258 Dr. Wyman on the Blind Fishes of the Mammoth Cave. 
protection ; 20th, Red Cherry ripe; 22d, Antwerp Raspberry; 
25th, Wheat harvest begins, a week earlier than common, from 
the heat and drought—less than an inch of rain during this 
month, meadows ready for mowing. 
July 6th, Blackberry ripe; 15th, Sweet bough apple; 17th, 
Chandler Apple. 
‘The crops of grain, potatoes and fruit good ; the sweet potato 
was excellent ; melons in great perfection, the hot and dry weather 
congenial to their habit; grapes were more abundant and per 
fect than in any former year.” 
Marietta, Ohio, Jan. 9, 1854. - 
Arr. XXIX.—On the Eye and the Organ of Hearing in the 
Blind Fishes (Amblyopsis speleus, Dekay) of the Mammoth 
Cave; by Jerrries Wyman, M.D. 
Tue general structure of the blind fishes was described ina 
former number of this Journal,* but a more complete descrip- 
tion was given in the New York Journal of Medicine, by Tel- 
kampf, who in company with J. Muller of Berlin, for the first * 
time detected the existence of rudimentary eyes.t ‘They are de- 
scribed as one twelfih of a line in diameter, round, black, destl- 
tute of a cornea, having an external layer of pigment, beneath 
which is a colorless membrane. No nerve was detected in con- 
nection with the eye, and the contents of the globe were not 
determined with certainty. Prof. Owen has described the orga! 
as a simple eye-speck, “as in the leech, consisting of a minute 
tegumentary follicle, coated by dark pigment which receives the 
end of a special cerebral nerve.”{ Dr. John C. Dalton, Jr. has 
also detected the eyes and describes them as minute globular sacs 
containing blackish pigment. deeply imbedded in the adipose ts- 
sue of the orbit and measuring a little less than one seventy- 
eighth of an inch. : 
Through the kindness of Mr. Charles Dean of Cambridge, 
and of Prof. Agassiz, I have had placed at my disposal some specl 
mens of Amblyopsis, well preserved in alcohol, and have been 
able to make in some respects a more complete description than 
has as yet been given. I have had also an opportunity of inspect 
ing superficially fourteen specimens varying from one inch and @ 
half to four inches and a half in length, but in three or four only 
* Vol. xiv, p. 94, July, 1843. raed 
+ New York Journal of Medicine, vol. v, p. 84,1845. Dr. Dekay had previous'y 
mentioned eg Ao magi oe of eyes, but was evidently misled by some other appear 
ance, since he states that eyes exist of th t are covered b 
He had not disseeted hens” Fain Oy than ee : 
+ Lectures on Comp. Anat., vol. ii, p. 209, is figure, p. 175. . 
@ New York Medical Times, vol. a ei oe eae — 
