OHIO AT MICHIGAN:
IMPORTANT HOLDINGS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO

Mark Duty. A Light in a Cave, or Mysteries Explained by the Author. Cleveland, Ohio: Younglove’s Steam Press, 1846. (Science in Total Darkness)

Poem on cover:
Here’s three dozen problems unfolded to view,
Perhaps something pleasing, perhaps something new;
They’re showed and explained as you may well see;
With care, sight the pages, and you’ll find the key.
Likewise, here’s inserted quite simple and plain,
A cure for dull thinking as well as for pain;
At the end of my treatise I place a receipt,
Directed to Ladies who choose to be neat.

This small pamphlet published in Cleveland in 1846 opens with the poignant statement:

“The Author of this little book has been totally blind for fourteen years, and during that time, has spent all the means in his possession, and all he could obtain from his friends, in attempting to regain his sight.”

The author, Mark Duty, goes on to describe himself as 67 years old and now resigned to his fate of being sightless. He had studied mathematics for some years, and sought to support himself by publishing this book of explanations on how to solve everyday mathematical problems involving building fences, sawing boards, and buying livestock. There follows a “certificate” signed by Joseph R. Cook of Ashtabula County, and William Phillips and Hiram M. Addison of Cuyahoga County, verifying that they wrote down the explanations of the author as dictated to them.

There are three poems and four recipes (or “receipts”) at the end of the book, including one for the ladies (as promised in the opening poem) for “easy and clean washing” which contains soap, sal soda (washing soda), and spirits of turpentine. The back cover prints a “teaser” problem, with the solution offered upon payment of 25 cents. Only three copies of this book are known to be extant.

Mark Duty was father-in-law to Platt R. Spencer, “the father of penmanship” and founder of the “Spencerian system,” whose books on the subject began to appear two years later, in 1848, published in his hometown of Geneva, Ohio.