The extent of
this compensation is most beautifully illustrated in the cases of
Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. No better examples could be
found of the compensatory ability of differentiated organs to
replace absent or disabled ones.
Laura Dewey Bridgman was born December 21, 1829, at Hanover, N.H.
Her parents were farmers and healthy people. They were of average
height, regular habits, slender build, and of rather nervous
dispositions. Laura inherited the physical characteristics of her
mother. In her infancy she was subject to convulsions, but at
twenty months had improved, and at this time had learned to speak
several words. At the age of two years, in common with two of the
other children of the family, she had an attack of severe scarlet
fever. Her sisters died, and she only recovered after both eyes
and ears had suppurated; taste and smell were also markedly
impaired. Sight in the left eye was entirely abolished, but she
had some sensation for large, bright objects in the right eye up
to her eighth year; after that time she became totally blind.
After her recovery it was two years before she could sit up all
day, and not until she was five years old had she entirely
regained her strength.
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