Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 edition. Excerpt: ...The difficulties raised by Mr. Mill are for the most part soluble from this fuller abstract. His recognition of a horizontal line, and description of it, arose (I conceive) from the fact that the muscce volitantes with which he had been at first troubled appeared in the shape of horizontal bars? As to Mr. Mill's difficulty how he could know that the sphere and cube presented to him were not drawings, it is answered by the fact that black lines on white paper had been shown to him in a previous experiment. He perceived at once that the outlines of the solid figures had not the same hard clearness, and so pronounced them different from the drawings he had already seen. As to the complete blindness of the patient before the operation, there is no part 134 Conditious Really Required. 'I may observe that this statement was made in England, and is not due to an Irishman. of Dr. Franz's report more complete and careful. There was in one eye a sensibility to strong light,1 but none whatever as to form, and this was scientifically ascertained by experiments, because the patient said or fancied he had some such notion. There is no reason to believe that he was informed by those around him that the sphere and cube were tangible objects. On the contrary, every care was taken to extract from him his first visual impressions without any previous hint. The whole case tells therefore as strongly as possible against the theory of the Association School, and shows that there is an original feeling of identity between extension as given by sight, and extension as given by touch. Let me observe, in concluding this part of the discussion, that it is by no means necessary to our side of the question that a blind man should identify particular visual figures...