The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-13
MAN HAS UNIQUE
 POWER OF SIGHT Can Read Whole Page at
 Single Glance A STRANGE DISEASE Could Read Several Volumes in an Evening-Reasons Given for
 the Peculiar Power of
 the Patient

| From the Journal American Medical
 Association.
 One of the authors patients, a cer-
 tain MT. C., had the power of reading
 a page of an ordinary book, duodecimo
 or octave, at a glance. His eyes and
 attention were fixed on the page for but
 a second or two. and 1t was read its
 statements or contents so fixed in mem-
 ory that they could be brought forth from that "vasty deep" whenever in
 after years desired. Page after page
 was thus read; and book after book,
 year following year. Several volumes
 might thus be gleaned in an evening.
 It scarcely needs the saying that it was
 necessary that the book should be easy
 reading," it's English of good style, the
 subject treated not essentially unfamil- | liar recondite, or philoSophic, but with | in the easy grasp of the mans intel | feet, such as well written novels, mar
 rative, history. essays, poetry. the mag azines, etc. In reading poetry. of which | he was extremely fond, he could by a glance store his memory with the line or stanza of page or poem which, to his critical judgment, stood out with superior excellence.
 This ability began to show itself in late middle life, growing more and more per- | feet in his later years It was often put l to the test by his assistants or secreta ries | and more frequently he vainly tried to prove that they possessed the same celer- | ity of reading as himself. Not one could | even remotely rival him. In directing 1 such tests by others he consistently urged that they could carry them out as speed fly and correctly as himself if they fol- lowed his own rule and habit, namely, fixing the gaze and attention on the cen ter of the page, thus causing at once the entire page to swim into view, to be per- ceived and to be photographed in mem- ory. He was scornful of the ordinary fashion of reading line after line, or sentence after sentence. Of course none ever succeeded in reading as did he. and he could not understand it. he was even vexed by 1t, and bluntly said that their inability was due to mental causes or lack of exercise. He never dreamed that his ability in the act of reading so rapid- ly sprang from a strange peculiarity Of disease in his own eyes.
 Every student of vision knows that, as,
 a general fact, it is optically impossible
 for the two normal and immobile eyes to look intently on a small object, such as word or two in the center of a page, and at the identical instant see and un- derstand all the sentences at the limits of the page above. below, etc. The struc- ture of the human retina and the history of it's function absolutely forbid that. The field of vlsion," it is true, may be thus | mapped, and its widest boundaries local ized by means of the mere existence of ] illuminated objects placed at the periph- | cry. l. c., by the permeter-but that is | not intellectual vision, and memory is not called in.
 MT. c. was q man of exceptional learn h hat., ,f..t,I erary criticism and creation. It was be- | cause of his marvellous celerity in acquir- 1 ing knowledge that he seemed to his asso- ciates to do far less reading than men of vastly inferior erudition. His memory was almost faultless, and he was famous for
 his unerring judgments and epitomes of literary history and productions, all
 and research and, if desired, or desir- able, illustrated, also. by accurate quo- tations.
 Optically considered, 1t all appeared primarily to be the result of a marvel
 ous, even an impossible. perfection of the visual mechanism, united of course,
 to mental outfitting of exquisite sen- sitiveness infallible memory and extra ordinary intellect. No question may be | raised as to these last named endow-
 ments of his mind, but pertaining to the very large and primary part played by the eyes themselves, the phenom-
 enon was based solely on a pathologic
 lesion--it was due to disease. It was, in truth, a rare but not the first in-
 stance of physiologic function perfect ed through 1ife's splendid ingenuity
 and repair, even recreation, out of
 mangled left-overs of morbidity and Reorganization.
 There have been many reported .n- stances of clairvoyant knowledge fiawless reading, for instance, of any closed book chosen. The case in ques- ton was not of this sort. But it is ra- tionally and scientifically explainabIe
 when all the facts are known and in- telligently studied.
 The strictly normal but extremely high and perfect mental functions of the man being given as the prerequi- sites of his power of seeing and mem
 crizing the printed page, there Is still
 necessary a Fundamental and seeming
 ly unique peculiarity of the merely oc-
 ular act. Without it there is no scien-
 tifc explanation of the completed re-
 suit. Accurate knowledge of the phy-
 siology of binocular or two-eyed vision
 and an intimate understanding of the
 peculiar ocular disease of this man are
 required to solve the mystery.
 He was right handed. and, therefore, in
 early life he was, of course, right eyed.
 th1Snl eyeOneSS IS the cause or T1Rnt
 handedness.) Some time during the mid
 dle years of his life the central part of the
 retina, the ''macular' region of the right
 eye was destroyed by an inflammation
 (chorioditis), caused by eye strain. The
 fixing part of the retina was obliter-
 ated, leaving there blind, black round,
 dlsorganized, augmented space or hole.
 The left eye was not diseased and con-
 tinued the usual perfection of macular
 or central vision. By long, unconscious
 and forced exercise the healthy zone of
 the normal right retina surrounding the
 macula was educated to such degree and so widely that it could, when unmoved, receive and transmit to the brain the
 image of the entire page, except that part falling on the central portion which had been destroyed. This was naturally sup piled in perfection by the macula of the left eye. If, like two cups or saucers,
 one retina were placed within the con
 cavity of the other. the identical points,
 superposed, it would be seen that the size of the normal zone of retnal macu- | lar or central fixation of the sound left eye would exactly cover and complete the | pattern and act for that space destroye. | by disease in the right eye. The right eye could not fix on and see the center of ! tho field or object: it could only be held
 on this unseen point by the left eye. could | only stare at it. If one may so speak. | The central visual center thus received