The matter is not that simple, 
however. The experiment 
Molyneux proposed could not 
resolve the question of the 
innateness of visual form 
perception because it 
presupposes immediate transfer 
from touch to vision. What we 
want to know is whether or not 
a person, on first regaining 
sight, could discriminate 
visually between two figures 
such as a sphere and a cube 
and, if so, whether or not the 
person would perceive each 
shape the way we do. We need 
not expect that by sight alone 
the sphere would also suggest to 
the observer the tactual feel 
with which it was associated 
before sight was restored. The 
data we have on this question 
derive from medical reports 
over a few centuries, gathered 
together in a book by M. von 
Senden in 1932. Unfortunately, 
the attending physicians 
generally did not ask the 
appropriate questions or 
perform the appropriate 
experiments. To be valid and 
useful cases, the patients had 
to be totally blind in both eyes 
from birth, to recover vision in 
at least one eye through the 
removal of the lens containing 
an opacity (cataract), to be old 
enough to answer questions, to 
be successfully fitted with a 
new lens capable of yielding an 
adequately focused image, and 
to have recovered from the 
trauma of the surgery. Few of 
the recorded cases fulfill these 
requirements; those that do are 
ambiguous as to their 
implications. Nowadays, few 
such cases are recorded in the 
literature because, among 
populations in which the issue 
is likely to be studied, surgery 
is performed early in infancy if 
it can be performed at all.