In a recent number of the Chicago Herald is a sketch of the remarkable power of Henry Hendrickson, a Norwegian, forty-two years old, who was educated at the Blind School in Janesville, Wisconsin. He has been totally blind since the age of six months; yet he is able to go about alone, and can detect the depressions in the sidewalks, and the street-corners, before he comes to them,—and this without the aid of touch. He can even count the telegraph-poles as he rides along the railroad. He has been subjected to various tests, such as describing objects held before him while blindfolded with a heavy robe. In this condition he can even read unexpected sentences traced phonographically with the finger in the air. In skating, the faster he goes the plainer he can see whatever is on the ice, however small.
Mr. Hendrickson says he can not tell by what faculty he is thus able to see; but we find, in his peculiar power, a proof of the mentality of all vision,—even in those who have eyes.
