395 



from Dr. Thomas H. Webb, relative to the collection of Dr. 

 Webb, now on deposit with the Society. 



On motion of Dr. Storer, it was voted that the reptiles 

 belonging to this collection, together with the reptiles lately 

 presented to the Society by Dr. Cragin, be referred to Prof. 

 Wyman ; the Shells to Dr. Gould ; the Insects to Dr. Harris ; 

 the Fossils to Prof. Rogers ; and the Mammals to Prof. 

 Wyman. 



On motion of Dr. Gould, it was voted that a letter, 

 acknowledging the receipt of this collection, and informing 

 Dr. Webb of its disposal, be transmitted to him. 



Prof. Wyman exhibited, under the microscope, specimens 

 of the eyes of Amhlyopsis speloeus, the so-called " blind 

 fish," from the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. 



In a dissection made several years since, he had failed to 

 detect any organ of vision. Subsequently, Miiller Telkamph, 

 of Berlin, discovered minute black points, visible, with the aid 

 of a lens, through the skin, but found no nerve or transparent 

 media ; MiJller compared them to the eye dots of the inverte- 

 brate animals. The same organs have been again recently 

 detected by Dr. J. C. Dalton, Jr., of New York, and they 

 were likewise noticed by Prof. Owen, in his lectures on the 

 Comparative Anatomy of Fishes. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Charles Dean, of Cambridge, Dr- 

 Wyman had recently received a specimen of Amblyopsis, in 

 good preservation. After careful examination, he found no 

 trace of the eye dots externally ; but, in a mass of areolar 

 tissue, occupying the usual position of the orbit, and deeply 

 buried in this tissue, so as to preclude contact with the skin, 

 he detected two dark points, one on each side, symmetrically- 

 placed. They were of an oval form, one of the poles being 

 directed towards the integument, whilst, by the other, it was 

 attached to a delicate filament of nerve. This nerve was traced 



