In common with most
maidens, at sixteen she became more sedate, reserved 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.
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