20 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCK LAND. 
[CH. II. 
and French calcaire grossier. Monte Bolca has also the 
same fossil plants as Sheppey.” 
Another letter to Lady Mary Cole is too characteristic 
to be omitted. 
“ You have no doubt been wondering what is become of 
me and my projected tour into Glamorganshire, and I am 
sorry to inform you that all my movements have been 
deranged, and my plans thwarted, by an accident that 
befell me a month ago near Sidmouth, from the falling 
of an ignited spark of iron from my hammer into the 
PROF. BUCKLAND VISITING MONTE BOLCA. 
cornea of my eye, which I did not discover to be fixed 
there till some days after, when it began to oxydate. The 
result has been a series of five or six operations to cut out 
the minute rusty fragments, and a degree of inflammation 
which has prevented me from reading or writing during 
the last three weeks. I am happy to say the cause of 
injury is now totally removed, and in a few days I shall 
again take wing for Oxford. As I like always to extract 
all possible good out of the evil that befalls me, I have 
learnt two curious facts in physiology from my oculist at 
Exeter. First, that he once drew a tooth out of a patient’s 
eye (literally an eye-tooth), growing between the bony 
