In a more enlightened era, it was stated:

> It is not necessary to the validity of the conclusions of an observer that the facts and conditions should be part of his own personal perceptions, sensations and consciousness; but it is necessary that he should observe, collate, compare and classify all the essential facts and conditions, and from these, proceed by a process of correct reasoning, to logical and necessary conclusions.
> 
> What would be thought of a man who should discredit Huber, the blind naturalist, as an authority on the natural history of bees, on the ground that, as Huber could not see the bees, therefore he could not have any sufficient or reliable knowledge about them? Would it be reasonable to insist that, as Saunderson was blind, therefore he could know nothing of the laws of light, optics, or of optical apparatus?

New York Institution for the Blind  SEPTEMBER 30, 1890. 

This has been my position from the beginning. No one person can have access to the length and breadth of human observation. Hence, we seek and accept the observations of all and form as we well as we can our own observations. That is, still knowing as we do that no one can ever know all and everything. 

Pete
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