Jonston quotes a case in the seventeenth century of a blind man who, it is said, could tell black from white by touch alone;several other instances are mentioned in a chapter entitled "De compensatione naturae monstris facta." It must, however, be held impossible that blind people can thus distinguish colors in any proper sense of the words. Different colored yarns, for example, may have other differences of texture, etc., that would be manifest to the sense of touch. We know of one case in which the different colors were accurately distinguished by a blind girl, but only when located in customary and definite positions. Le Cat speaks of a blind organist, a native of Holland, who still played the organ as well as ever. He could distinguish money by touch, and it is also said that he made himself familiar with colors. He was fond of playing cards, but became such a dangerous opponent, because in shuffling he could tell what cards and hands had been dealt, that he was never allowed to handle any but his own cards.
It is not only in those who are congenitally deficient in any of the senses that the remarkable examples of compensation are seen, but sometimes late in life these are developed. The celebrated sculptor, Daniel de Volterre, became blind after he had obtained fame, and notwithstanding the deprivation of his chief sense he could, by touch alone, make a statue in clay after a model. Le Cat also mentions a woman, perfectly deaf, who without any instruction had learned to comprehend anything said to her by the movements of the lips alone. It was not necessary to articulate any sound, but only to give the labial movements. When tried in a foreign language she was at a loss to understand a single word.
Since the establishment of the modern high standard of blind asylums and deaf-and-dumb institutions, where so many ingenious methods have been developed and are practiced in the education of their inmates, feats which were formerly considered marvelous are within the reach of all those under tuition To-day, those born deaf-mutes are taught to speak and to understand by the movements of the lips alone, and the blind read, become expert workmen, musicians, and even draughtsmen. D. D. Wood of Philadelphia, although one of the finest organists in the country, has been totally blind for years. It is said that he acquires new compositions with almost as great facility as one not afflicted with his infirmity. "Blind Tom," a semi-idiot and blind negro achieved world-wide notoriety by his skill upon the piano.
In some extraordinary cases in which both sight and hearing, and sometimes even taste and smell, are wanting, the individuals in a most wonderful way have developed the sense of touch to such a degree that it almost replaces the absent senses. The extent of this compensation is most beautifully illustrated in the cases of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. No better examples could be found of the compensatory ability of differentiated organs to replace absent or disabled ones.
Laura Dewey Bridgman was born December 21, 1829, at Hanover, N.H.
Her parents were farmers and healthy people. They were of average height, regular habits, slender build, and of rather nervous dispositions. Laura inherited the physical characteristics of her mother. In her infancy she was subject to convulsions, but at twenty months had improved, and at this time had learned to speak several words. At the age of two years, in common with two of the other children of the family, she had an attack of severe scarlet fever. Her sisters died, and she only recovered after both eyes and ears had suppurated; taste and smell were also markedly impaired. Sight in the left eye was entirely abolished, but she had some sensation for large, bright objects in the right eye up to her eighth year; after that time she became totally blind.