and which it has just as good a right to stand for as manors, messuages, &c. We may indeed with some degree of propriety, to avoid a repetition in the latter part of a deed of the several kinds of property passing by it, write, "the before granted premises," or "the before assigned premises," accord ing to the nature of the instrument; because, by reference to the first part of it, it will appear, that what was thereby granted or assigned was property there specified, and which was intended to be then again spoken of, as all descriptions of persons, even up to the sages on the bench, use this word improperly. 1795, Jan. Yours, &c. W. W. XCV. Observations of a Youth who had just recovered his Sight. MR. URBAN, Threekingham, Aug. 6. THE following is a copy of a paper I lately found amongst many others on a file in my possession; it is signed John Ronley, master of the free-school of Haxey, in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire. An Account of some Observations made by a young Gentleman who was born blind, or lost his sight so early that he had no remembrance of ever having seen, and was couched between thirteen and fourteen years of age. THOUGH we say of this gentleman that he was blind, as we do of all people who have ripe cataracts, yet they are never so blind from that cause but that they can discern day from night, and, for the most part, in a strong light, distinguish black, white, and scarlet; but they cannot perceive the shape of any thing; for, the light by which these perceptions are made being let in obliquely through the aqueous humour, or the anterior surface of the crystalline (by which the rays cannot be brought into a focus upon the retina), they can discern in no other manner than a sound eye can through a glass of broken jelly, where a great variety of surfaces so differently refract the light, that the several distinct pencils of rays cannot be collected by the eye into their proper foci; wherefore, the shape of an object in such a case cannot at all be discerned, though the colour may. And thus it was with this young gentleman, who, though he knew these colours asunder in a good light, yet, when he saw them after he was couched, the faint ideas he had of them before were not sufficient for him to know them by afterwards, and therefore he did not think them the same which he had before known by those names. Now, scarlet he thought the most beautiful of all colours, and of others, the most gay were the most pleasing; whereas, the first time he saw black it gave him great uneasiness; yet after a little while he was reconciled to it; but, some months after, seeing by accident a Negro woman, he was struck with horror at the sight. When he first saw, he was so far from making any judgment about distance, that he thought all objects whatsoever touched his eyes (as he expressed it,) as what he felt did his skin, and thought no objects so agreeable as those which were smooth or regular, though he could form no judgment of their shape, or guess what it was in any object that was pleasing to him. He knew not the shape of any thing, or any one thing from another, however different in shape or magnitude; but, upon being told what things were, the form of which he before knew from feeling, he would carefully observe, that he might know them again; but having too many objects to learn at once, he forgot many of them; and (as he said) at first he learned to know, and again forgot, a thousand things in a day. One particular only (though it may appear trifling) I will relate; having often forgot which was the cat and which the dog, he was ashamed to ask, but catching the cat (which he knew by feeling,) he was observed to look at her stedfastly, and then setting her down, said to puss, "I shall know you another time." He was very much surprised that those things which he had liked best did not appear most agreeable to his eyes, expecting those persons would appear most beautiful that he loved most, and such things to be most agreeable to his sight that were so to his taste. We thought he soon knew what pictures represented which were shewn to him, but we found afterwards we were mistaken; for, about two months after, he was couched, he discovered at once that they represented solid bodies, when to that time he considered them as party-coloured plains, or surfaces diversified with variety of paint; but even then he was no less surprised, expecting the pictures would feel like the things they represented, and was amazed when he found those parts, which by their light and shadow appeared now round and uneven, felt only flat like the rest, and asked which was the lying sense, feeling or seeing? Being shewn his father's picture in a locket at his mother's watch, and told what it was, he acknowledged a likeness, but was vastly surprised, asking how it could be that a large face could be expressed in so little room? Saying, it should have seemed as impossible to him as to put a bushel of any thing into a pint. At first he could bear but very little light, and the things he saw he thought extremely large; but, upon seeing things larger, those first seen he conceived less, never being able to imagine any lines beyond those he saw. The room he was in, he said, he knew to be but part of the house, yet he could not conceive that the whole house could look bigger. Before he was couched, he expected little advantage from seeing, worth undergoing an operation for, except reading and writing; for, he thought, he said, he could have no more pleasure in walking abroad than he had in the garden, which he could do safely and readily. And even