The evening times., 1895-08-23
A1TAINMENTs OF A BLIND MAN.
knowledge of Science Gained by a CALI
fOrnia Student.

knowledge of Science Gained by a Cali
fOrnia Student.
Among the successful students at the
State University at Berkeley, says the San
Francisco Chronicle, Is a young man who
has 10 rely upon four OF the five avenues
by which men gain Information of the outer
world, yet he has not only acquired great
power as a mathematician, a reasoner and
a teacher, but he has actually gained more
knowledge of external nature than a great
| share of people possess.
Newell Perry is now twenty-one years Of
age. and has been totally blind since the
| age of nine, when a bad case of poison oak
left him sightlcss. His childhood had
| been that of the average healthy boy. ex-
cept that his powers of observation were
uncommoniy exercised and his mind was
well stored with pictures of sea and sky
and hill and valley. These recollections
| OF early years have been OF inestimable
value to him since his loss OF sight, serv-
| ing to guide and correct his conception
OF things which maturer studies have
| brought him.
After his blindness young Perry was sent
10 the Stale Institution for the Blind, where
he soon distinguished himself as student.
He had before acquired the ability to read
and handle simple figures. In his work un-
der the teachers OF the blind his misfortune
served to intensity the senses left him If
he could now read with much less facility
than formerly, still reading came to mean
much more TO him His mind was free to
throw a:i its powers into forming the con-
ceptions suggested by the words. II he could
not now niaEzge large numbers so readily
by the use of written figures, he soon ac-
quired the ability TO carry and manipulate
comparatively large numbers in his mind
with marvellous accuracy and rapidity.
Young Perry's advance from the in
stitution for the blind to city high school
and thence to the State University was
rapid. In his later studies be has al
ways employed a reader to cave time He
selects for this office person who is Will
ing to be guided, who will be passive in
strument, and literally lend his eyes"
In these years his rank as a student has
always been good-among the best, in fact
and in mathematics especially it has
been extremely high. The construction for
the most complex symmetrical problem
can be drawn in his mind and held there
while thccompa risons are being ma de which
lead to the solution. The profuDdities of the
differcntial and integral calculus, SO full of
dread to most minds, are pleasures to
mentality of his grasp and concentration.
An instance may illustrate young Perry's
power He requested a student to read to
him several Iogarithms which he wished TO
use, and three or four were read OF fifteen
figures each. Perry requested that they be
read a second time after which he went to
his room To use the sixty figures, each in
its proper place. 1t is an ordinary thing
for bipa to work with an algebraic expres-
STOP .. -wenty terms, carrying it in Ia
X.D& Though all the changes Of mathe-
Gatical computation.
But not only in mathematics is Perry's
wonderful ability displayed He speaks,
reads and writes the German language.
He is exceedingly well read in history
and English literature. He is Il thorough
student of the natural sciences, possessing
the spirit of an investigator and the
habit of strict. zeasoning. He is an excel
lent musician, and, strange to say, fair
dancer.
When Mr.. Perry is pursuing his own
studies his reader is requested to announce
the number of each page, and thereafter
the blind man knows where that informa-
ton eau be found.