35. Why does a bitter taste often produce vomiting?
36. Is there any danger in looking "crosseyed" for fun?
37. Should schoolroom desks face a window?
38. Why do we look at a person to whom we are listening attentively?
39. Do we really feel with our fingers?
40. Is the eye a perfect sphere? (See Fig. 61.)
41. How often do we wink?
42. Why is the interior of a telescope or microscope often painted black?
43. What is "the apple of the eye"?
44. What form of glasses do old people require?
45. Should we ever wash our ears with cold water?
46. What is the object of the winding passages in the nose?
47. Can a smoker tell in the dark, whether or not his cigar is lighted?
48. Will a nerve reunite after it has been cut?
49. Will the sight give us an idea of solidity? [Footnote: A case occurred
a few years ago, in London, where a friend of my own performed an
operation upon a young woman who had been born blind, and, though an
attempt had been made in early years to cure her, it had failed. She was
able just to distinguish large objects, the general shadow, as it were,
without any distinct perception of form, and to distinguish light from
darkness. She could work well with her needle by the touch, and could use
her scissors and bodkin and other implements by the training of her hand,
so to speak, alone Well, my friend happened to see her, and he examined
her eyes, and told her that he thought he could get her sight restored; at
any rate, it was worth a trial. The operation succeeded; and, being a man
of intelligence and quite aware of the interest of such a case, he
carefully studied and observed it; and he completely confirmed all that
had been previously laid down by the experience of similar cases. There
was one little incident which will give you an idea of the education which
is required for what you would suppose is a thing perfectly simple and
obvious. She could not distinguish by sight the things that she was
perfectly familiar with by the touch, at least when they were first
presented to her eyes. She could not recognize even a pair of scissors.
Now, you would have supposed that a pair of scissors, of all things in the
world, having been continually used by her, and their form having become
perfectly familiar to her hands, would have been most readily recognized
by her sight; and yet she did not know what they were; she had not an idea
until she was told, and then she laughed, as she said, at her own
stupidity. No stupidity at all; she had never learned it, and it was one
of those things which she could not know without learning. One of the
earliest cases of this kind was related by the celebrated Cheselden, a
surgeon of the early part of last century. Cheselden relates how a youth
just in this condition had been accustomed to play with a cat and a dog;
but for some time after he attained his sight he never could tell which
was which, and used to be continually making mistakes. One day, being
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