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I have said she measures distances very accurately; and this she seems to do principally by the aid of what Brown calls the sixth sense, or muscular contraction, and perhaps by that faculty to which I have alluded above, by which we attend to the relations of outness. When we ascend a flight of steps, for instance, we measure several steps with the eye; but, once having got the gauge of them, we go up without looking, measure the distance which we are to raise the foot, even to the sixteenth of an inch, by the sense of contraction of the muscles; and that we measure accurately, is proved when we come to a step that is but a trifle higher or lower than the rest, in which case we stumble.

I have tried to ascertain her mode of estimating distance, length, &c., by drawing smooth, hard substances through her hand. When a cane, for instance, is thus drawn through her hand, she says it is long or short, somewhat according as it is moved with more or less rapidity, that is, according to the duration of the impression (1) ,but I am inclined to think she gets some idea of the rapidity of the motion even of the smoothest substances, and modifies her judgment thereby.

I have tried to excite the dormant senses, or to create impressions upon the brain, which resemble sensations, by electricity and galvanism, but with only partial success. When a galvanic circuit is made by pressing one piece of metal against the mucus membrane of the nose, and another against the tongue, the nerves of taste are affected, and she says it is like medicine.

The subject of dreaming has been attended to, with a view of ascertaining whether there is any spontaneous activity of the brain, or any part of it, which would give her sensations resembling those arising from the action of light, sound, &c., upon other persons; but, as yet, without obtaining positive evidence that there is any. Further inquiry, when she is more capable of talking on intellectual subjects, may change this opinion, but now it seems to me that her dreams are only the spontaneous production of sensations, similar in kind to those which she experiences while awake, (whether preceded or accompanied by any cerebral action, cannot be known.) She often relates her dreams, and says, "I dreamed to talk" with a person, "to walk with one," &c.; if asked whether she talked with her mouth, she says, "No," very emphatically, "I do not dream to talk with mouth; I dream to talk with fingers." Neither does she ever dream of seeing persons, but only of meeting them in her usual way. She came to me, the other morning, with a disturbed look, and said, "I cried much in the night because I did dream you said good bye to go away over the water." In a word, her dreams seen, as ours do, to be the result of the spontaneous activity of the different mental faculties producing sensations similar in kind to our waking ones, but without order or congruity, because uncontrolled by the will.

Experiments have been tried, so far as they were deemed perfectly innocent and unobjectionable, to ascertain whether strong magnets, magnetic tractors, or animal magnetism, have any effect upon her, but without an apparent result. These are all the physical phenomena which now occur to me as worthy of note.

In the development of her intellectual powers, and in the acquisition of knowledge, not only of language, but of external things, and their relations, I think she has made great progress. The principal labor has, of course, been upon the mere vehicle for thought, -- language; and if, as has been remarked, it is well for children that they do not know what a task is before them when they begin to learn language, (for their hearts would sink within them at the thought of forty thousand unknown signs of unknown things which they are to learn,) how much more strongly does the remark apply to Laura! They hear these words on every side, at every moment, and learn them without effort; they see them in books, and every day, scores of them are recorded in their minds: The mountain of their difficulty vanishes fast, and they finish their labor, thinking, in the innocence of their hearts, that it is only play; but she, poor thing! in darkness and silence must attack her mountain, and weigh and measure every grain of which it is composed; and it is a rebuke to those who find so many lions in the path of knowledge, to see how incessantly and devotedly she labors on from morn till night of every day, and laughs as if her task were the pleasantest thing in the world.

But I shall best show to what extent she is acquainted with language, by giving some of her conversations which have been recorded during the last year. She can now converse with any person who knows how to make the letters of the manual alphabet for mutes. Most of the members of our large household, and many of our friends, can do this, so that she has a pretty wide circle of acquaintances. She came read understandingly in very simple introductory books for the blind; and she takes delight in doing so, provided some one is near her to explain the new words, for she will never, as children are often allowed to do, pass over a new word, and guess the meaning from the others, but she is very uneasy, and runs round, shaking her hands until she finds some one to explain it. Discoursing one day with her teacher about animals, she asked, "Why do dog not live with pig?" Being told pigs lived in a sty, and were dirty, while dogs loved to be clean, she asked, "What do make dog clean? When he has washed him, where do he wipe? -- on grass?" She is very curious to know all about animals, and it is necessary to satisfy her upon every point. A hundred conversations like the following might be recorded. After hearing some account of warms, she said, "Has your mother got some worms?" No, worms do not live in the house. "Why?" They live out of doors that they may get things to eat. "And to play? Did you see worm?" Yes. "Had he eyes?" Yes, "Had he ears? " I did not see any. "Had he think? " (touching her forehead.) No. "Does he breathe?" Yes. "Much?" (at the same time putting her hand on her chest, and breathing hard.) No. "(Not) (2) when he is tired?" Not very hard. "Do worm know you? is he afraid when hens eat him?"