BLINDNESS. In cases of alledged amaurosis, the practitioner has generally relied upon the contractility of the pupil, as a test of vision; but _Richter_ asserts that nothing positive can be drawn from the mobility or immobility of the iris, as sometimes the one and sometimes the other occurs; if however the pupil does not contract, we must think that the practitioner is authorised in concluding as to the existence of the disease. By unexpectedly reflecting the rays of the sun, by means of a mirror, upon the eye of the patient, we shall generally be able to discover any deception that may have been practised. Where short-sightedness is pleaded as a disqualification, the truth may be easily ascertained by inspection. The French adopted a very simple and ingenious mode of distinguishing the feigned myopes who endeavoured to escape the conscription laws; they placed spectacles of various powers upon the persons to be examined, and suddenly bringing before their eyes a printed paper, the subject of which was wholly unknown to them, the facility with which the person read pointed out with tolerable accuracy the state of his vision. A myope, for instance, and none but a myope, could read fluently a paper, brought close to his eyes, with concave glasses, and _vice versâ_. OPHTHALMIA. This affection has been sometimes induced by the application of corrosive sublimate; if, says _Dr. Hennen_,[575] in any suspected corps we find that the right eye is universally affected, it gives a reasonable ground to suppose, that the deleterious substance has been put in preference into that eye, from design, or perhaps from the facility which the impostor derives from his right hand; a left-handed person will, for the same reason, inflict the injury on the left side.