Virginia statesman. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1828-1829, 1828-10-08
NO. 10.

ed as a present, franc piece of the En-
peror. which she was in the habit of fire.
quendy gazing on; the other, that there was
in the room where she sat a medal of the
Emperor These causes, or rather pre-
tended causes, have their origin m theory
which is, we believe, now secuted by every
person ofcommon sense, as well as by all
medical writer's.
doubtless we do frequently find lprss
natnB of a very extraordinary kind. Nj
merous gems have been found at various
times, and in various places, bearing tn e
impress not only of human features, but
even exhibiting rcsemblences of real Der
sons. In the snme way, in ihe colours %
flowers, and in the varigated hines of shells,
letters, or what approach the form ofletters.
The classical reader need not be reminded
of the flower into which, according to the
Latin fabulist, the sen Of lebanon was
converted, and which bore thencei0rth the
first two letters of his name--nor of the
reverics in which wholly men have ind5lg-
ed in respect to the singular statement OF
the passion lower. If therefore, one or
two letters had been traceable IN one of the
eyes ofthe child in question, we might have
attributed then safely to the sport Of ma 4
ture, in dispoang the remi6catious Of the
small blood VESSELS that spring from the
cornea; but hay explain the apparent mi
Iraculous occurrences of I6 letters, arrang-
ed in regular oder, expressing name still
used as a political password in France,
and that on each eyei We are not aG-
quainted with any process, certainly, by
which the debate membrane that covers
the eye can be operated on so as to stain it
permanently; lor, until we heard of this
child, did it eter occur to us that such
process was possible.
eve are, however, now placed in this
positon-eitler we must believe, in the
face of all that has ever been discovered
of the laws Of animal life, that nature has
penciled these letters on the eyes of this
child-or, in ignorance We admit, Of what
has been attempted, and of what may be
accomplished in such a case, to believe
that the letters d9rive their origin, not from
the underlined and undcfinahle working of
inappreciable causes, but from some ope-
ration of human ingenuity Every one
knows that the skin of the body can be
coloured by various means, of very sim
pie kind, ond certainly nothing would lead
US TO conclude that to color the skin of the
eye is impossible. That nature should
colour il in the way in which she is repre-.
scented 20 have done in the child in question,
is, perhaps, as nearly impossible as any
thing that we can well be call on to believe
The old Times however, expresses
itself differently on the subject:
"The child stated TO have the words Ma.
pOleOH Emperor, visible on its eyes, has
been brought from Paris to be exhibited in
the Royal Bazaar. We saw the child
yesterday, and could observe marks upon
the iris Of each eye, but could not, with
the help Of the glass, make out the alleged
characters. We thought we could discov.
or the letter N, but found II impossible 10
advance further than that initial. Several
other persons, who were present at the
same time, were not more successful. II
must be owned that it IS extremely difficult
to get the child to hold IFS eyes sufficiently
steady for minute examination, but, making
allowance for that difficulty, we suspect
that those who do trace out The alleged
wonderful inscription are much indepied
to their imagination. The nurse who has
charge of the child, asserted that she saw
all the letters distinctly. Being asked as
to the truth of the story which has appear
ed in the French papers respecting that
interest taken by the mother of the child in
five frank piece, she replied, that it was
NOT five frank but a 20 SOUS piece IA
much smaller coin, and that the conscrpt
who left it as a keepsake was uot, as had
been stated, the son, but the brother Of tho
child's mother"
go
A gentleman travelling in foreign parts