Volume 1

The lost senses / By John Kitto.

  • John Kitto
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lost senses / By John Kitto. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/224 page 11
    tion, though some time passed—more time than the reader would imagine, before I could piece together my broken recollections so as to comprehend it. I was very slow in learning that my hearing was entirely gone. The unusual stillness of all things was grateful to me in my utter exhaustion; and if in this half-awakened state, a thought of the matter entered my mind, I ascribed it to the unusual care and success of my friends in preserving silence around me. I saw them talking indeed to one another, and thought that, out of regard to my feeble condition, they spoke in whispers, because I heard them not. The truth was revealed to me in consequence of my solicitude about the book which had so much interested me in the day of my fall. It had, it seems, been reclaimed by the good old man who had sent it to me, and who doubtless concluded, that I should have no more need of books in this life. He was wrong; for there has been nothing in this life which I have needed more. I asked for this book with much earnest- ness, and was answered by signs which I could not comprehend. “ Why do you not speak ?” I cried ; “ Pray let me have the book.” This seemed to create some confusion ; and at length some one, more clever than the rest, hit upon the happy expedient of writing upon a slate, that the book had been reclaimed by the owner, and that I could not in my weak state be allowed to read. “ But,” I said in great astonishment, “ Why do you write to me, why not speak ? Speak, speak.” Those who stood around the bed exchanged significant looks of concern, and the writer soon
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3