blindness, he observed, had this advantage, that he could go any where in the dark much better than those that can see: and, after he had seen, he did not soon lose this quality, nor desired a light to go about the house in the night. He said, every new object was a new delight; and the pleasure was so great that he wanted ways to express it. But his gratitude to his operator he could not conceal, never seeing him for some time without tears of joy in his eyes, and other marks of affection; and, if he did not happen to come at any time when he was expected, he would be so grieved that he could not forbear crying at his disappoint ment. A year after first seeing, being carried upon Epsom Downs, and observing a large prospect, he was exceedingly delighted with it, and called it a new kind of seeing. And now, being lately couched of his other eye, he says the objects at first appeared large to this eye, but not so large as they did at first to the other; and, looking upon the same object with both eyes, he thought it looked about twice as large as with the first couched eye only, but not double, that we can any ways discover. 1796, Aug. JOAN ROMLEY, 1731. XCVI. Feasting on Live Flesh. MR. URBAN, MR. Bruce's account of the Abyssinians feasting upon live flesh is well known; but, I believe, it is not so well knowa that Mr. Bruce's countrymen, the Scotch, were once ac customed to eat their beef in the same savage manner. The authority for this is a quarto pamphlet, intituled, "A modern Account of Scotland; being an exact Description of the Country, and a true Character of the People and their Manners. Written from thence by an English Gentleman. Printed in the Year 1670." Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. VI. p. 121. At p. 126 is the following passage: "Their cruelty descends to their beasts, it being a custom, in some places, to feast upon a living cow, which they tie in the middle of them, near a great fire, and then cut collops off this poor living beast, and broil them on the fire, till they have mangled her all to pieces; nay, sometimes they will only cut off as much as will satisfy their present appetites, and let her go till their greedy stomachs call for a new supply; such horrible cruelty, as can scarcely be paralleled in the whole world." This I believe; and that it never would have been paralleled if Mr. Bruce had not travelled into Abyssinia. Your readers will probably imagine, and I think they will be right in the idea, that a great part of this modern account of Scotland is burlesque. But, allowing that to be the case, there is a wonderful coincidence between the Scotch feast, and that which Mr. Bruce declares he was present at in Abyssinia. 1796, Oct. R. XCVII. Useful Method of Flooring at Bengal. RESIDING in a house which is built on a soil full of springs, and on that account without cellars, and the flooring being raised about a foot from the ground, which renders it exceedingly cold and uncomfortable, owing to the air admitted under it through air-holes; the following simple method of flooring used in Bengal by the natives, where there are no chimneys, and where this kind of flooring keeps the house dry, and serves in every part of it as an hearth for cooking, occurred to my recollection; and, as I am certain that it would have obviated all the inconveniences I complain of, had it been adverted to in the flooring of my house, it may possibly be of utility to others who may hereafter build in springy ground. At any rate, nothing is lost by the communication to yourself, who can but judge whether or not to let it go farther. The area of the house or room to be floored is made perfectly level; unglazed earthen pots, about a foot high and large bellied, are placed close together over the whole surface, mouth downwards; the hollow part, round the necks and tops of the pots, are filled up with charcoal pounded fine (nothing being so dry or so difficult to make damp,) and the terrace over the whole is formed of brick-dust and lime, well worked, and made as hard as possible. I never knew of such an hearth giving way; and have been most sensible of its utility in keeping off dampness. 1797, Jan. GHUR. XCVIII. Principal Cause of Smoky Chimneys, with a Remedy. MR. URBAN, I DO not know of a much greater domestic inconvenience than a smoky chimney, nor of any subject that has given rise to a greater number of unsuccessful experiments; which is, indeed, most likely to be the case, where the trials are made with so little regard to any philosophical principle, and with so much caprice and random fancy as those made on chimneys, as well in their first formation as their subsequent various alterations. Dr. Franklin, in his "Observations on smoky Chimneys," has very judiciously distinguished their separate and distinct defects or diseases, and has given a mode of cure applicable to the peculiar complaint, and which has been approved of by repeated experiments; and, indeed, his work has been the foundation of some late judicious modes of treating the defects of chimneys. But notwithstanding all that has been written upon the subject, and though a chimney may be properly constructed, yet so much depends upon servants making fires, that it seems necessary to say something on that head. A bad chimney is always the worst when it is first lighted, and a good chimney is often, by the improper method of making fires, made to appear a bad one until it is sufficiently heated in the inside, as is very obvious to those who by rising early have an opportunity of seeing servants light their fires; for, though their parlours may be in trim order |