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Mr. Walker remarked, that though much pains had been bestowed 

 upon determining their apparent paths and duration, at the High 

 School Observatory, he had as yet received no corresponding obser- 

 vations which could throw light on the third conclusion of Mr. Er- 

 man. The motion of the radiant — if any — according to Mr. For- 

 shey's and his own observations, would seem to be in a south-easterly 

 direction, of about one half of a degree of a great circle per hour, a 

 phenomenon not reconcilable with the analysis of Mr. Erman. 



In conclusion, Mr. Walker referred, for the details of the Philadel- 

 phia observations, to Mr. Forshey's paper read this evening. 



Dr. Hays communicated the particulars of a case of inability 

 to distinguish certain colours, occurring in a man, a patient in 

 Wills' Hospital, under the care of Dr. Fox. 



This case, Dr. Hays remarked, presented the following points of 

 interest. 



1st. It confirmed the correctness of the observation made by Dr. 

 Hays, in a former communication, that no reliance can be placed on 

 the account of their own cases, given by those who labour under this 

 defect ; and that their statements should never be received as ac- 

 curate, until after careful and repeated examination. 



The subject of the case under notice had been admitted into the 

 hospital with partial amaurosis, and was not aware of his inability to 

 distinguish colours until he was informed of the defect by Dr. Fox. 

 He then maintained, very confidently, that it had come on since his 

 loss of the power of seeing objects, and mentioned several circum- 

 stances to prove, that it was of recent occurrence. Nevertheless, on 

 being minutely and closely questioned, it appeared beyond all doubt, 

 and even the patient himself had to admit the fact, that the defect 

 must have always existed. 



Again, after being shown various coloured papers, which he was 

 requested to name, and satisfying all who witnessed the experiment, 

 that he could distinguish but two colours, viz. yellow and blue, he 

 named correctly the colours of a red strawberry and green leaf, which 

 were presented to him. This surprised all present. It occurred, 

 however, to Dr. Hays, that the patient had learned the usual colour 

 of these objects, and that his answers were dictated by this know- 

 ledge, and not from a real perception of colour. Experiments, made 

 with a view of determining this point, most conclusively established 

 the correctness of Dr. Hays's suspicion. 

 u 



