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Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



respects the same as those of the right eye, with the exception of the 

 divergence of the latter from the circular form mentioned above. I ven- 

 tured to express my doubts to Mr. S. as to the retina being the seat of 

 the disease, and to comfort him with the hope that the augmentation of 

 the rings in brilliancy and magnitude pointed rather to the diminution 

 than to the increase of malady. I will leave it to physiologists to say 

 what possible particles within the humors of the eye could act the part of 

 the spores of lycopodium without the eye ; but I entertain very little 

 doubt that it is from the presence of such particles, a thin film, or some 

 equivalent optical cause, and not from any affection of the retina, that 

 the effects observed by Mr. S. arise. If this be the case, it simply shows 

 how necessary a knowledge of physics is to medical men. I now regret 

 that want of time prevented me from entering further upon the examina- 

 tion of the case last referred to. 



With reference to the case of Captain C, Mr. Cooper makes the fol- 

 lowing remarks : — " In this case the symptoms are clearly referable to the 

 intense strain to which the eyes were subjected for a long period, and un- 

 der unfavorable circumstances — a strain beyond endurance, and which 

 seems to have deprived the retina of the power of appreciating impres- 

 sions. Such a condition is little amenable to treatment. After the Great 

 Exhibition of 1851, instances came under my notice in which the sensi- 

 bility of the retina was temporarily blunted by the excitement to which 

 it was exposed in that brilliant scene. Here the sensibility to impressions 

 of colors was only suspended, and gradually returned ; but it is to be 

 feared, that, in the case narrated by Professor Tyndall, it may be regarded 

 as extinguished : the vibrations of the colored rays produce no responsive 

 action in the nervous fibrillae." 



5. Information to Students visiting Europe, (in a letter to the Editors 

 from Paris, France, dated March 1st, 1856.) — As much time is lost by 

 many American students who come abroad for the purpose of pursu- 

 ing scientific studies from not knowing exactly to what point first to 

 direct their steps, will you permit one of your old friends and readers to 

 give some of the results of his own observations in regard to the scientific 

 advantages of Europe, and especially of this great Capitol. Leaving 

 home without much accurate information in regard to the different schools, 

 and the times at which Lectures commence, two or three months may be 

 lost by the student in visiting Edinburgh, London, and the German Insti- 

 tutions, before he arrives at Paris and finds that this is the great scien- 

 tific as well as the political and fashionable centre of Europe. There is 

 indeed at London an excellent school of science the Museum of Economic 

 Geology in Jermyn St. But the lectures are not arranged in such a way 

 as to be most advantageous to a student who starts from home already 

 tolerably well acquainted with the general principles of the sciences 

 which he wishes to study. The winter course commences with lectures 

 on Chemistry and Metallurgy combined with laboratory practice about 

 the 1st of October, But the Lectures on Mineralogy and Geology do not 

 begin till the middle of February. The expense of living in London is 

 also great, and at the school the charges though not high for a British 

 Institution will make quite a serious inroad upon the purse. Thus every 

 course of lectures costs the occasional student $20, and the use of the 

 laboratory $50 per term of three months. If this is no objection, the 



