Rough Ways Made Smooth: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjectsProctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Rough Ways Made Smooth: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjects
Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
shapes and figures, and more particularly the shapes used in patchwork.
At length she was supplied with proper materials for patchwork, and
after some initiatory instruction, she took to her needle and to this
employment in good earnest. She now laboured incessantly at patchwork
from morning till night, and on Sundays and week-days, for she knew no
difference of days; nor could she be made to comprehend the difference.
She had no remembrance from day to day of what she had been doing on
the previous day, and so every morning commenced _de novo_. Whatever
she began, that she continued to work at while daylight lasted;
manifesting no uneasiness for anything to eat or drink, taking not the
slightest heed of anything which was going on around her, but intent
only on her patchwork.' From this time she began to improve, learning
like a child to register ideas. She presently learned worsted-work,
and showed delight in the harmony of colours and considerable taste in
selecting between good and bad patterns. After a while she began to
devise patterns of her own. But she still had no memory from day to day
of what she had done, and unless the unfinished work of one day was set
before her on the next, she would begin something new.
And now, for the first time, ideas derived from her life before her
illness seemed to be awakened within her. When pictures of flowers,
trees, and animals were shown her, she was pleased; but when she
was shown a landscape in which there was a river or a troubled sea,
she became violently agitated, and a fit of spasmodic rigidity and
insensibility immediately followed. The mere sight of water in motion
made her shudder. Again, from an early stage of her illness she had
derived pleasure from the proximity of a young man to whom she had been
attached. At a time when she did not remember from one hour to another
what she was doing, she would anxiously await his evening visit, and
be fretful if he failed to pay it. When, during her removal to the
country, she lost sight of him, she became unhappy and suffered from
frequent fits; on the other hand, when he remained constantly near her,
she improved in health, and early associations were gradually awakened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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