d and
thoughtful; at twenty she had finished her education. In 1878 she was
seen by G. Stanley Hall, who found that she located the approach and
departure of people through sensation in her feet, and seemed to have
substituted the cutaneous sense of vibration for that of hearing. At
this time she could distinguish the odors of various fragrant flowers
and had greater susceptibility to taste, particularly to sweet and
salty substances. She had written a journal for ten years, and had also
composed three autobiographic sketches, was the authoress of several
poems, and some remarkably clever letters. She died at the Perkins
Institute, May 24, 1889, after a life of sixty years, burdened with
infirmities such as few ever endure, and which, by her superior
development of the remnants of the original senses left her, she had
overcome in a degree nothing less than marvelous. According to a
well-known observer, in speaking of her mental development, although
she was eccentric she was not defective. She necessarily lacked
certain data of thought, but even this feet was not very marked, and
was almost counterbalanced by her exceptional power of using what
remained.

In the present day there is a girl as remarkable as Laura Bridgman, and
who bids fair to attain even greater fame by her superior development.
This girl, Helen Keller, is both deaf and blind; she has been seen in
all the principal cities of the United States, has been examined by
thousands of persons, and is famous for her victories over infirmities.
On account of her wonderful power of comprehension special efforts have
been made to educate Helen Keller, and for this reason her mind is far
more finely developed than in most girls of her age. It is true that
she has the advantage over Laura Bridgman in having the senses of taste
and smell, both of which she has developed to a most marvelous degree
of acuteness. It is said that by odor alone she is always conscious of
the presence of another person, no matter how noiseless his entrance
into the room in which she may be. She cannot be persuaded to take food
which she dislikes, and is never deceived in the taste. It is, however,
by the means of what might be called "touch-sight" that the most
miraculous of her feats are performed. By placing her hands on the face
of a visitor she is able to detect shades of emotion which the normal
human eye fails to distinguish, or, in the words of one of her lay
observers, "her sense