Olinthus Gregory, Royal Military Academy, to T. J. Pettigrew Esq., Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London, 3 October 1817.

R. M. A. October 3.d 1817.

My dear Sir,

         You have most probably read before this time, the extraordinary account given in the last N.o of Thomson’s Annals, by the Rev. T. Glover, of a Miss M’Evay of Liverpool, who is blind, but who can perceive and distinguish the shape and colour of objects, whether distant or near, by passing the extremities of her fingers along the surface of a piece of glass which is so interposed between her and the objects that optical rays fall upon the glass. The circumstances mentioned quite surpass credibility; yet they are well authenticated, and are clearly of such a nature, that the deception, if any, cannot be practised by Miss M’Evay but by those who describe her case. Too many, however, have described it in different newspapers, &c. to leave any room to doubt that there is something truly surprizing in the business.—

         Mr. Glover states that some competent person at Liverpool is preparing a fuller account than his. Cannot you, through the medium of Mr. Raffles, get this account for vol 1. of the Transactions?  It is not merely a matter of wonderment; but, if Glover’s account be throughout correct, may lead to an extension of our knowledge concerning light and colours.—I could almost wish that a deputation from the Society, of persons possessing the requisite degree of optical and physiological knowledge, should go down to Liverpool, and so direct, vary, modify, and extend their enquiries and experiments upon Miss M’Evay, as to educe from her singular (and perhaps fugitive) faculty, all that it may be capable of furnishing: and I regret that I cannot volunteer to make one of such a party.

         Do you know Dr. Bostock, or does Mr. Raffles?  The Doctor, I apprehend, could furnish an interesting paper on the subject.— But many means of correct and philosophical information will suggest themselves to your mind.

         I certainly feel very solicitous that the Philosophical Society should have the start of the Royal Society or of any other, in presenting to the public a full and accurate account of this extraordinary digital perception, together with such physiological, optical, or other theoretical observations, as will naturally flow from so singular a case: —and this must be my apology for troubling you with a hasty letter upon the subject.

         I hope you safely received Dr. [Pomerdston’s?] paper.

         Have you received good accounts from Mrs Pettigrew since she has been in the Country? 

                                             I am my dear Sir,

                                                               Ever truly yours,

                                                                        Olinthus Gregory

Text: Eng. MS. 377, f. 813, JRULM. Gregory spoke before the Philosophical Society of London in June 1817. His Oration, Delivered at the Anniversary of the Philosophical Society of London, June 12, 1817, appeared in the London Pamphleteer (1818): 529-48. Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (1791-1865) was a London surgeon, antiquarian, and founding member of the Philosophical Society of London as well as secretary of the Royal Humane Society from 1813 to 1820, during which time he published Memoirs of the Life and Writings of John Coakley Lettsom, M.D.(1817). In the 1830s he began to focus on his antiquarian interests, serving as the first treasurer of the British Archaelogical Society in 1843. Dr. John Bostock (1773-1846) was born in Liverpool and educated at Edinburgh University, where he received his M.D. in 1798. His thesis was dedicated to William Roscoe of Liverpool. He returned to Liverpool and established his medical practice there. In 1817, however, he moved to London, and shortly thereafter published Account of the History and Present State of Galvanism (1818). Earlier he had authored Observations on Diabetes Insipidus (Liverpool, 1812), and On the Nature and Analysis of Animal Fluids (1813). Shortly after his arrival in London, he gave up medicine and turned to chemistry, physiology, and general science, publishing An Elementary System of Physiology (1824). He quickly became a member of the Royal Society and served as president of the Geological Society in 1826. Among his publications are Bibliotheca Sussexiana (1827), A History of Egyptian Mummies (1834), Medical Portrait Gallery (London, 1838-40), Memoirs of the Life of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson (1849), and Chronicles of the Tombs (1857). Reference above is to the Annals of Philosophy, or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralogy, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture, and the Arts (1813-27), by Thomas Thomson (1773-1852), who also had recently published his History of the Royal Society, from its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century (1812).