74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I now come to the real point and object of this paper. We have 

 in England, at Hoxne, one of the finest opportunities known to exist 

 anywhere in Europe of determining the true relation that the beds 

 containing remains of palaeolithic man and the great extinct Mam- 

 malia bear to the Glacial period ; yet we have been content for more 

 than a dozen years to allow the age of the beds that underlie these 

 deposits to remain a conjecture, and to accept a theory instead of as- 

 certaining what are the true facts of the case. The geological world 

 has been taught to believe that a question was settled that is not 

 settled. We do know the age of the Hoxne deposits : they may, as 

 held by Prof. Prestwich, be post-glacial ; or they may, as held by 

 Messrs. Croll and Geikie, be interglacial ; or, lastly, they may, as I 

 hold, be preglacial. 



It is not creditable that this uncertainty should remain when it 

 can easily be cleared up. A few shafts or bore-holes put down would 

 soon determine whether or not glacial beds underlie the dark clays of 

 the brick-pit, or sands and gravel underlie the bowlder-clay on the 

 other side of the brook. Excavations should also be made around the 

 spot where Mr. Frere made his discoveries, to ascertain the exact posi- 

 tion in which the flint implements were found so abundantly. I feel 

 satisfied that, if Sir Edward Kerrison, to w T hom the property belongs, 

 were applied to by any of our learned societies, he would willingly 

 allow the necessary excavations to be made. Probably the expendi- 

 ture of two hundred pounds w r ould be amply sufficient, and I submit 

 that it is a work that should be undertaken by the Royal Society or 

 the British Association, who make grants for scientific incpiiry. 

 Quarterly Journal of Science. 



EFFECTS OF STUDY ON THE EYESIGHT. 1 



By WARD McLEAN. 



A POPULAR error has long existed as to the real character of 

 short-sightedness ; and even medical men have to some extent 

 participated in it. It is not an indication of strength of vision. It is 

 a disease, always inconvenient, and sometimes dangerous. Its char- 



1 The circumstance that one of the children of the writer is temporarily withdrawn 

 from school because of injury to his sight contracted in study, has led him to look into 

 this subject, and this paper is the result. The startling extent, the rapid increase, and 

 the serious character, of these visual defects in our schools, and the fact that the greater 

 part of them originated there, and might have been prevented, should awaken universal 

 interest, that the proper remedies may be applied to arrest the evil as speedily and effect- 

 ually as possible. 



The writer having submitted this paper to Dr. David Webster, of this city, takes this 

 occasion to. acknowledge, with great pleasure, his obligation to him for important sugges- 

 tions. 



