palpable signs was early established as a means of communication with her friends; this has been much improved by her intercourse with the deaf and dumb, and is now sufficient for all ordinary purposes. It is obvious, that her means of perceiving external objects are the smell, the taste, and the touch. The touch is her chief reliance, and enables her to distinguish every object with which she has been familiar, sometimes by the aid of her lips and tongue; but her smell also is surprisingly acute, and often enables her to ascertain facts which are beyond the reach of other persons. Her countenance as she sits at work exhibits the strongest evidence of an active mind and a feeling heart, and thoughts and feelings seem to flit across it like the clouds in a summer sky. A shade of pensiveness will be followed by a cloud of anxiety or gloom; a peaceful look will perhaps succeed; and not unfrequently a smile lights up her countenance, which seems to make one forget her misfortunes. But no one yet has penetrated the darkness of her prison house, or found an avenue for moral or intellectual light." Blindness alone is a great calamity. Milton most affectingly deplores his deprivation:-- ------------"Not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn; Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose; Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine,-- But clouds instead, and ever during dark Surround me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off; and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank." There are two morbid conditions of the eye of which we ought not here to omit, at least, a passing notice; we allude to _hemeralopia_, (ἡμέρα, the day, ἄλαος, blind, and ὤψ, the eye;) or, in other words, day-blindness; and to _nyctalopia_, (νὺξ, the night, and ὤψ, the eye,) that is to say, night-blindness. We may observe that many modern writers, as Scarpa, and others, have reversed the plain meaning of these terms, and have considered _hemeralopia_ as denoting sight during the day, and blindness during the night; and _nyctalopia_ as expressing the power of vision by night, but not during the hours of daylight. In order to prevent any confusion or misunderstanding, we shall drop the scientific terms, which by some are so strangely misconstrued, and adopt their English equivalents. Perfect day-blindness, or owl-sight, as the French call it, is of rare occurrence. Dr. Hillary never met but with two examples; at the same time he notices a report, that there are a people in the East Indies, and also in Siam, who are subject to the disease of being blind in the day-time, yet who see clearly by night.[29] [29] Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. vii.