BLIND FROM BIRTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 3

BLIND FROM BIRTH

AMERICAN GIRL'S IMPRESSIONS san FRANCISCO, Sapt. 30. A Wisconsin girl blind from birth, has been given her sight at the age of 20, after half a dozen delicate operations, during which the capsules that blocked the passage of light to her eyes were removed. Now the girl looks upon a world which has no meaning to her until she touches objects with her fingers. Friends, animals, books, even, such simple objects as safety-pins are unrecognisable till she can feel them. Although she can see perfectly she cannot understand the images thrown upon the retina of the eye till the sense of touch explains them to her. “One of my greatest surprises is my family and friends,” she says. ‘‘l had strong mental pictures of them, gained from touching them, their voices, and their personalities. They are so different to what I imagined them. Colours are different, too.”’

The girl has begun to get acquainted with what she calls “the funny little marks” that take the place of the Braile script to which she has always been accustomed.