The conquest of blindness / by Sir Arthur Pearson.

  • Pearson, Arthur, Sir, 1866-1921.
Date:
[1921]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The conquest of blindness / by Sir Arthur Pearson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be care to avoid such reckless habits as going downstairs with both hands in the pockets. One never can be perfectly certain that there is not some pitfall in the way, a loose stair- rod, for instance. A fall downstairs is bad enough even when the hands are free. Blind people find that they are often warned of things that do not matter in the least, while they are left totally unwarned of things that do matter a great deal. I remember very well an instance of this which happened soon after my sight finally went. I was dining at a house where the drawing-room was on the first floor and the dining-room on the ground floor. I took my hostess down to dinner, and as we approached the drawing-room door she said, “ Now be very careful, we are just coming to a mat.” The mat in question was a very thin one which really would have required a lot of finding. She then led me straight off the top of the stairs without a word of warning, and had I not been following my usual practice of holding my shoulders well back when I am not sure of my position in regard