The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-16 00:00:00

gendarmerie, and some tenor twelveczirbineers departed in
search of the robbers, but with little success, as we subse-
qnently found.

" We passed a wretched night, as you may conceive, our
bed-room being filled with the officers of police, newspaper
reporters, &c., until morning, taking down all sorts of de-
positions, and asking innumerable questions. The next
morning, on the arrival of the diligence, a young Prussian
nobleman, Baron de Hartmann (whom we had met in our
hotel at Venice, and who had followed us on our route), en-
tered our room, where we were actually lying in bed for the
want of clothes to get up in, and-insisting on our sharing
with him a rouleau of Napoleons, which he threw on the
bed, pressing us to take as many as our present wants re-
quired. To this generous and uncalled-for liberality on the
part of a foreigner, and to us almost a perfect stranger, we
were indebted for the means of arriving at Florence, where
we again met him, and repaid our debt, having, with our
passports, fortunately preserved our letter of credit.
" The only things that we saved were, a pocket telescope,
some small silver gondolas, for brooches, purchased at Ve-
nice ; and my straw boating hat, which I still hope to see
again on the Abbey river. Now it is all over, the affair
does to talk and laugh about as an adventure ;' but I can
assure you at the time it was anything but pleasant.
Believe me, yours, &c.,
"ALBERT SMITH."

INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER'S IMAGINATION

ON THE FETUS IN UTERO

[We are induced to.copy this interesting case, and give it
publicity, because of its intrinsic interest to the medical pro-
fession and the public.]
To the Editors of the Medical Press.
Liverpool, September 23, 1841).
GENTLEMEN,—SamueI Cooper, speaking of Ncevi Materni
of different kinds, says, " All have been supposed to arise
from some impression made on the mind of the mother dur-
ing pregnancy, or at the time of conception." The settle-
ment of this disputed point he leaves to speculative writers.
May I solicit a corner in your Press to tell my story on the
subject.—l am, gentlemen, most respectfully yours,
HUGH NEILL,

Surgeon to the Ophthahnielnfirmary

An infant of six months old, the child of William H ,
was brought to me at the Ophthalmic Infirmary, about twelve
months ago, having congenital cataract, with malformation of
both eyes, whose development was little more than half the
usual size : the pupils were obliterated by the opaque lenses
being in contact with the iris, to which they were adherent.
As the child could distinguish the light, and followed with
its eyes a lighted candle, I determined to operate.
Upon making inquiry whether any of the relatives were
similarly affected, I was told that that the child's father had
eyes of the same sort. One of his eyes had been operated on
in early life; but the operation was scarcely successful, as
his sight barely enabled him to guide himself about. He was
a pupil in the Blind Asylum in this town for a period of
nineteen.years. He has been married for some time—is now
forty years of age, and has only this one child.
I operated upon both eyes of the infant, and upon his own
(the one which had not previously been meddled with), and
the operations both upon the infant and himself have been
quite successful ; both have got sight—but this is only a
passing remark. Gratitude for such a blessing as sight urged
the man to tell me the following story, and I repeat it to you
in the first person, as he told it :

" My mother was, some fifty years ago, a servant in the
country ; in the farmer's family was also another female ser-
vant with some pretensions to beauty. Among the many
men servants about the farm was a half-witted lad who
laboured under some infirmity of vision, (perhaps, partial
congenital cataract !) for he could see, although not well ;
and, with some twisting motion of his head and eyes, ges-
tures ludicrous to those witnessing the manoeuvres.
" This Cupid became enamoured most deeply with my
mother's pretty fellow-servant. His love was the cause of
much merriment to these girls ; and, when his proposal came
in due time, their open laughter could no longer be restrained,
and he forthwith became the butt for all their jests and fun.
" His love soon was turned to hate, and with the bitterest
imprecations on the heads of both, and prophesying that,
should my mother ever have any children, their eyes should
resemble his own, he went away and hung himself.
" Several years passed by and the matter was forgotten,
until my mother was married ; and in the first pregnancy,
the idiot's curses were recalled to her memory, and, as her
" time of trouble" approached, the dreadful thought that her
child should be born blind haunted her night and day. I
was born, and both eyes resembled the idiot's. She had only
one other child, a daughter, who was born with similar mal-
formation. I have only one child—its eyes were similar to
my own."

-Query.—Will the sceptics say that these were not the ef-
fects of powerful mental sympathetic influence between the
parent and foetus ?—H. N.

THE HEALTH OF LARGE TOWNS

(From the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal.)

Among the proceedings of the last session of the legisla-
ture, relating to medical questions, is the investigation which
was entered into respecting the health of towns. A commit-
tee was appointed on the 12th of March last, to inquire into
the circumstances affecting the health of the inhabitants of
large towns and populous districts, with a view to improved
sanatory regulations for their benefit. The report which they
have drawn up is collected from the evidence of several wit-
nesses from different parts of the kingdom, and points out
the evils resulting from various causes connected with a
crowding together of the population, at the same time that it
suggests some remedial measures for the consideration of the
house. .

To these proposed measures we shall, on some future oc-
casion, direct the attention of onr readers ; at present we are
desirous of making them acquainted with the mass of evil and
mischief, physical and moral, which has resulted from the
want of some efficient system of medical police. The excel-
lent letter of Mr. Farr, published in the Registrar-General's
first annual report, has made known the fatal influence exer-
cised upon the duration of life by the crowding together of
large bodies of people within a confined state. He remarks,

that the fatality of every class of diseases, and almost of
every disease, is augmented in the concentrated city popula-
tion of this country. This observation is proved by a table,
which exhibits the deaths from certain classes of fatal disease
in city and county districts, and affords so decided an illus-
tration in aid of the evidence contained in the parliamentary
report, that we insert it here.

Cities. Counties.
3,553,161 3,500,750