so affected with horror, on hearing that her daughter, 

 with two children in her arms, had precipitated herself 

 out of a window, and were killed on the spot, that her 

 skin, in a single night, from head to foot, became as black 

 as that of a negro; the change continued permanent. 

 In that remarkable phenomenon, proceeding from a 

 cardiac disorganisation, wherein black and red blood 

 intermingle, the skin, in consequence of a partial and 

 incomplete circulation, is blue, which proves that the 

 blood can develop and sustain a specific dye on the 

 cutis. 



We cannot conceive a finer illustration of our view 

 of the case than the brilliant mockery of vision dis- 

 played in the dying dolphin, as life ebbs through the 

 orifice of the bleeding wound, thus clearly shown to be 

 dependent on the flux and reflux of the blood. Fal- 

 coner has described the phenomenon in all the philo- 

 sophy of poetry. We have been informed by an eye- 

 witness, that the tints displayed in the dying dolphin 

 increase remarkably in brilliancy and beauty, progress- 

 ive to the terminal line of life.* 



The colour of the iris in the eye may resolve itself 

 into a different question, but it is certainly connected 

 with some characteristic feature of this strange micro- 

 cosm. The fine blue eye, for instance, of the sprightly 



* The following curious anecdote was communicated to us by 

 a gentleman now in His Majesty's dock-yard at Devonport, as 

 a fact of which he was an eye-witness. A dolphin, presumed to 

 be a female, was caught on the line, while the ship was passing 

 rapidly through the water : in a little time another dolphin 

 was perceived to seize it by the tail, and, after fruitless efforts, 

 and much tugging, finding it in vain, the fish swam round tp 

 the line, snapped it in sunder, and thus liberated the captive. 

 In all probability, this heroic deed was accomplished by the 

 male. 



