Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



145 



It was my intention to make a guess at the cause of color blindness in 

 the case above described ; but guesses, without the means of verifying 

 them, are so unsatisfactory, and so apt to produce fruitless discussion, that 

 for the present at least I will confine myself to the statement of the facts. 



Two other cases of a different nature were also brought under my no- 

 tice by Mr. Cooper, and may, on account of their rarity, be worthy of a 

 brief reference. 



The first is that of a little girl, about seven years old, the development 

 of whose eyes had been arrested before birth. The child's sight, however, 

 though imperfect, was sufficient to enable her to distinguish colors with 

 accuracy. When the spectrum was displayed before her, she ran her 

 fingers promptly over the colors and named them correctly. She could 

 also read large print. The phenomena of irradiation presented them- 

 selves to her as they did to me ; an incandescent platinum wire became 

 thicker as she receded from it. As far as I could judge, the retina was 

 perfectly healthy. I placed her within a foot of the coal-points of the 

 electric lamp, and establishing the current, allowed the full splendor of 

 the light to fall upon her eyes : she never even winked, but looked steadily 

 into the light, and stated that she did not feel the slightest inconvenience. 

 This perhaps was due to the partial opacity of the humors of the eye. 

 The position of the iris in her case was marked by a few gray spots, and 

 the pupil had no definite boundary. The eyes were, as might be expected, 

 out of all proportion with the growth of the child : the arrestation of 

 development extended to the teeth also, which caused the child to appear 

 much older than she really was. She was very intelligent ; and her 

 mother, who accompanied her, was a healthy intelligent woman, with 

 fine brown eyes. She stated to me, that neither in her own nor her hus- 

 band's family did a case of the kind ever occur ; and yet she had four 

 children, and the whole of them, without exception, were afflicted in a 

 similar manner. 



The second case is that of a distinguished artist, also sent to me by 

 Mr. Cooper. Several months ago he noticed, on looking at any distant 

 point of light, a whitish luminosity spreading round the point, and first 

 observed this appearance on the occasion of rubbing his right eye some- 

 what severely. As time advanced, the luminosity merged into a series of 

 colored rings which encircled the luminous point ; and as these were be- 

 coming brighter and larger, his fears of the ultimate blindness of the eye 

 became excited. He had consulted several eminent oculists, and had, I 

 believe, been subjected to severe treatment, on the supposition that the 

 retina was the seat of the malady. The colored curves were not perfect 

 circles. I placed Mr. S. upon his knees on the floor, and caused him to 

 look upward at the electric lamp : in this position the upper portion of 

 the pupil was shaded by the eyelid, and the colored rings totally disap- 

 peared. I then caused him to stand upon a table and to look down upon 

 the lamp : in this position the under portion of the pupil was shaded by 

 the lid, and the colors were displayed in all their brilliancy. Mr. S.'s 

 left eye was totally free from all defects of this kind. I shook a little ly- 

 copodium on glass, and presented it before his left eye. The system of 

 rings this revealed to his good eye was precisely similar to those pre- 

 sented to the other. The lycopodium rings were smaller, but in other 



SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXII, NO. 64. — JULY, 1856. 19 



