The following Observation is odd enough, to give rise to some curious Speculations and Disputes: And therefore I chose to set it down as I found it among my Adversaria, tho’ I suspect part of it to have been lost, that the Relation may be the more Unbiass’d, tho’ if I had another opportunity to Discourse with the Patient, I should upon second Thoughts, have ask’d some Questions, and Written down some Circumstances, that I now wish had not been omitted.
The Gentlewoman I saw to day, seems to be about 18 or twenty years old, and is of a fine Complexion, accompanied with good Features. Looking into her Eyes, which are Gray, I could not discern any thing that was unusual or amiss; tho’ her Eye-lids were somwhat Red, whether from Heat, or which seemed more likely, from her precedent Weeping. During the very little time that the Company allowed me to speak with her, the Questions I propos’d to her were answered to this Effect.
That about five years ago, having been upon a certain Occasion immoderately tormented with Blisters, applied to her Neck and other Parts, she was quit deprived of her sight.
That sometime after she began to perceive the Light, but nothing by the help of it: That then she could see a Window, without discerning the Panes or the Barrs: That afterwards she grew able to distinguish the Shapes of Bodies, and some of their Colours: And that at last she came to be able to see the Minutest Object; which when I seemed to doubt of, and presented her a Book, she not only without hesitancy Read in it a line or two, (fot her Eyes are quickly weary) but having pointed with my Finger at a part of the Margent, near which there was the part of a very little Speck, that might almost be covered with the point of a Pin; she not only readily enough found it out, but shewed me at some distance off another Speck, that was yet more Minute, and required a sharp Sight to Discern it. And yet, whereas this was done about Noon, she told me, that she could see much better in the Evening, than in any Lighter time of the day.
While she was looking upon the Printed Paper I shew’d her, I ask’d her whether It did not appear White to her, and the Letters Black? To which she answer’d’ that they did so; but that she saw as it were a White Glass laid over both the Objects. But the things that were mostparticular and odd in this womans case, were these two. The first is, that she is not unfrequently troubled with flashes of Lightning, that seem to issue out like Flames about the External Angle of her Eye, which often make her start, and put her into Frights and Melancholy Thoughts. But the other, which is more Strange and Singular, is this, that she can distinguish some Colours, as Black and White, but is not able to distinguish others, especially Red and Green: And when I brought her a Bag of a fine and glossie Red, with Tufts of Sky-colour’d Silk; she look’d attentively upon it, but told me, that to her it did not seem Red, but of another Colour, which one would guess by her Description to be a Dark or Dirty one: and the Tufts of Silk that were finely Colour’d, she took in her Hand, and told me they seem’d to be a Lightcolour, but could not tell me which; only she compar’d it to the Colour of the Silken Stuff of the Lac’d Peticoat of a Lady that brought her to me; and indeed the Blews were very much alike. And when I ask’d her, whether in the Evenings, when she went abroad to walk in the Fields, which she much delighted to do, the Meadows did not appear to her Cloathed in Green? she told me they did not, but seem’d to be of an odd Darkish Colour; and added, that when she had a mind to gather Violets, tho’ she kneel’d in that Place where they grew, she was not able to distinguish them by the Colour from the neighbouring Grass, but only by the Shape, or by feeling them. And the Lady that was with her, took thence occasion to tell me, that when she looks upon a Turky Carpet, she cannot distinguish the Colours, unless of those parts that are White or Black. I ask’d the Lady whether she were not troubled with Female Obstructions? To which she Answer’d me, she was not now, but that formerly she had been much subject to them, having been obstinately troubled with the Greensickness.
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