TWO WONDERFUL INSTRUMENTS. 51 



large manufacturing districts are remarkable expressions from them 

 that science must be promoted. Including the colleges of a high class, 

 such as University College and King's College in London, and the 

 three Queen's Colleges in Ireland, the aggregate attendance of stu- 

 dents in colleges without university rank is between nine and ten thou- 

 sand, while that of the universities is fifteen thousand. No doubt some 

 of the provincial colleges require considerable improvement in their 

 teaching methods ; sometimes they imwisely aim at a full university 

 curriculum when it would be better for them to act as faculties. Still 

 they are all growing in the spirit of self-help, and some of them are 

 destined, like Owens College, to develop into universities. This is 

 not a subject of alarm to lovers of education, while it is one of hope 

 and encouragement to the great centers of industry. There are too few 

 autonomous universities in England in proportion to its population. 

 While Scotland, with a population of 3,750,000, has four universities 

 with 6,500 students, England, with twenty-six million people, has only 

 the same number of teaching universities with six thousand students. 

 Unless English colleges have such ambition, they may be turned into 

 mere mills to grind out material for examinations and competitions. 

 Higher colleges should always hold before their students that knowl- 

 edge, for its own sake, is the only object worthy of reverence. Beyond 

 college-life there is a land of research flowing with milk and honey for 

 those who know how to cultivate it. Colleges should at least show a 

 Pisgah view of this land of promise, which stretches far beyond the 

 Jordan of examinations and competitions. 



TWO WONDERFUL INSTRUMENTS. 



Br ALBERT LEFFINGWELL, M. D. 



THE eye is the most wonderful organ existing in the higher forms 

 of animal life. It is the window of the brain ; through it, the 

 creature obtains knowledge of that which lies beyond the reach of its 

 other senses. 



But there is really nothing very mysterious about the structure of 

 the eye when considered as an optical instrument. It is simply a tiny 

 chamber, with one little window through which light passes, making 

 a reversed picture upon the wall beyond. The same effect may be 

 obtained by a lens so fixed in the window of a darkened room that the 

 only light from without must pass through it. As in the illustration 

 we i3resent herewith, the picture of the scene without, the peasant-girl 

 afoot, the rustic laborer, the thatched cottage — all appear on the screen 

 in the dark chamber, but reversed in position. 



The same effect is produced by the eye. The eyeball is a little 



