A PAGE AT A GLANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1098, 19 September 1912, Page 4

A PAGE AT A GLANCE.

It is a well-known fact that in reading a passage from a book the eye does not take in by/any means all of the printed characters. The child can recognise each word only by labouriously spelling it out, and has to see the exact contours of each letter before knowing what that letter is. The adult through his larger experience only needs to see one or two letters of a word, and a few words here and there in a sentence, for association to suggest the remainder to his mind with rapidity and accuracy. In some cases the power of taking in the sense of printed or written matter at a glance is abnormally increased. Macaulay, it is said, could read a book thoroughly as quickly as an ordinary man could skim it, and could skim it as quickly as an ordinary man could

turn over the pages. But the Journal of the American Medical Association, published at Chicago, tells of a man who was able to read a page of an ordinary book, duodecimo or octavo, at a glance of but a second’s duration. Not only was he able to read through several volumes In this way in the course of an evening, but he could store much of what he read in his mind, committing quotations in prose or poetry to memory as he glanced at them. This remarkable ability began 10 show itself in late middle life, and became more and more perfect as he grew older. The explanation offered by the writer who describes his case is a pathological one. I*ike some cases of abnormal cleverness, this extraordinary power is attributed to disease. The central sensitive part or “macula” of the right retina becoming diseased in middle life, its functions were transferred to the surrounding region. In this way the outer part became exceptionally sensitised, enlarged, and, as it were, educated. The work of the diseased macula was done by that of the left eye, and thus it became possible for both the central portion and outer portions of an object to be seen accurately and clearly at the same time. Such a wonderful extension of vision is only possible with destruction of one macula and retention of the peripheral portions unharmed.