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.

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    the proximity of those who were meeting me in my own descent, I could have no intimation. In fact, I actually came breast to breast with several per- sons, who would certainly have been toppled over by the concussion, if I had descended with any of the impetus with which many others came down. Now all this anxiety and alarm arose from the want of both sight or hearing, either of which would have perhaps assured me that the dark gulf over which the steps hung was not so formidable as 1 apprehended; or would certainly have ac- quainted me with the nature of the ascent, and would have relieved me from that ignorance respecting the approach of others, which involved me in danger and made me dangerous. This to me seemed a greater danger—at least it affected me more strongly, than any, and they are not few— that I ever incurred in all my adventures by flood or field : and when I landed safely at the bottom, I vowed never again to tempt so great a danger for so inadequate a recompense. My old experi- ence in falling, may have had some effect in producing this trepidation: for that experience was certainly not calculated to recommend this kind of operation to me ; although if there seemed any chance that my hearing might be knocked in again, by such another concussion as that which knocked it out, it might appear worth my while to try it once more, It is not long since that I had occasion to ascer- tain the impossibility, for one who is deaf, of walking in country lanes after nightfall. My present abode is something above a mile from a railway station, the road from the one to the other lying through plea- sant lanes, which are without lamps or separate
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