1864. | Cottinawoop on Acclimatization. 427 
seure. It is not unlikely that improved forms of instruments may bo 
suggested, by which even more perfect views than can now be got of 
the fundus of the eye may be obtained ; and instruction in their use will 
become so common, that it will be regarded as a necessary part of the 
duty of those who undertake the especial treatment of diseases of the 
eye, to obtain as familiar an acquaintance with the use of the ophthal- 
moscope as they are now obliged to have with the instruments used in 
the performance of physical operations, or as the physician to the hos- 
pital for diseases of the chest must have with the stethescope. Already 
asuggestion has been made by a Canadian to add to the ophthalmoscope 
an apparatus by which photographs of the bottom of the eye may be 
obtained : this, though not at present of practical avail, may not un- 
likely become so ere long. 
When it is considered how short a time has elapsed since the power 
of seeing into the bottom of the living eye was demonstrated to be 
practical, it is satisfactory to know how much has already been 
accomplished in rendering the knowledge useful in the treatment of 
diseases there seated. 
It is not intended to be asserted that it will ever become very 
easy to determine by the ophthalmoscope the value of all the changes 
which take place in the living eye, any more than it is to become 
a learned astronomer, or to acquire any other knowledge which 
involves the possession of intellect, and the expenditure of labour ; but 
to those who possess the one, and will undergo the other, the ophthalmo- 
scope is, and will be, of the greatest value. Medicine is daily becom- 
ing more of a science, and those who care to keep pace with its pro- 
gress will have to do so by the study and adoption of those means of 
which the stethescope and ophthalmoscope are illustrations. 
ACCLIMATIZATION. 
By Dr. C. Cottinewoop, M.A., M.B. Oxon., F.L.S. 
WE recollect hearing a distinguished English Zoologist not long since 
assert that, notwithstanding all the Societies devoted to this object, 
and all the assiduous care which had been bestowed upon the deporta- 
tion and breeding of animals, with a view to adapt them to their new 
homes, no successful instance of acclimatization could be produced by 
the supporters of the system. But either the veteran systematist must 
have made a false estimate of the true nature and objects of acclimatiza- 
tion, or he must have judged of the facts by too narrow and procrustean a 
rule ; for no one who is acquainted with the efforts and the proceedings 
of the two great Acclimatization Societies, those of Paris and Victoria, 
can believe that the sums expended, the energy evinced, and the interest 
aroused by them, can be for a mere visionary and shadowy object. 
The reports which are issued by these Societies from time to time 
display an amount of successful enterprise, which is a subject of just 
congratulation, and we cannot but wish prosperity to aims which are | 
at once useful and philanthropic, and which, in some cases, are re- 
VOL. I. 26 
