The Sun. — 1865-09-04 (London, England)

IRELAND.  DUBLIN, Sept. 2. Joseph Cummins, the brave fellow who so nearly lost his life in resisting the attempts of an IrishAmerican rowdy to murder and rob him on the Finglas road on Tuesday night, lies still in hospital in a precarious state. As the man is very poor and has a large family depending on his daily labour, subscriptions are being actively collected, and already upwards of £5O have been subscribed for their support. It is believed that had it not been for the interference of the injured man's son, who furiously attacked the highwayman with a whiphandle, Cummins must have been killed, as the ruffian was able to fire one shot at the son, which happily missed him. An examination of the wounds has been made by Mr. Fleming, which was attended with satisfactory results. The wound in the eye was examined with a porcelain probe, on Nelaton's principle, and the fact of the bullet being lodged in the skull, close to the brain, ascertained beyond a doubt. This probe was invented by the celebrated French surgeon Nelaton, and first successfully applied in the discovery of the bullet in the ancle of Garibaldi. It consists simply of a rough point of porcelain. If the wound contain a lodgment of lead, contact with it will impart a black mark to the porcelain ; if the body lodged be iron, the mark will be of a red colour. The Nelaton probe was extensively used in the American war. Mr. Fleming made his examination in the presence of Professor Houghton, M.D., Dr. Butcher, and other gentlemen, together with the surgical class of the hospital. What he used was not a specially constructed appliance, but merely a few inches of slender porcelain, which had formed part of an ornament. The brain of the sufferer has not been injured by the shot. He is at present going on well, and there is every hope of saving his life.  The Evening Freeman says :—" We are happy to state that the operation of extracting the bullet from the eye of poor Cummins was carried out this morning, at the Richmond Hospital, with partial success. Surgeon Fleming undertook the operation, at which Surgeon Gordon and other medical gentlemen were present. After the surgeon had probed the wound, he ascertained that the bullet had flattened, and that it had broken into two or three pieces. It struck, it appears, against the wall of the orbit, and was thus prevented from reaching the brain. Surgeon Fleming succeeded in extricating about half of the bullet, and he hopes to find the remaining portion to-morrow morning. No attempt has yet been made to extract the bullet from the thigh, the wound in that region not yet being in a condition to be operated on." The highwayman, O'Flynn, is in rather a dangerous state in prison, the punishment he received on the head threatening to produce erysipelas. He has been identified by Mr. Taylor, of the Dunsink Observatory, as having attempted to plunder him on the same evening at Finglas. The prisoner fired at him, and Mr. Taylor had a narrow escape, as there is a bullet-hole in the tail of his coat.  Capt. Knollys, author of " Misses and Matrimony," has a new novel in the press. THE AMERICAN POET, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, has purchased the homestead in his native town of Cummington, Hampshire county, Mass., and is refitting it for a summer residence.