Anatomical observations on the brain and several sense-organs of the blind deaf-mute, Laura Dewey Bridgman ...

  • Henry Herbert Donaldson
Date:
[1891]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anatomical observations on the brain and several sense-organs of the blind deaf-mute, Laura Dewey Bridgman ... Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    that time became completely blind. Two years passed before she recovered sufficiently to sit up all day. At the age of five years she had regained her strength. Speech was lost with the loss of hearing, and when her education at home was renewed, it was by means of arbitrary tactual signs of the simplest sort. She was taught to sew, to knit and to braid, and to perform some minor household duties. On Oct. 4th, 1837, she was brought to the Perkins Institution and Massachu- setts Asylum for the Blind, and her education was begun by Dr. S. G. Howe, then director of the institution. She was now seven years and ten months of age, and in the defective con- dition above described. Dr. Howe (a-*-161) says of her at this time: '' figure well formed; nervous sanguine temperament; a large [no measurements have been preserved] and beau- tifully shaped head, and the whole system in healthy action.'' The process of education commenced with the pasting of the name of a common object on the object, the name being in raised letters, such as are used for the blind; then the associ- ation of the name and object; then forming the name from the individual letters; and after a long time the letters them- selves were learned. It was when she first recognized that the sign for an object could be constructed from the individual letters, that the meaning of what she was doing dawned upon her. From that time on her education became easier, and, indeed, she had in one sense to be held back in her work, as there was danger that her frail constitution would succumb to the too great interest in her studies. It is important to note that at this time she exhibited the various emotions by gesture and facial expression. She was fond of dress and pleased by attention. The lapse of time within the limits of the day and the occurrence of Sunday were correctly noted by her. In the report for 1839 (2^m) it is said that she can distinguish between a whole and half note of music, and will strike the notes on the piano quite correctly. (How this interesting test was made, is not quite clear.) A test of her sense of taste at this time showed her capable of distinguishing better between different degrees of acidity than between this and sweetness or bitterness. She appeared at the same time to care rather less for eating than most children of her age.