The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-04-03
YOUTH WHO WAS BLIND MADE NEW
 DISCOVERIES
Led By His Uncle He Went on an Exploring Expedi= ton Through Streets of Philadelphia

Philadelphia April 3-(UP)-Ear Musselman, the youth born blin6 and then given his vision by ar operation on his eyes, went explor. ing in Chestnut street yesterday and reported "discoveries'' tha have been unseen for years by many with vision.
 This street 240 years old to past and present Philadelphians, was { fine new thoroughfare to Musselmar who since gaining his sight has al. most lost his speech in amazemen' at what he has seen.
 Things of name became things o1 sight and association as his uncle D. w. Laubach, walked with him and explained the commonplace Eyes accustomed to its shapes and shadows could never have been in this old history street what Mussel- man saw.
 He saw a canyon of tall shapes called skyscrapers and moving bod ies called human beings.
 He saw the converging lines o1 these skyscrapers. the narrowing sides of the streets, the rhythm o1 human bodies as they approached and grew larger and then receded and grew smaller.
 Pretty girls filed past and tall men with overcoats Tapping in the wind
 Faces came at him out of space looked in his eyes moment and then disappeared.
 Almost inarticulate with wonder he told his uncle:
 Its so intriguing, so wonderful the grace of people, the shape of their faces, the marvellous way they move"
 He stopped his uncle in front oi the Benjamin Franklin hotel and shouted:
 Uncle, can see that building climb into the sky, floor by floor And then at the suggestion of hi uncle he counted the floors acu rately.
 Although he marvels most at col ors, they are the hardest things fol him to understand. "I feel like Sin. bad in new world of strange fan. tastic shapes and colors,' he said Ut is as if they made up language from which I have no alphabet"
 To his untrained eyes the world is a flat colored photograph wrap. ped about him. He cannot guarge distance by angles and shadows.
 As he walks about he puts out his hand to touch objects and wher asked if he isn't able to see objects well he explained that he can sec the objects but cannot judge tht distance without walking and touch. ing them.
 pr George H. Moore, the surgeon who performed the oprration or Musselman's eyes said 1t would take some time for him to interpre images he received through his eyes and to get a sense of space ant proportion. The boys eyes are jus beginning to accustom themselve, to focusing, the doctor said, and tho pupils and lens do not function perfectly yet. He must be taugh to understand what he sees.
 In the operation the surgeon GU two slits in the bottom of the eye balls and removed a mass of tissue the size of q pea which extracted vision. Then he cut a pupil through the cornea, allowing light to pas through the cornea and lens to thu retina.
 Musselman said he is weary iron answering the thousands of question, he has been asked in the past few days, since the bandages were re moved from his eyes and he hat vision for the first time.
 Its been exciting.' he said, "al most more than one can stand"
 But he is glad to answer ques tions in the hope that similar op eration may help other blind peo pie to gain their sight.