erienced by
the blind on approaching any tall or broad object. We feel their presence
when we are several yards from them. I have sometimes been startled by the
sudden impression produced by a lamp-post, or tree when in fact it was a
yard or more from me. The sensation is somewhat like receiving a smart
blow in the face. I am frequently aware of passing a building while riding
along a country road, and the proximity of trees, fences and other objects
is quite perceptible.

This is not a latent sense, developed by circumstances, as some have
supposed, but a wonderful acuteness of the nerves of the face, and more
particularly of the nerves of the eye-lids. These phenomena may, I think,
be explained in this way. When one of the superior senses is absent, the
perceptive force that has watched at the eye, or listened at the ear, is
now transferred to other nerves of sensation. In other words, a deaf
person is all eyes, and extremely alive to tangible percussions, as will
be seen in the case of Dr. Kitto and others. The blind are all ears and
fingers, and certain of the inferior animals are all ears and heels; I am
not sure but there is some neck in both cases. Since it has been shown
that new perceptions and conditions have been developed in the absence of
one or more of the superior senses, that the deaf are so keenly cognizant
of vibration or jar, which is the father of sound; that the blind can feel
the presence of objects at short distances, which is analogous to sight,
it should not be thought strange that we make such frequent use of the
word _see_, or that the deaf should make use of the word _hear_, and that
these words are not without significance or import. Besides this there is
a mental perception (doubtless through a magnetic medium,) of the presence
or nearness of other minds. This accords with the experience of many
persons. I have frequently entered rooms that I supposed to be
unoccupied, judging from the silence that reigned, but on taking an
inventory of my feelings I found a consciousness of some one's presence,
and this I have done when not the slightest sound aroused my suspicions.

A little incident that occurred while I was a teacher in the New York
Institution for the Blind will, perhaps, better illustrate this point.

I called one evening at the matron's room to ask her to read a letter
which had just been handed me. Supposing it to be a confidential one, and
wishing to make sure that no one else was