150 NoU respecting tin "Eyes of Arribh/opsis spelcsus. 



lY.— .Yn/c respecting th. Eyes oj Amblyopsis speljjus. 

 By Tiiico. A. Tellkampf, M.D. 



Bead February 1st, 1S69. 



I WISH to offer some remarks in regard to the following 

 statements respecting the eves of the Amblyopsis spelcsus, 

 contained in a Report in the Proceedings of the Boston Soc. 

 of Nat. Efist. of 1851-54, p. 395, to which my attention was 

 culled but recently : 



" Prof. Wyman exhibited under the microscope, specimens of 

 the eyes of the Amblyopsis spelcsus, the so-called blind fish, 

 from the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. In a dissection made 

 pal years since, he had tailed to detect an}' organ of vision. 

 Subsequently, Miiller Telkamph, of Berlin,* discovered minute 

 Mack points, visible, with the aid of a lens, through the 

 skin, but found no nerve or transparent media; Miiller compared 



them to the eye dots of invertebrate animals 



After careful examination, he found no trace of eye dots ex- 

 ally, but in a mass of areolar tissue, occupying the usual 

 position oi the orbit, and deeply buried in this tissue, so as to 

 preclude contact with the skin, he detected two dark points, one 

 "ii each side, symmetrically placed. He traced the optic nerve 

 on both sides as far as the cranial walls, but its connection 

 with the optic loins was nol ascertained." 



According to the above statements it must appear singular 

 that J. Miiller and myself could see the minute black points — 

 the eyes — through the skm, with the aid of a lens. ^ el not only 

 .1. Miillei and myself, but others to whom they were pointed 

 out, did see them, indistinctly even without the aid of a lens, in 

 a specimen which I had bou-lit at the Cave House, near tin; 

 Mammoth ('aye. That we were nol mistaken as to the signifi- 

 cance of the minute black spots, symmetrically placed, that they 



• \ ii awkward contraction of the name of the late Johanm Miiller ol Berlin, 

 tninenl physiologist, and of my own name, incorrectly spelt 



