Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1903-06-28
BLIND FROM BIRTH HE SEES
But He Seems To Be Worse on Than
He Was Before.

| ne was before.
Fuller details of the surgical work by
DR.. A. Maitland Ramsey of Glasgow.
as the result of which a man 80 years
old who had been blind from birth,
has gained the use of his sight. provide
a most curious and interesting story,
says a London dispatch to the Brook
Ign Eagle.
The patient had developed in an ex-
traordinary degree the blind mans
power of distinguishing things and of
| finding his way about the world by the
senses of sound, smell and touch. One
of his sisters lost her sight at the age
| of years and died blind at 35. An
other sister, now 33 years old, was born
blind, and was educated in the blind
| asylum: but he was allowed to run
about as he pleased. no attempt to ed
ucate him having ever been made. DIR.
| Ramsay says:
| He became so familiar with the
country district "a few miles from
Glasgow in which he resided that he
could go about without the slightest
fear; and his hearing was so acute
| that he knew at once III there was any
| thing unusual on a road along which
he was walking, and thus he never had
any difficulty in keeping himself out of
danger
Experience taught him to find his
way about the garden in which he
worked, and he learned to pluck flow
ers, to arrange them in punches and to
pack them in boxes for the market.
He distinguished different blossoms
partly by touch, but chiefly by smell.
and by asking questions he got at last
to know so much about their form and
color that he could arrange them in a
bouquet. He recognized the presence
of strangers in the house chiefly by the
sense of Harrington example, he could
discriminate persons whom he knew
by the sound of their respiration, and
he was at once cognizant of any
breathing with which he was unfamil-
lar.
Occasionally he worked in the har-
vest field. and he could bind the corn
and arrange the stalks as we'll as any
of the other laborers.
For about ten days after the opera
ton for cataract on the left eye the
patient appeared to be dazed, and could
not realize that he was seeing, but once
he properly understood what vision
meant he made rapid progress. He
was ignorant of color. but learned to
distinguish hues quickly.
The first thing that he saw was red.
A red blanket lay across the foot of
his bed. He asked what IL was. and
was told. and never afterward did he
have the slightest hesitation in dis
eliminating red again. A narcissus
was shown him. and on being asked to
describe it he Immediately recognized
the flower. and knew from his old
bouquet making experience that it was
white and yellow.
'One of the things that gave him pc
culiar pleasure was looking at the face
OF a watch. which he had borrowed
from a fellow-patient. Within day
he astonished me by announcing that
he was able to tell the time. When
asked him how he had learned so
quickly he explained that he did not
understand the figures on the dial. but
he had been told how to count the
hours. and that each space between
the black marks meant five minutes"
The patient has not yet learned to
judge distances correctly. At first he
walked upstairs two steps at a time.
as a result of miscalcu.ating the height
of the steps. Then, looking from a
window he thought he could touch the
street with a stick. Since gaining his
of moving about fearlessly in the dark
In fact, he says he does not know what
he would do if he became blind again.