The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-07-24
BY A BLIND SURGEON.
DELICATE OPERATIONS DONE WITH
NERVE AND SKILL.

DR.. Cooke. Though sightless, Has m Ex-
tremely Sensitive Touch Has Gained
Diplomas From Five Institutions-Two
Recent Dimcult Cases Successful.
When DR.. James r. Cooke Of Boston
was 2 months old, both eyes were ruined
by a laundering doctor, who administer
ed a wrong medicine. Since then he
has been totally blind. He il now 80
years Of age, and he is consulted in diff
cult cases by the most eminent Of the
regular physicians Of Boston. He has
performed very recently two very deli
cate and difficult surgical operations,
and in both cases the patients are doing
we'll.
He locates a disease by his sensitive
touch, and he tells the color Of goods in
the same way, singular as it may ap-
pear. A lady who had eight o. ten sam
Piles of dress goods, each about 8 inches
square and of different colors, handed
them to DIR. Cooke the other day, and
he at once told accurately the color and
even the shade Of color of each and
selected the samples of best quality.
When handed several national bank and
government currency bills, he at once
told the denomination Of each and the
color, whether green or black. He tells
the complexion Of a person by touching
the skin. 1t is difficult to believe that a
blind man could do this, but he is seen
to do it, and accurately too.
DIR. Cooke went among Buffalo Bills
Indians the other day and designated
their character by their voices, spoken
in the Indian dialect. He has three di-
plomas from colleges Of this and foreign
countries and four certificates of COM
mendaticn from institutions where he
has taken special courses of study. He
went through a course Of study under
the famous Weir Mitchell.
Before DR.. Cooke was 81 years of age
he was employed by a large tobacco
house to select the raw tobacco for
them. He never failed to get the best
quality and the most desirable color
all by the touch. From this source he
earned over SO, 5000, which paid his ex-
penses at> a university in Tennessee,
where he stood at the head Of his class.
From the Tennessee university he en-
tered a medical school, where he was
''to the fore" all through the class. He
has taken special studies in five other
institutions, a part of them in Europe.
To attain all that this remarkable man
has accomplished in the higher classics
and professional studies Of the colleges
required a large and firmly knit brain,
perseverance and self reliance to an un-
usual degree.
The two women patients that he
operated upon recently are both doing
we'll. In one case a large tumor was re-
moved. The other was a still more diff
cult and delicate case. When lifting out
the tumor, DR.. Cooke found he had "a
forceps holding veins and arteries. He
tied blood vessels quickly and removed
the forceps. He takes up and ties severed
arteries in difficult cases more rapidly
than any Of the clear seeing surgeons.
He has no idea of the appearance of the
moon and planets and stars nor Of the
sun, and night and day are all the same
to him, except that the stiffness Of the
night does not escape his attention. He
is hard worker and unf1agging student.
He has a typewriter to whom he die.
tates. His wife writes medical prescrip'
tions in Latin. Hartford Times.