The New York herald., 1922-10-19
Nose Enables Her to Tell
Who Supervised Making
of Students Dress.
DOCTOR TELLS OF TESTS
Medical Journal Reports on
Unusual Development of
Willetta Higgins.

Villetld ltuSBlnS, Il seventeen
year-old Wisconsin girl, although
completely blind and deaf, can "see"
colors by smell and hear" sounds by
touch. 1r many ways her case is
more remarkable than Helen Keller's.
In the current number of the
Journal of the american Medical As
sociation DR.. Thomas j. Williams of
Chicago announces the result of a
series of experiments with Wiletta
covering several weeks at the Wis
consin School for the Blind
These are some of the marvellous
feats the blind-deaf girl accom-
plished:
She heard" DR.. Williams talk by
resting her finger tips on his larynx,
his head or his chest. She learned to
distinguish the vibrations of speech
through intervening objects such as
billiard cue resting on the speakers
head or chest. She caught the vibra-
tions in the air by holding a sheet of
paper between her hands and letting
the speaker talk against" it. She
heard words spoken over the teIe-
phone by resting her fingers against
the receiver. She learned to talk by
holding her fingers on her own
larynX.
Smells Color of Thread
Her sense of smell. DR.. Williams saws.
mas peen developed to degree hitherto
unheard of. This was discovered in
her sewing class when she began to tell
direrent colored threads by smelling
thtm. She was able 20 tell by smell
not only which student had made a par
ticular dress but which teacher had
supervised its making. She easily dis
tinguished the colors of flowers and
even could determine by smell how many
persons up to eight were in a room
with her
AT one or my examina tions" Dr.
Williams writes, II handed her a sweat
er the body of which was orchid color
with deep hem of purple, the weave
being identical. She smelled il and said
1t was lavender in the body but that
thore was a deep purple color there too.
asked her to find .he line of demarca-
ton between the two colors which she
did as accurately as if she we're able
to see.
II took some Holmgren's yarns.
handed a different color to each of
eight persons present, told them to re-
member the color given them. and after
turning out the light each of us CROP
ingly found our way before her with
our yarns. which she placed in turn to
her nose and correctly named the colors
and tints (whether light or dark) of
each.
"One of the women present wore a hat
on which was embroidered a three color
design. Willetta correctly named the
three colors. the color of the hat and
its lining.
Il gave her string of colored beads
and a set OF different colored glass
lenses. but with these she was lost She
said she could not smell these because
'they keep their smell inside of them"
She gets no appreciable odor from them
or from any glazed surface as for In
stance. pottery though she can distin-
guish unglazed pottery fairly well. She
states that all glass smells green, so
she cannot detect other coors in glass"
Helen Keller was Willetta's inspira-
tion. Until two years ago she was list
less and apathetic DR.. Williams says.
Physically her condition was good and
OF normal development for a girl of Is.
Dut the total loss or SlRnt ana nearing,
which she had possessed in a small de-
gree to the age OF 12. caused her to
develop a peculiar, morbid, uninter-
ested. morose attitude toward every
thing"
In 1920 teacher of the deaf at Eau
Claire. Wis told the Eiil Of Miss Kellers
method Of communication. Willetta was
Interested and gradually began to show
mental development emerging from her
shell of Indifference in manner that
had seemed impossible for her when she
possessed partial vision and hearing.
Can Talk by Touch.
She has learned to carry on a con-
versation by touch and attends concerts
and lectures which she hears" by
touching her fingers to an audiphone. DR.
Williams attended an Easter service
with Wiletta and she told him each
number on the program as II was rem
dered. He continues
"Her fine sense Of touch does not stop
here. She can actually read by running
her finger tips over newspaper headings
OF half inch or even smaller type, and
she can readily and rapidly distinguish
the denomination of paper money by
feeling the imprint OF the numbers and