Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-25
BlssET x HOLLAND
SEES AFTER 30 YEARS.
Glasgow Man Has Peculiar Experi-


 ences After Gaining Sight.
 Fuller details of the surgical work | by Dr A. Maitland Ramsay or Glas- gow, as the9result of which a man 30 years old, who had been blind from birth. has gained the use of his sight, 1 provide most curious and interesting story, says a London dispatch to the Brooklyn Eagle.
 The patient had developed in an ex- l traordinary degree the blind mans power of distinguishing things and | of finding his way about the world by the sense of sound, smell and 1 touch. One of his sisters lost her sight at the age of two years and died blind at 35. Another sister, now 33, | years old, was born blind, and was educated in the blind asylum but l he was allowed to run about as he l pleased, no attempt to educate him 1 having ever been made. Dr Ramsay l says:
 "He became so familiar with the country district Ca. few miles from l 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 if there was any 1 thing unusual on a road along which he was walking, and thus he never had any difficulty in keeping himself out of danger.
 l Experience taught him to find his 1way about the garden in which he worked, and he learned to pluck flow CTS, to arrange them in punches and 1 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 I 1astNto know so much about their form 1 and color that he could arrange them l in a bouquet He recognized the l presence of strangers in the house, chiefly by the sense of hearing-for example he could discriminate per- sons he knew by the sound of their respiration, and he was at once cog nizant of any breathing with which he was unfamiliar.
 "Occasionally he worked in the har- vest field, and he could bind the corn and arrange the shocks 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 very rapid prog ress He was ignorant of color. but learned to distinguish hues quickly.
 "The first tint that he saw was red A red blanket lay across the foot of his bed He asked what it was and was told and never afterwards did he | have the slightest hesitation in dis eliminating red again. A narcissus was shown him, and on being asked to describe 1t he immediately recog nized the flower and knew from his old bouquet making experience thai 1t 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 feHow-patient. Within day he astonished me by announcing that he was able to tell the time. Wher asked him how he had learned SC quickly he was able to tell the time When I asked him how he had learned so quickly he explained that he die not understand the figures on the dial but he had been told how to count tht hours, and that each space between the black marks meant five minutes
 The patient has not yet learned t( judge distances correctly. At frs he walked up stairs two steps at { time. as result of. miscalculating th' height of the steps. Then, lookini from a window he thought he could touch the street with stick. Sine gaining his sight the patient has los the faculty of moving about fearlessly in the dark. Tn fact, he saysahe doe' not know what he would do if he be came blind again.