Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/514

500 G-. M. STRATTON : great precision and readily carried his finger in the line of its longest diameter." : One must remember, however, that in this case the child seems to have had normal vision until toward the end of the first year, and he could always dis- tinguish colours. A more careful examination might perhaps have shown some vague consciousness of position as well. In the account Wardrop gives 2 of a lady operated on for cataract probably congenital, some of the statements certainly give the impression of considerable freedom in the visual control of movements, although it is not actually asserted that these went rapidly to the mark. On the evening of the day of the operation, she pointed out to her brother the hands of his watch as well as different figures on its dial. On the third day she "playfully pulled away" a handkerchief with which he had covered his face, and on the ninth day she pointed out correctly a "ticket" in a window across the street. These things were evidently reported to Wardrop by her brother and are not given from Wardrop's own observa- tion. For when he speaks from his personal knowledge we find that some eighteen days after the operation, in describ- ing some experiments on her, he says: "It may here be mentioned that when desirous of examining an object, she had considerable difficulty in directing her eye to it, and finding out its position, moving her hands as well as her eye in various directions, as a person when blind-folded or in the dark gropes with his hands for what he wishes to touch ". This certainly implies that visual position in her case did not convey an immediate tactual meaning, and that the acts of which her brother tells must have been slower and more laboured than the narrative at that point suggests. The more critical physician saw things in a somewhat different light. In the case of Noe M. reported by Dr. Dufour, 3 certain isolated phases of the testimony might likewise indicate a direct muscular appreciation of visual place. Thus, after some experiments, the patient is told to go to his room. Although his eyes are open, he immediately stretches out his hands and advances cautiously. Dufour stops him and says " ' Hands down. Don't you see a shining yellow thing down there?' 'Yes.' e Well, that's the door-latch ; walk in that 1 Philosophical Transactions, 1801, p. 886. 2 Ibid., 1826, parts 2 and 3, p. 529. 3 Guerison d'un aveugle-ne, Lausanne, 1876, quoted at length by Dunan, " L'espace visuel et 1'espace tactile," Revue philosophique, xxv., 376. A somewhat similar case is that of Johann Euben reported in the Zeitschri/t fiir Psychologic, ii., 51 ; the pointing and grasping here were occasionally correct, although in general quite astray.