharges its functions perfectly
being. perhaps, more sensitive, however, to
the touch of any object, as that of fly or a
hair, than is usually the case. When the
light strikes the skin of his hands or face
| it looks like marble of a yellowish tiuge,
brought up to the highest possible state of
polish. He lies there on his couch, like
recumbent statue. ,sg85 pHC. ~ Iiit
His health good; he has an excellent
appetite, and lives withal happy life. One
is naturally curious to know how his mind
is occupied through all the dreary hours
he cannot read for he has been totally blind
| for thirty years. Cut off from that source
heEis necessarily cast back upon his memo
Try, and he has most wonderful develop
ment Of this faculty. IL is exceedingly to-
nacious He remembers the most minute
and apparently triAing incident or circum-
stance, has the entire past-every fact and
event in his experience before him. piled up
like strata, and summons at will, or as
occasion requires. occurrences which o 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 aIong--so vivid recollection has he
of the relative position of things, as bridges
rivers, etc. r.3 al1 Lt.igt s1,tu.l
He is very expert at mathematical calcu-,
ations, and can with great readiness give,
for example, the number of square inches in
an area the number of whose square feet or
rods is given him. Hlgtia .
OF course it must be world of work to
take care of this helpless man, but his friends
have cheerfuly borne the sad burden for
more than forty years He has now gone
to gainesville as county charge.