inhuman being calling herself a mother. The blackbeetles were confined by walnut-shells, and answered the double purpose of destroying the visual organs, and at the same time of making the children cry, so as to excite compassion. We need scarcely say that the woman received the heaviest punishment which an English magistrate could give, and that the children. were properly cared for.

Before quitting this subject it may be as well to remark, that in most countries, when the punishment of blinding was intended to be gentle, it was effected by red-hot plates, as already described, but when no mercy was intended to the victim, his eyes were plucked out with the thumb and finger, or crushed with the heel of a boot.

That any one should be found who could wilfully deprive himself of sight seems almost incredible, but instances are recorded of this having been done both in ancient and modern times.

It is said that Democritus the Thracian philosopher, and the contemporary of Socrates, put out his eyes, that he might devote himself more completely to meditation. This is, however, denied by Plutarch. We have a striking example in recent days of how far depravity may reach in the statement made by one of the medical officers of the Ennis Union, Ireland, to the effect that many of the girls in the union had been in the habit for a long period, during several years probably, of producing artificial ophthalmia by rubbing their eyes with a mixture of soap and lime, the motive assigned for this conduct being that they might thereby obtain some longed-for privilege in the shape of improved diet.

Of all the diseases inimical to vision none is more injurious than that of Ophthalmia, which in its general sense signifies inflammation, and may thus be used as representing half the cases of blindness that occur in the world.

Ophthalmia, however, is generally used to indicate the purulent or contagious ophthalmia found in Egypt. It varies very much in its exciting causes. A residence in damp or sandy countries, exposure to the sun, and sudden changes of weather, are among the most usual productive agents of this disease. From this it follows that soldiers and sailors chiefly suffer from its effects, and it is found that from the middle. ages to the present time this malady has proved a virulent scourge to the followers of the profession of

arms.

In the days of the Crusades, great numbers of those who left their native soil to drive the Infidel from the Holy Land, returned home to deplore through the rest of their days the effects of a climate against which courage had proved useless. It is said that the streets of London, and other English towns, were beset in the twelfth century by large numbers of blind men, who cried out as they felt their way through the streets : "Sainte terre, Sainte terre !" i. e. "Holy land, Holy land!" This was to show that they had lost their sight in the Holy Land, and it was doubtless the strongest appeal that could be made for alms to the pious people of those days. In France this evil attracted the attention of the government, and Louis IX., called St. Louis, in 1260, founded an institution for the reception of 300 blind persons. The number of inmates gave name to the establishment, and it has ever since been known as "Les Quinze Vingts," i. e. "The Three Hundred." This charity is still in existence near La Place de la Bastille, Paris. Each inmate is allowed a franc and a half a day, and a small room with simple furniture. Both men and women are now admitted, the only qualifications being blindness and poverty. The inmates may have their families with them, and those who choose may live out of the building, but this seems to be considered in the light of an offence, as when they do not live in the house the allowance of a franc

and a half a day is considerably reduced. It may be remarked that Les Quinze Vingts is the oldest institution for the blind in Europe, or perhaps in the world, and we are sure the reader will peruse with interest an episode in the life of one of its inmates, given in another part of this work.

The French army suffered greatly from ophthalmia during their occupation of Egypt, from 1798 to 1801, and the British troops, who wrested that country from them, were no less subject to the ravages of the disease. The position of one afflicted with this painful malady is simply and forcibly described in a little poem by James Downing, who himself became blind while serving in Egypt as an English soldier; and it is felt that a quotation will not be out of place in the Appendix of this volume, to which the reader is referred.

From 1813 to 1815, purulent or Egyptian ophthalmia raged dreadfully in the European armies, and, in the year 1830, it broke out with great intensity among the Belgian troops, and continued its ravages for at least ten years. M. Caffe, writing on this subject in 1840, says, "that since its commencement in 1830, it has affected more than a hundred thousand persons, and has deprived many of their sight. In some regiments more than half the men were attacked.

It seems certain that Ireland has suffered more from ophthalmia than any country in Europe, and among the predisposing causes may be reckoned the workhouses, as managed in that country; the confinement within the dull walls of such establishments, among other evils, entails that of danger to the eyes. The other causes are, the damp climate and the extreme poverty of the people; the last-named not allowing them to have sufficient nutritious food, and obliging them to walk without shoes and to live without proper clothing, and house accommodation. According to the eminent ophthalmic surgeon, Sir W. R. Wild, ophthalmia raged in Ireland

from 1701 to 1862; and from the same authority we gather that this disease gradually increased, so that from 1849 to 1861 no fewer than 199,773, or nearly two hundred thousand persons suffered from this malady in the Irish workhouses alone.

It is not only in Ireland that the workhouse system produces ophthalmia; the English poor are also exposed to its baneful influence. In Dover Union Workhouse, in 1863, more than seventy children were attacked by this epidemic.

The author of the Embassy of D. Garcias de Sylva Figueros to Persia' tells us that in several parts of that empire are found vast numbers of blind people, of all ages and conditions, who owe their calamity to a species of small fly, which pricks the eyes and lips and enters the nostrils, and these insects produce blindness whenever they light on the eyes. In China and Australia sight is very frequently destroyed by the dust-showers that prevail at certain seasons. Το such an extent, indeed, is this the case in China, that the imperial troops are provided with goggles for the protection of their eyes from this subtle enemy. In northern latitudes sight is greatly affected by the reflection of the sun and the moon upon the snow, and the proportion of the blind is found to be much greater in Northern than in Central Europe. The Esquimaux are very subject to this complaint, from the bright reflection of their snow-fields, and have learned by experience to guard against the danger, by using snowspectacles, which are simply pieces of wood pierced with small circular holes, bound before their eyes so as to shut out a part of the field from view; and travellers in Arctic regions have found that coloured spectacles answer the same purpose.

No inconsiderable number of persons have never seen the light. Many were born blind, and many more lost their sight from want of proper attention being paid to their eyes immediately after birth.

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Loss of sight from birth, or congenital blindness, seems usually to arise from a peculiar state of the nervous system in one of the parents, but chiefly in that of the mother.

Frequently, when one or more children are born blind, others of the same family are either idiotic, deaf, deaf and dumb, or are subject to fits. Often several brothers and sisters are without sight, and the writer is acquainted with twenty-six instances in which this. occurs. In one of these cases there are five, in two four, in thirteen three, and in ten two children of the same parents thus afflicted. In one instance three sons are totally deaf, dumb, and blind.

Frequently great weakness of intellect is perceptible in the born blind, and generally the nervous system is peculiarly sensitive.

Sometimes the affliction is ascribed to the mother having seen a blind person before the birth of a child, and it is to be observed that mothers themselves often attribute the blindness of their children to this circumstance.

To guard against being misunderstood, it may be as well to state that the remark as to the frequent weakness of intellect of the born blind is not intended to apply to those who lose their sight from improper treatment immediately after birth. These persons, on the contrary, compare very favourably in strength of nerve and general mental power with the most gifted members of the community. It is commonly supposed that the offspring of two blind parents must of necessity be without sight, but this does not by any means follow; for in forty cases in which both father and mother were sightless, out of the number of children born (which was by no means inconsiderable), not one instance of blindness occurred. Some cases have, however, been known in which a blind father or mother have had one or more children totally or partially blind; but close investigation has shown that in these